A Very Brief History Of The Yuma Territorial Prison

The impact of these events led to many changes in the penal system, including the establishment of the Ohio parole board in 1931. The Ohio State Penitentiary was built in 1834 and was designed to hold a maximum of 1,500 inmates. The prison was known for its poor conditions and being constantly overcrowded. In April of 1930 construction crews were working on the expansion of the prison to resolve this overcrowding issue.

The prison is a great big deal to the city of yuma. it benefits to the local economy and population and giving its site other uses the city can throw at it. It help create a city in the hottest and once isolated places in arizona. Without the territorial prison there would not being a great increase in population, the city would have had little economic value and wouldnt called yuma high, criminals.

The Yuma Territorial Prison first opened in 1875 and is still standing after 141 years. For many years people in Yuma fought to keep this prison a historical landmark. After all the years, many things have occurred to change the structure of the prison. The Yuma Territorial Prison did not allow prisoners to do certain activities that could affect them after they were released. The Yuma Territorial Prison can teach people about the different functions, regulations that reflected laws in Arizona, and the changes in the appearance of the prison.

The prison first public library in the territory. Empty cells provided free lodging for hobos. Many convicts learned to read and write. In the year 1907 the prison was full,there was no space on the hill for development. The last inmate left the prison on Sep 15,1909.

In the prison the prisoner had their cells. The cells were just a room with a bed and a toilet, and there were cells to punish them There was a cell named the dark cell, the cell was only 15 feet by 15 feet the prisoners would be locked in that cell for days depending on what they did and how bad it was. When the prisoners were in the cell they could not talk to anyone. For food the prisoners only got a bread and water once a day, they were stripped in their underwear in the cell. The cell had a cage like outter layer for when the prison guards would give the inmates food, they wouldn’t try to escape.

Once they were in that cage they were not tolerated to have contact with anyone whatsoever and no other meal but bread and water. In the dark cell room the prisoners were also stripped down to their underwear and sometimes the prison guards would throw snakes into the cage. A punishment that a prison would extort them if they tried to escape is being changed to the ground outside of the wall, not being able to move or have any contact with other prisoners. There were never any executions at the prison, but there were about 111 people that died there serving time at the prison. Most of the bodies that were at the prison that had died at the prison were due at the back.

Many have reported that in certain parts of the prison, they seem to feel a spooky sensation. The most commonly known story is if you wear red to the prison you are to get pinched. This “pinch” comes from a little girl who is known to haunt the prison, research was made and her family stayed at the prison to use it as their home. The next known story is the Dark Cell haunting. Yuma local magazine writer for the Arizona Highways was to stay in the Dark Cell for 48 hours, to see what it would feel like to be a prisoner.

when the prison was built they had designed the roofs of the prison to be peaked so that the prison would stay a little cooler and they had designed and built the walls to be very tall so none of the prisoners would escape. So when people were building their houses they included the peaked roofs because they wanted to keep their houses cool inside during the hot months during the summer. The same concept was used during the winter, as the peaked roofs kept their houses warmer in the winter. In 1916 after the prison had closed there was a flood that destroyed many buildings and houses. The townspeople had decided to take apart the prison to help them rebuild their own houses.

The harshest punishments they did have were a ball and chain if they tried to escape and “The Dark Cell” for the harshest punishment. The dark cell was basically a cave dug into the ground with a 15 by 15 foot cage where the prisoner would be placed stripped to their underwear with no light and only bread and

Some of which led the way for today’s prison standards. After all the prison just didn't get the name, “The Country Club on the Colorado” for any reason. This model prison was thought to be top of the line in 1893. So top of the line that the people thought that the prisoners had it easy. Which was true to most people in the community didn't have anything more than the prisoners did besides their freedom.

It housed some of America 's most dangerous felons from 1899 through 1947. Those dangerous felons included, Robert “Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud from 1890 through 1963. That is seventy-three years of being stuck at a prison, crazy right? After quite some years the prison was shut down due to the operating costs being out of this world expensive. After

Almost any building was hastily converted into a prison, and camps quickly became overcrowded. Prison camps also suffered from food shortages, inadequate medical care, and lack of shelter. One of the Confederate 's

“Prison camps during the Civil War were potentially more dangerous and more terrifying than the battles themselves. A soldier who survived his ordeal in a camp often bore deep psychological scars and physical maladies that may or may not have healed in time. 56,000 men died in prison camps over the course of the war, accounting for roughly 10% of the war 's total death toll and exceeding American combat losses in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. “

The prison hasn’t just been used to provide a building, but its been used for it’s material and has been slowly torn apart. Piece by piece through time, parts of the prison have been torn down. In 1916, there was a flood in Yuma and what the townspeople used to rebuild were parts from the prison (Murphy 1). In order for the Southern Pacific Railroad to be built the western walls and the woman's cells had to be destroyed in 1923 (The Yuma Territorial Prison). More destruction was made when the hospital in the prison and the Mes Hall were burned down in 1924 (The Yuma Territorial Prison).

Luxuries For Prisoners? Prison: A secure place where somebody is confined as punishment for a crime. What does society think of when they hear the word “prison”? Unfortunately, prison is far more luxurious than people would think.