Joliet Correctional Center
Joliet Correctional Center (colloquially known as Joliet Prison) was a prison in Joliet, Illinois, United States from 1858 to 2002. It is featured in the motion picture The Blues Brothers as the prison Jake Blues is released from at the beginning of the movie. It is also the location for the Fox Network's Prison Break television show.
History
The prison was built with convict labor at a total cost of $75,000 and had space for 761 inmates. Opened in 1858, just outside of Joliet city limits, it replaced Alton Prison (opened 1833, closed 1860). The limestone buildings were designed by William W. Boyington (he also designed the Chicago Water Tower and the Capitol in Springfield), based on the panopticon ideas of Jeremy Bentham. At the time of building it was the largest prison in the country and the design became a model for United States prisons.
The first 33 inmates arrived in May 1858. Both criminal prisoners and prisoners of war were kept there during the Civil War. The first corrections officer to be killed there was Joseph Clark in 1865. By 1872 the population had reached 1,239, a record number for a single prison. From the 1870s the prison had work contracts with local businesses.
The prison was slow to adapt to change; there was no running water or toilets in the cells in 1910 and the construction of the nearby Stateville Correctional Center in 1917 (opened in March of 1925) was meant to lead to the swift closure of Joliet. A women's prison was added across the road from the main structures in 1896 but closed in 1932.
The number of inmates peaked at 1,300 in 1990 and was still 1,156 in 2000, although capacity had been raised to 1,300 over 1999-2000, from 1,180 previously. In 2000 there were 541 staff. From the 1990s the prison worked more as a reception and classification center for northern Illinois, holding prisoners for less than a month and processing over 20,000 a year.
Often confused with Stateville Correctional Center, which is also located in Joliet, Illinois, it is in fact a completely seperate prison. It is Stateville, not Joliet, which has the famous "panapticon" roundhouse, and where John Wayne Gacey was housed.
Closure
Joliet Correctional Center closed as a holding prison in February 2002. Budget cuts and the obsolete and dangerous nature of the buildings were the cited reasons. All inmates and most staff were transferred to new buildings built at Stateville, the other maximum security prison in Joliet. Joliet continued as an intake center until March 2004.
Media
Music
Percy's Song, written by Bob Dylan and covered by artists such as Fairport Convention and Arlo Guthrie, tells the story of someone trying to get a friend's ninety-nine year sentence in Joliet Prison repealed. The second verse runs:
- Tell me the trouble,
- Tell once to my ear,
- Turn, turn, turn again.
- Joliet prison
- And ninety-nine years,
- Turn, turn to the rain
- And the wind. [1]
The humorous Steve Goodman song "Lincoln Park Pirates" centers on an infamous Chicago firm called Lincoln Park Towing. One of its lines is:
- Our drivers are friendly and courteous
- Good manners you always will get
- For all are recent graduates
- Of the "charm school" at Joliet
Television/Film
Since its closure, Joliet Prison has become a set for film and television projects.
- 2005 - Derailed, a 2005 film which starred Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston.
- 2005-06 - the Fox Network shot the first season of its show Prison Break on location in the old facility. However, virtually the entire set was created in the Joiet yard. Almost nothing of the inside of the prison was actually shown.