Touring an abandoned prison

Today I took a trip down the Joliet Correctional Center in, you guessed it, Joliet. It was an active maximum security Illinois state prison from 1858 to 2002 and held a number of well-known inmates, including Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, Baby Face Nelson, John Wayne Gacy, and most famous of all, Jake Blues. It’s interesting that the most famous inmate is fictional.

To get there, I took the Metra Rock Island District to Joliet, then a Pace bus. Of course I got some pictures of the Metra station on the way:

Front of a waiting Rock Island District train at Joliet — The train that took me to Joliet

Rock Island District waiting room at Joliet — Waiting area

Rock Island District train at Joliet from the Amtrak/Heritage Corridor platform — Amtrak/Heritage Corridor platform

Joliet station building from across the street — Station building

Then, I went into the prison on a tour. It was definitely very eerie being in there. The building is a little worse for wear (it was closed due in part to being in poor condition and has seen virtually no maintenance in the intervening two decades). You can see all of the photos I deemed worthy of publication in my Flickr album, but keep reading to see a selection of them with more detailed descriptions.

We entered via the eastern gate where Jake Blues famously walked out. According to the tour guide the gate was actually welded shut, they only opened it after the film company bribed the warden to let them use it and have a crew break the welding. Even then, they only got one shot and five minutes.

Along the path from that gate were the industry buildings to the north and a few other buildings like inmate intake processing to the south.

Industry buildings at the Joliet Prison — Industry buildings (or what’s left of them after severe fire damage)

Industries building at the Joliet Prison — Another burned out industry building

Auto shop building at the Joliet Prison — Burned out auto shop building

Joliet Prison inmate processing building — Inmate intake processing building (also burned out)

Joliet Prison water cistern — Water cistern

We then headed to the solitary confinement building, which had solitary confinement cells on the first floor and death row cells on the second.

Joliet Prison solitary confinement building — Solitary confinement building

Joliet Prison solitary confinement building side view — Solitary confinement building – the windows here were the cell windows at the top of the cells

Joliet Prison original cell interior — Original cell (preserved), apparently three people were held at a time in these cells

"It's never too late to mend" at the Joliet Prison in the solitary confinement building — “It’s never too late! To mend.” (I wonder if that was always there or added because of the Blues Brothers)

Joliet Prison solitary confinement building lower level — Solitary confinement cellblock

Solitary confinement cell at the Joliet Prison — Solitary confinement cell (there was also a toilet-sink unit to the right)

Death row cells at the Joliet Prison — Death row cellblock

Death row cell at the Joliet Prison — Death row cell

Then we headed into the cafeteria building, which was segregated by race into north and south cafeterias (I don’t know/remember which one was which). The north cafeteria in particular included some interesting Simpsons-based graffiti.

Joliet Prison north cafeteria — North cafeteria

Chief Wiggum graffiti at the north cafeteria at the Joliet Prison — Chief Wiggum graffiti in the north cafeteria

Joliet Prison south cafeteria — South cafeteria

Kitchen at the Joliet Prison cafeteria — Kitchen

Then we left to head towards the cell house, passing by (but not entering) the gymnasium.

Joliet Prison gymnasium entrance — Gymnasium entrance

The tour guide then let one of the people on the tour open the door to the east cell house.

Man opening the east cell house door at the Joliet Prison — Man opening the cell house door

Cell block at the Joliet Prison east cell house — Eastern cell house cell block

Cell in the west cell house at the Joliet Prison — Eastern cell house cell

Apparently the eastern cell house cells had beds removed post-closing for maintenance reasons. Also a sobering fact that the left portion of the ceiling in the cell block was added to prevent inmates from trying to jump to their deaths, with apparently as many as three suicides per day.

We then left the cell block and walked by the hospital but couldn’t enter it.

Front of the hospital at the Joliet Prison — Hospital

Front hallway of the Joliet Prison hospital — Entrance to the hospital

We then entered the western cell house, which apparently housed inmates that were disliked even by the other inmates (use your imagination).

Cell block in the west cell house of the Joliet Prison — Cell block in the western cell house

Here, note the closed doors instead of bars. Apparently this was to avoid inmates throwing stuff at the guards. The inmates here were so disliked that they even had their own yard to avoid contact with other inmates.