Montgomery County Jail Building
In 1881, architect William H. Brown answered the human incarceration problem with an engineering solution by designing a revolutionary new jail concept in housing criminals. Brown teamed up with Benjamin F. Haugh of Haugh, Ketcham & Co. iron foundry in Indianapolis, Indiana to build this modern masterpiece.
What was this work of genius, you may ask? A rotary jail.
Hmm…
Sounds a bit odd. But whenever someone comes up with a new solution or
new take on an old problem, it can seem odd. Let’s find out how this one
stacks up on the oddity chart.
Brown’s idea was to have a
revolving cell block. There were generally eight wedge-shaped cells per
floor with a single exit shared by all the cells on that floor. This way
only one cell could be accessed at a time, providing more security and
fewer guards required to oversee the prisoners.
The patent for this new style of jail had this description:
“The
object of our inventions is to produce a jail in which prisoners can be
controlled without the necessity of personal contact between them and
the jailer or guard ... it consists, first, of a circular cell structure
of considerable size (inside the usual prison building) divided into
several cells capable of being rotated, surrounded by a grating in close
proximity thereto, which has only such number of openings (usually one)
as is necessary for the convenient handling of prisoners.”
Cell Door Partially Open & Cell Door Open
The
greased mechanism sat on a ball bearing
surface that was so well built a single man could work the crank to spin the entire block.
This video shows a man cranking the handle to rotate the cell block.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIswvJFoT0A
Rotating Crank Mechanism
In
the late 1800s, several of these rotary jails were built across the
American Midwest. The first was constructed in Crawfordsville, Indiana
in 1882. Five others were soon built in the Midwest. In total, eighteen
of these bad boys were erected at a cost of $30,000 each.
The
rotary jail boasted an indoor, sanitary plumbing system, a luxury most
regular people didn’t have yet. Prisoners received three meals a day, a
hot bath, and their clothes laundered. A pretty sweet deal.
Very
quickly the pitfalls and safety hazards to this style of construction
became evident. First, the jails often held mostly individuals too
inebriated to walk. They might pass out in their cell with an arm or leg
through the bars. Then when the cell block was rotated, arms and legs
were injured ... or worse.
Another hazard was what to do in case
of a fire. A guard would need to stay behind to turn the crank handle to
let the prisoners out one wedge-shaped cell at a time. Who was going to
watch these freed prisoners with the reduced manpower? And what if the
guard was too afraid for his own life to stay inside a burning building.
Not good. A set up for failure.
Due
to the safety hazards, most of the rotary jails had their mechanisms
welded into a stationary position and doors made for each cell within a
few years. Nearly all of these jails were decommissioned by 1939. The
Pottawattamie County jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa was the last of these
jails in service. It shut down in December of 1969. It’s rotating
mechanism was still in use up to 1960.
Food Pass-Through Slot
The
Montgomery County rotary jail in Crawfordsville, Indiana is the only
one of these jails still able to rotate. However, no prisoners are
housed there as it is now a museum. This would be so much fun to visit.
I
would give Brown high marks for ingenuity, creativity, and out of the
box thinking. But very-low marks for safety considerations before
construction and cost savings for their clients. I wonder if any of the
towns, which had these jails built, recouped the money they were
supposed to save by paying fewer guards.
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