Sleepover in the slammer

In Jefferson City, Missouri, officials offered a special open house of their new $31 million Cole County Jail. But it wasn't your average open house. On July 15th and 16th they held "Bed, Breakfast, and Bars," a $30-a-night fund-raiser that lured 90 people to play prisoner ("It's something different to do. Something to talk about at a cocktail party."). When they "turned themselves in," the volunteer inmates surrendered their personal belongings, including jewelry and cell phones ("It was [my wife's] idea."). They were booked and had their mug shots taken. They were then escorted by deputies to their cells, which were equipped with bunks, mattresses with built-in pillows, and en suite toilets and showers ("Leave your privacy at the door! Each cell has a window and the stalls are right out there in the open."). Later, dinner was served: navy beans, turkey noodle casserole, cole slaw, bread pudding, and cornbread ("I wouldn't pay for it in a restaurant, but you won't die trying to eat it."). After the meal, they were given a tour of the state of the art facility. After a few hours of sleep with the lights on, they were awakened at 5:30am and treated to a room-temperature morning meal, which some found lacking ("I don't think I’ve ever had bologna for breakfast."). The prisoners were sprung at 8am.

Check-out times at the world's prison hotels are a bit later, if you decide to pursue privately-run institutional lodging. Accommodations range from luxurious (Boston's 4-star Charles Street Jail) to austere (a former KGB prison in Latvia billed as “unfriendly, unheated, uncomfortable and open all year round”). If you would like to become your own prison hotelier, just wait for one of the existing facilities to go on the market.

Shawshank

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) is one of my favorite movies of all time, so when it was on TV yesterday I had it on for about the 20th time. But for the 1st time I wondered where the exterior shots of the fictional Maine prison were filmed. The answer: the Ohio State Reformatory, which opened in 1896 and closed in 1984. Director Frank Darabont said, "The moment I saw it, I was pretty much convinced we'd found our Shawshank. It's a stunning edifice -- gothic and bleak and architecturally beyond fascinating. That's what I mean when I say the universe dropped a gift in my lap -- it was not only the perfect locale, but also the perfect timing. The OSR (Ohio State Reformatory) had a date with the wrecking ball when we first came across it. Had I been making that movie a year later, much of the prison walls and supplemental buildings - all vital to my filming - would have been gone." The exterior of the reformatory was used in the filming, but the interior was too dilapidated and was recreated on a sound stage. Most of the support buildings and the wall around the grounds have since been demolished. The main building is now a museum, and the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society gives tours to raise money to restore the facility to its original state. They also host wedding receptions for up to 225 people and more intimate gatherings (in the warden's dining room) for 20-40. A blogger named Lindsay describes attending an annual Halloween event: "Seriously, the inside of that place was amazing. The architecture was astounding. The cell block (in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest free standing steel cell block in the world) stretches six stories high." Lindsay tells a spooky about seeing the prison building years earlier:

"|I lived in Mansfield, Ohio, for almost a year. The first time I visited there I was with my mother and as we pulled away I saw a cool old looking building through the trees. I asked her to pull off and take a look when she said she bet it was the old, defunct Ohio State Reformatory that was used to film The Shawshank Redemption. It was all boarded up then, and the subsequent year I spent living there. Still, my love of old buildings kept me driving back there often just to look at the impressive facade. The odd thing was that after that first time no matter how hard I looked, and no matter the leafless state of the trees, I couldn’t ever see it from the freeway again."

The 20-year anniversary of the film was celebrated and the town of Mansfield, Ohio, organized a reunion in 2008. The rumor is that a sequel is due to start filming in December, and from the description the reformatory will figure prominently.

Prison stripes

I don't know why these things occur to me, but they do. Yesterday I went in search of the origin of prison stipes, and here's what I found.... Prison uniforms have traditionally been distinguished by horizontal black and white stripes - symbolic of cell bars - to facilitate the recognition and recapture of escapees. The custom in the U.S. dates back to the 1800s, when two prison systems arose. The Pennsylvania system was established by the Quakers and encouraged penitence by forcing prisoners to live and work alone in their cells. The Auburn system established prison industries by allowing prisoners to work together during the day, under strict conditions: they were not allowed to look at or speak to each other, they walked in lockstep, their hair was cut short, and they wore striped uniforms. The pattern became a badge of disgrace and was abandoned in many institutions in the early 20th c. in favor of work clothes. This was in part due to the Depression, during which many people were incarcerated for petty crimes, vagrancy, and debt: "The idea of who was a prisoner changed." In the 1990s, after prison populations had swelled due to the drug trade, easy access to guns, and gang activity, the public clamored for harsher treatment. Among other things, this resulted in changes to the uniform - and a reversion from denim or jumpsuits to the notorious stripes. "I don't want it to be the nicest jail they've ever been in. If there is a little humility in wearing a black-and-white uniform, so be it," says a Kansas sheriff. According to the leading uniform supplier, the stipes account for 1/4th of all sales, with the majority or orders for black and white - but they are now available in red, orange, green, and blue.

Felony disenfranchisement

The voting rights of U.S. prisoners, parolees, and ex-felons vary by state. In most states, imprisoned felons are disen-franchised, while those on parole and probation are allowed to vote. But in Maine, even convicts are allowed to vote. This means that the man who shot, dismembered, burned, and dumped the bodies of a bed and breakfast owner, her daughter, and two others in 2007 was eligible to cast his vote in the recent election. I am not sure exactly where I stand on the issue of felony disenfranchisement, but I do feel strongly that murderers forfeit such rights.