Wondering what prison life was like in the 70s? Fortunately I don’t know what prison life is like in any era, including the present, but got a firsthand look at what it’s like, or rather used to be like as a tourist. Check out the castle-like look of the Old Montana Prison.

The Old Montana prison, originally constructed in 1893 in Deer Lodge, Montana hasn’t been used since 1979 and has become a tourist attraction. The wall shown above is twenty-four feet high and extends four feet underground. It was built entirely with convict labor and no inmate ever successfully tunneled under the wall.

At the time the prison was retired in favor of the new prison about 4 miles away it had around 300 inmates. The new prison has 3,000+. Old Montana Prison is located just off Interstate 90 heading east to Butte or west to Missoula.

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For $9 per person (good for both Saturday and Sunday, if it’s a weekend visit) you can tour most of the prison and get a feel for what it was like being a Montana prisoner as late as the 70s. It’s an unguided tour, but you can schedule a guided one if you want for more bones.

As part of the admission a tour brochure points out plenty of highlights, like the "out of bounds" written in the concrete in blood red paint with white writing. Inmates who passed this line without permission and/or guard escort could be shot by the guards above. It took three different keys to get through the gate to the outside, lowered by rope from the guard walkway above.

Too bad tourists are not allowed to walk along the guard walk-way. It would be great to see the prison though the guard’s eyes, but some of the prison is roped off for safety and liability reasons. As it is, the walkway on the ground are starting to crack and show their age.

I was kind of surprised by the size of each prison cell. Sure, not much space for two people, but I had imagined the cells would be even tighter conditions.

I so don’t look good wearing bars. Walking down the hall outside the prisons raised the hairs on the nape of my neck. Something downright spooky about the cold concrete floor outside the prison cells which counted 50 in number, four floors high. Ghosts of past inhabitants existence spiritually imprinted on the concrete?

 

Four floors above where this picture was taken in 1959 there was a riot that ended in a bazooka blast and a murder suicide of two inmates, Jerry Myles and Lee Smart who orchestrated the riot. The damage from the bazooka was never repaired and can be seen from outside in the second long window from the left in the picture below:

 

How did prisoners spend time in their cells? Some used their cells as hiding place as plotting ground for escape and contraband. The prisoner seized contraband exhibit showed off some elaborate shanks, rope made out of toilet paper, a bible with the center cut out for smokes and much more.

 

Inmates who repeatedly couldn’t follow the prison rules were subjected to a Hollywood-style hyped hole. Yes, the hole exists. After 10 days in the hole with only bread and water served twice daily, a physician would examine the prisoner and if he was ok, he’d go back into the hole for 10 more days. After the hole punishment was ruled "excessive" the hole was never used again. The memory remains.

 

Now look at the inside of the hole below and see if you can imagine being locked in this cell with no light, no human interaction for 10 days and only two rations of water and bread a day? I’d be thinking of roaches crawling around with me in the dark …

 

No thank you. Would rather stay on the right side of the law. Leave the ball and chain to others. If they aren’t doing this already, they should bus neighboring town school kids and take them through a guided tour of the prison. Deterrent, yes.

 

I’ll admit being curious how prison live in 2008 compares to prison life 30 years ago. Have you ever toured the inside of a prison either past or present? Or want to admit [gasp] to seeing the inside firsthand?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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