Doin' Time in Boise: The Old Idaho Penitentiary

Imagine you just have been convicted of a serious crime in the State of Idaho. You are sentenced to serve your sentence at the State Penitentiary. You are taken in handcuffs to prison by armed guards. You arrive at the prison and upon seeing the towers and walls, and wonder if you have been transported back in time. "It's not a prison, it's a medieval fortress," you think. This is the effect the architects who designed the Old Idaho Penitentiary wanted from the prisoners who lived there from 1870-1973. The prison was built from sandstone mined from Table Rock by the prisoners, and the sandstone gives a dark and bleak look to the prison, which is now an Idaho Historical Site.

Construction on the Old Idaho Penitentiary began on April 4, 1870 after six years of arguments between the U.S. Department of Interior and the corrupt Idaho Territorial Government on where the prison would be located. Would it be located in Boise or Lewiston? It was finally decided that the prison would be built one mile from the center of Boise. Until 1973, the Old State Pen served as Idaho's state prison. Since 1973, prisoners serve their time in the new State Prison south of Boise.

My friend and fellow Igougo guide Ken (GN: ducksunset) and I toured the Old Idaho Penitentiary on a hot August day. We enjoyed touring the Rose Garden, which was landscaped by prisoners and was also the sight of 8 of the 10 executions performed at the Old Pen. Many of the buildings are now museums, including a Tattoo History Museum in the old Barber Shop and a Transportation History Museum in the old Shirt Factory. There is a souvenir shop in at the main entrance where you can buy handcuffs, t-shirts, and playing cards with Iraq's most wanted war criminals. I bought a pair of handcuff earrings and a pair of handcuffs. I couldn't resist.

Quick Tips:

You can take a guided tour of the Old Idaho Penitentiary or tour the prison on your own tour. Ken and I chose to tour the Old Pen by ourselves in order to take the time to see everything we wanted to.

The souvenir shop also has an interesting guide book on the history of the Old Idaho Penitentiary called "The Old Idaho Penitentiary: A Walking Tour Guide(.50 US)."

Please watch the signs and follow the marked paths when touring the old prison. There are many work-release prisoners working around the old prison. Ken and I missed the path to the parking lot after touring the Old Pen and went right into a yard where three female prisoners were taking a break. They asked us if they could help us and said, "We like visitors, but our guards don't! If you need to get out to the parking lot, just go straight ahead here to that gate." After saying thanks to the ladies, Ken and I just quickly ran across the yard and quickly left for the parking lot. We laugh now, but at first I thought we were in big trouble!

Best Way To Get Around:

Admission to the Old Idaho Penitentiary is for adults and .50 for children under 12 and seniors over 60.

Old Idaho Penitentiary Boise, Idaho 83712 Phone #: <>www.idahohistory.net/oldpen.html

In fact, the Old Idaho Penitentiary Rose Garden was landscaped and cared for by its prisoners because they had to earn money for cigarettes and other goodies from the prison commissary. The first Rose Garden was built under the southeast guard tower in 1912. The present day rose garden, located in the northeast part of the prison yard, dates from 1917-1919.

The Old Idaho Penitentiary Rose Garden was used for administrative meetings by the warden and his staff. It was also the site of seven of ten of the executions that were held at the Old Pen. A gallows was erected in the rose garden, and prisoners were forced to tend the garden and prepare it for either the meetings or the executions. The rose bushes were kept purposely short in order for the prisoners not to hide weapons and tools for escapes or riots.

Ken and I walked around the garden for a while and admired the roses and the view of Table Rock and the guard towers that surround the prison yard. We imagined what it was like to be a prisoner and see and admire the beautiful mountains and not being allowed to hike in them.

The Old Idaho Penitentiary Rose Garden is open daily along with the rest of the prison and has gone under many changes in its 86-year existence. It is now lovingly cared for by the Idaho State Historical Society, not prisoners.

The Old Idaho Penitentiary was built by prison labor and design in 1898. It is located between the Territorial Prison and the New Cellhouse. An inmate named George Hamilton (not the actor!) designed the dining hall while he served a 7-year sentence for robbery. Hamilton did such a good job, he was pardoned by the warden on the condition that he leave the State of Idaho. Hamilton, a morphine addict and alcoholic, "was despondent over his inconquerable appetite for liquor ("Idaho Daily Statesman," 1898) and committed suicide in Nampa, Idaho, near Boise the day after he got out of jail.

The Dining Hall fitted 350 prisoners at a time, and guards watched them eat from an overhead balcony known as the "Bird's Nest" so that prisoners wouldn't smuggle silverware for weapons and escape tools. They were made to eat in total silence and wasting food was a punishable offense.

The basement of the Dining Hall had a butcher shop, laundry, and bath. The Dining Hall went under many renovations during its existence and by the 1960's, many of the rules were relaxed where prisoners could eat, smoke, and talk with one another.

The Old Idaho Penitentiary was destroyed during an inmate riot in 1973. After this last riot, prisoners were fed in their cells until they were moved to the new prison south of Boise Airport.

The Inmate Barber Shop was added to these buildings in 1902. Inmates of the Old Idaho Penitentiary were required to be shaved and have short hair during their time of incarceration and received their haircuts and shaves here at the prison barber shop.

But the prisoners abused this privelege and began to use the Barber Shop as a place to deal and smuggle drugs and contraband. By the 1960's, the barber shop had been moved to the cell blocks for better security.

Today, the Old Barber Shop houses the "Marked Men" Exhibit, a history of prison tattooing and art. Ken and I went in here to check it out. I have a tattoo of a cougar on my back, and my sister has two tattoos, but we didn't get them in prison. The Marked Men Exhibit is a very interesting look at the history of tattooing of prisoners throughout the centuries and around the world. Japanese prisoners tattoo rings around their arms for every crime they commit. Russian prisoners are tattooed after being sexually assaulted in prison, and other tattoos show who is highest in the prisoner hierarchy.

I found a chilling exhibit about forcible tattooing interesting in this exhibit. It talked about how prisoners around the world are tattooed to degrade and show who committed crimes. The most known forcible tattooing occured in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Majdanek. Prisoners in the camps were tattooed on the arm or on the chest as the photos chillingly depicted.

It was interesting to see how many symbols are used to depict certain prisoners in American prisons. Bears are signs of power, swastikas means a prisoner is involved with the Aryan Nations. Some tattoos are of poor quality, others are very detailed and almost professional looking. I left the exhibit more educated on the history of prison tattooing and a bit scared, too. I will wonder the next time I see black and white tattoos on someone if that person got it in a tattoo parlor or prison.

After a long trial, the officials of the Western Federation of Miners were acquitted although Orchard testified against them. Orchard escaped the death penalty and was sentenced to life at the Old Idaho Penitentiary.

Frank Orchard was refused parole on many occasions even though he was a model prisoner. After many years as a prisoner in the Old Pen, Orchard was offered parole, but refused to leave. Orchard was eventually moved to a house near the prison grounds where he remained until his death in 1954 at age 88. He had served 46 years in prison, the longest term ever served at the Old Idaho Penitentiary.

The first riot occured in 1935 in the Prison Dining Hall when prisoners began throwing dishes and overturning tables. The prisoners were overcome by the guards and "knockout gas" and placed in solitary confinement.

The first major riot in the Old Idaho Penitentiary was in 1952. After four major convicts were placed in solitary confinement, other prisoners accused Warden Clapp of breaking his promise not to send these four convicts to solitary. About 250 took over the multi purpose room and loafing hall. 100 guards surrounded the prison. Warden Clapp refused to let the four prisoners out of solitary, and tear gas was fired into the barricaded buildings. The riot lasted five hours without casualties but thousands of dollars of damages.

A non-violent protest strike by 300 convicts happened in the prison in 1966 for one day. It was after the Warden closed the Commissary when counterfeit money was found throughout the prison. The prisoners demanded that the Commissary be re-opened and better living conditions. The strike was ended peacefully and without damage to the prison.

In August 1971, a heatwave started the fourth Idaho Penitentiary riot. The riot lasted three hours and two prisoners were stabbed. A fire broke out and the Social Services Building was destroyed. The hospital pharmacy was looted and about $25,000 in damages was done throughout the prison. Four days after the riot, a prisoner was killed in the Multi Purpose Room laundry by fellow prisoners for being too friendly with the guards.

The last riot in the Old Idaho Penitentiary occured nine months before it closed and prisoners were moved to the new prison south of the airport. A prisoner named Trujillo claimed that guards had beaten him in the Maximum Security of the new prison. After Trujillo was treated in the old prison hospital, he was brought back to the new prison, and the riot began. The riot lasted about three hours and the Dining Hall and Chapel were destroyed, and over $100,000 in damages were done. After the riots, reports said that Trujillo's injuries were self-inflicted.

My friend Ken and I entered the 4 House and couldn't believe how tiny the cells were. Each cell housed four prisoners in a tiny 8' by 10' cell. There was also a toilet and sink in each cell. I used to complain all the time for having to share a bedroom with my sister when I was very young, but imagine having to share a tiny cell with three other prisoners who can hear you snore (and maybe kill you for doing so), fart, and doing your business in the toilet so close by.

This cellhouse also had the first electric locking doors and system in the Idaho State Penitentiary. It wasn't foolproof because prisoners still smuggled weapons and other contraband throughout the cells. At first, the cells contained one-way mirrors that the guards could check on prisoners, but after prisoners protested this treatment, the mirrors were reversed.

There is a barber shop and a cell preserved in working condition as if a prisoner still lives there today. The 4 House is highly recommended if one is interested in seeing how prisoners lived in the Old Idaho Penitentiary and other prisons throughout the USA.

In the 1950's prisons throughout the USA decided to separate murderers and sex offenders from the general population by building Maximum Security cellhouses. In 1954, the Old Idaho Penitentiary completed construction on their Maximum Security/Death Row building, known as the 5 House.

This was Ken and I's last stop on our self-guided tour of the Old Idaho Penitentiary. It was one of the eeriest feelings for me. We climbed up the metal stairs leading to Death Row. Our footsteps echoed throughout the building. The sound of the guards' footsteps on these stairs must have been one of the last noises convicted murderer Robert Snowden heard before he was hanged in 1957.

Ken and I looked around the Death Row cells and went into the Witness Room and looked through the window at the trap door that dropped the condemned criminal into oblivion. I took a picture of the trapdoor, and my body was reflected in the glass, making it look like I had witnessed a hanging. It was an eerie feeling.

Only the execution of murder Snowden was performed in the 5 House. After 1978, lethal injection was adopted as the way of execution in Idaho, and it is done in the new prison south of Boise Airport.

The Multi Purpose Room was built in 1923, during Prohibition when crimes during this time loaded the prisons in the USA with more criminals. The Idaho Penitentiary administration built a shirt factory in this building to put prisoners to work in making their own prison shirts. The prisoners also made things that were sold outside the penitentiary that drew much criticism from private enterprises who complained that prison made items competed with and put union workers out of work. Due to new and stricter interstate commerce laws, the prison shirt factory was shut down in 1933.

As of the 1940's, prisoners could socialize and do their laundry and the prison's laundry in the Multi Purpose Room. No prison was complete without a license plate factory. It ran from the 1940's until the Old Pen's closing in 1973.

There was another prison riot in 1971. Four days after the riot, a prisoner named Bill Butler was murdered in the Multi Purpose Room by fellow prisoners for being "too friendly with the guards." Butler's body was found by a guard rolled into an exercise mat.

Today, the Old Idaho Penitentiary Multi Purpose Room houses the Idaho Historical Society Transportation History Exhibit. It is a great exhibit of transportation history from the horse-drawn carriage to cars and to trains. I found the best part of the exhibit in the original "Merci Train" for the State of Idaho. After World War II, France and the rest of Europe was starving after years of war and occupation. The United States sent a "Merci Train" to France loaded with goods and food for the French people from the then 48 States. The French were so grateful to America for their help that they sent the "Merci Train" back to America with French handicrafts and goods.

I found the sign outside the train funny, but sad, that said "Hommes (people) 40; Cheveaux (horses 8)." How horses got more room when traveling, and I remembered from history how 70-75 were crammed into one cattle car on the way to the Nazi death camps during World War II. The Transportation Exhibit is recommended for all ages and should not be missed during your visit to the Old Idaho Penitentiary.