Rotating Jail - Crawfordsville, IN

THERE WAS A POINT IN history when people were still trying to perfect the perfect cell in which to keep that wiliest of creatures: man. This quest for the perfect jail led to some odd and often inhumane forms of incarceration, some of which still survive.

One such example is the rotary jail, the only still working example of which is Indiana’s Rotary Jail Museum. Rotary jails were a unique innovation in penitentiary design where the cells were wedge-shaped spaces arranged around a central hub. The entire hub could then be spun by a mechanism beneath the cells that was controlled by a hand crank. The cells would spin around so that the door could only be accessed from one opening. This innovation almost caught on in the late 1800s and somewhere between six and eighteen of the spinning jails were built in America. Unfortunately, the almost whimsical prisons had the fatal habit of trapping inmates’ limbs in between the bars, breaking and crushing them. After a number of such incidents, most of the rotary jails were closed or converted to a more stationary operation.

Today the only still operating example of the rotary jails is one in Crawfordsville, Indiana. While the jail no longer holds criminals, the massive gear beneath the cells can still rotate, standing as a strange example of innovation outstripping utility.

[Milanie]

Good point of view for your shot against that blue sky. Interesting information on the rotating jails

[Mags]

Interesting history. Beautiful shot of this old building!

[haskar]

Dark history but the building itself looks so friendly

[Skip Tribby - ​🖖]

@haskar - Not so much dark as unfortunate. Someone set out to make the escape-proof jail by only providing one door to enter and exit a cell. Pretty ingenious I thought. I have no idea how many prisoners were unfortunately injured but I did ask the tour guide if any of the injuries were on purpose by a prisoner to attempt getting moved to a hospital or the infirmary with the thoughts of escaping and she said, "no". All were accidents where the prisoners were drunk or asleep and instead of being in their beds they were on the floor and one of their limbs went out through the bars when a police rotated the whole cell block and they were injured. At least in this particular jail. She did tell of one man who had a prosthetic leg. And when the leg wore out he got himself arrested and when the cells were being rotated he stuck his artificial leg through the bars and it was crushed. The city ended up paying for a new leg for him. Sometime later when that leg wore out he got himself arrested again and did the same thing only this time they caught him. No new leg on the taxpayer's dime.