We like to visit our famous prison every once in a while as I forget so much about it from one visit to the next. I have a hard time thinking of women prisoners in there but there were actually quite a few! And they were not separated like today - they just had their own cells.
Our old prison opened in 1875. The first prisoners, six men, actually had to build the cells themselves before they were locked inside them. Conditions were hot and unbearable until the warden's wife took control and improved the way the prisoners were treated. It is an eerie thing to visit and step inside one of the rock cells.
Great POV. I'm glad to read the treatment of the prisoners improved better after the warden's wife took over. you know, seeing this picture and reading your narrative reminds me of a day very many years ago when I worked as a real estate agent and required a signature on a document singed by an inmate. I traveled to the former Don Jail in Toronto. after some identification I was let into a room where I waited for the inmate. the building was overwhelming and the cuffed prisoner gave me the shivers.
