Browse Items (25 total)

A prisoner takes a cigarette break amidst potted plants and caged birds.

Guards line up prisoners in the cell house in preparation for Sunday dinner.

A prisoner and an armed guard pose at the west gate entrance.

Menard contained one of the three electric chairs used for executions in Illinois. The other chairs were located at Stateville and the Cook County Jail in Chicago.

A prisoner operates a textile machine at the Stateville textile mill.

Prisoner manufactured license plates were just one of many products produced at Stateville, which included a furniture factory, textile mill, and sheet-metal plant.

Prisoners eat a meal in one of Stateville's roundhouses as guards observe them.

An officer draws blood from a prisoner. This image may depict part of an experimentation process. During World War II, Stateville was the scene of U.S. Army malaria experiments, during which physicians observed the disease's effects by deliberately…

Oxygen or flight mask testing at Stateville.

The inmate swing band, the Stateville Aces, plays a tune. On verso: "On August 24th, inmates of the Stateville prison at Joliet, Illinois will present a vaudeville show as part of the program for visiting past commanders of local American Legion…

Several men, maybe newly released prisoners, celebrate with warden Joseph E. Ragen. Ragan served as warden for twenty-five years (1936-1961). His administration was known for its strict order and the productivity of its prison industries.

Cars parked along snow covered roads outside of Stateville.

Stateville Prison housed prisoners in four "roundhouses" constructed on the basis of British philosopher and criminologist Jeremy Bentham's panopticon design, which allowed guards to observe all the cells in a roundhouse from a centrally located…

Warden Joseph E. Ragen was warden of the Illinois State Penitentiary, which included two prisons, Joliet and Stateville. Ragan served as warden for twenty-five years (1936-1961). His administration was known for its strict order and the productivity…

A guard mans his post outside of the newly built gatehouse.

These handcuffed prisoners may have been enduring a form of punishment at Joliet in which prisoners were handcuffed to cell bars and forced to stand during daylight hours.

Prisoners stack surplus Army clothing and equipment in preparation for cleaning and renovation at Old Prison, Joliet. The term "Old Prison" was used to describe the original prison at Joliet, after the opening of the nearby prison at Stateville in…

Joliet's marching band forms up. Known as the "Honor Band," these inmate musicians performed at selected events.

Members of the prison baseball team pose for a team picture. By the 1920s, intramural baseball was a normal feature of inmate life in prisons across the country. Selected players, like these Joliet inmates, manned institutional teams that played…

French criminologist Alphonse Bertillon devised a method of tracking suspects and convicts through a system of measuring and classifying specific features of the person's anatomy. Photographs of these features helped police identify suspects and…

A prisoner walks three dogs in the prison yard.

A prisoner cuts bread in the prison bakery.

A group of women, accompanied by two men, assemble around a cistern. Although Joliet had a women's prison from 1896 to 1932, it is unclear whether the women in the image are prisoners or civilians.

Guards line up squads of prisoners in the snow.

Warden Joseph E. Ragen observes a medical procedure on a prisoner. This image may depict one of the U.S. Army malaria experiments on inmates at Stateville during the Second World War, where physicians deliberately infected prisoner volunteers to…