Today we hopped into the car and started our drive southeast. The scenery had a beauty of it's own with the mountain ranges but it was so hazy it was hard to even see them. Did you know Idaho has a speed limit of 80 mph on I-84, now how crazy is that. I thought 75 was outrageous but 80 is insane. At first our drive was all mountains and hills but the more we drove southeast the more it flatten out and we began to see lots of farm land. Of course by now all the fields were harvested but they have a beauty of their own.
This is a snow fence
By noon we were in Boise, ID and that is where we went to jail. Well maybe I had better correct that statement. We actually were in jail, but only as a visitor. We went to tour the Old Idaho Penitentiary which has been closed for over 40 years, but now is on the National Historic Register. I think there are around 14 prisons on the NHR. 
The ins and outs of Jail
Bit of Information about the Prison
What a terrible place to be incarcerated. The cells were beyond small. I took a number of pics so will do my best to tell you what they are. 
Gardner Shackle Boot
The shoe that has the metal band is to 'slow' down the prisoner. It's called a Gardner Shackle and weighs 28 pounds. They were placed on one leg to throw the prisoner off balance. It also caused a great deal of pain and caused severe physical damage.
One door is Gallows and the other is Death Penalty
Can you imagine being invited to a hanging
The Death Penalty (Gallows) had the prisoner stand on a trap door with a noose around his neck that was secured overhead. When the trap door opened the prisoner fell thru the opening and within minutes was pronounced dead. Of the 13,000 prisoners incarcerated there, only nine where hung, and one committed suicide the night before he was to be hung. The last hanging took place in 1957 when lethal injection took over.
One Person Cell
These were 'really' small cells
Row and row of cells and three floors of them
This is Jim looking for his cell
"You're in the Jail House Now"
In 1818 Massachusetts passed a law that if you were in jail more than once you had to have a tattoo placed on your arm that said. MSP (Massachusetts State Prison) The date of your release was also on the tattoo. Obviously the prison was very rundown with paint pealing off most walls but it was an experience just walking thru it. A couple of the buildings had been burned during riots and were shorn up but never replaced.
Landscaping was gorgeous but was the site of
six executions.
During a riot the Dining Hall was destroyed
Here lies the body of Lester Moore
Shot by a guard with a forty-four
Now there is no Les no more
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