TOURISM - a part of history "Squirrel Cage Jails"

PART TWO

The Montgomery County Jail in Indiana (shown below) was the first of the rotary jails to be built. The cost of the facility was $29,000 and was completed in 1882. It is a limestone trimmed red brick jail with attached sheriff’s quarters. It was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture. It was used until 1973 and is now home to a museum and on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a two story unit, and is one of the last three to be standing. It is now a museum and offers tours of the facility.


William Brown and Benjamin Haugh , along with John L. Ketcham joined together to form the Haugh, Ketcham and Company after the patent was obtained for the Rotary (also known as the squirrel cage and the lazy Susan) jail.

They would over the years in the late 1800’s build several of these jails throughout the Midwest.

Here are a few of them (only three are still standing):
Montgomery County Jail – Crawfordsville, Indiana
Nodaway County Jail – Maryville, Missouri
McCracken County Jail – Paducah, Kentucky
Pottawatomie County Jail – Council Bluffs, Iowa
DeKalb County Jail – Mayesville, Missouri

The jails operated as follows and caused many problems, physical injuries to the prisoners, sanitary, and equipment failures. Diagram and blueprint of the jail system below

The machinery in the jail consisted of a round cell block with pie shaped cells around the central core. The central core contained all the plumbing and ventilating systems. The cells were divided by plate iron partitions. They also contained iron bunks which were attached to the wall. There were no bars in this cylindrical cell block. Rotation of the cells happened within a stationary cylinder. There was only one door per level that was enclosed in iron-barred vestibules stacked as the cells. The cell block would rotate until the correct cell was aligned with the door, and then the prisoner could be let out or in. No cell had continuous access to the door, and there was not a cat walk around the cells.

Rotation of the cells was done by a hand-crank, located on each level just outside the iron-barred vestibule area. One man operated the crank. Below is the patent cover sheet.

Pottawatomie County Jail – Council Bluffs, Iowa(pictured below) is the home of the only three story rotary type jail which was built in 1885 at the cost of $30,000. The jail closed in 1969, but looks much like it did when it was in operation. The walls of the cells are filled with scratching’s from some of the infamous prisoners. It is well restored as a glimpse of that era of our society. It to is now a museum and is open to the public for tours. It also is on the National Registry of Historical Locations.

In Part 3 of this look at Squirrel Cage Jails, I will be taking a look at the jail located in Gallatin, Missouri. It is a one story rotary jail, and was copied and built by a St. Louis firm.

Until then........