![]() Main building at the turn of the 20th century | |
![]() | |
Location | Wetumpka, Alabama |
---|---|
Coordinates | 32°33′2″N86°11′28″W / 32.55056°N 86.19111°W Coordinates: 32°33′2″N86°11′28″W / 32.55056°N 86.19111°W |
Status | Closed |
Opened | 1842 |
Closed | 1942 |
Alabama State Penitentiary | |
Area | 3 acres (1 ha) |
Built | 1839–41 |
Architect | W.H. Thomas |
NRHP reference No. | 73000342 [1] |
Added to NRHP | May 8, 1973 |
The Wetumpka State Penitentiary (WSP), originally known as the Alabama State Penitentiary, was the first state prison established in Alabama. [2] Built on the east bank of the Coosa River in Wetumpka, it was nicknamed the "Walls of Alabama" or "Walls." For much of its operation, the prison housed both men and women, kept in separate sections of the prison. [3]
For a period beginning in the 1920s this prison was used exclusively for women. After a new women's prison was opened a mile away in 1942, the state housed fewer prisoners at the aging Wetumpka facility. It began to sell off parcels of land. The historic site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 1973. [1] All buildings on the site have been demolished since the late 20th century.
On January 26, 1839, the Alabama Legislature, under Governor of Alabama Arthur P. Bagby, enacted a criminal code that authorized the creation of the first prison in Alabama. On August 21 of that year the state purchased a site along the Coosa River in Wetumpka, as the site was centrally located within the state. Bagby placed the first cornerstone of the prison in October of that year. By 1841 the $84,889 prison was completed. It had 208 cells and was surrounded by 25-foot (760 cm) walls. The first prisoner entered the prison in 1842. [3]
In 1922 Wetumpka was converted to serve exclusively as a women's prison. [4]
A fire destroyed a portion of the Wetumpka prison on January 23, 1931; within 40 days after the fire, the department had restored functionality in the facility. After a fire at the Speigner prison on November 28, 1932, Wetumpka housed the convicts from Speigner until December 26, 1932, when temporary buildings were opened at Speigner opened.
In 1941 the prison was renamed as the Julia Tutwiler Prison. It was used mostly for female prisoners. In December 1942 a new Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women opened, built less than a mile north of the Wetumpka State Penitentiary. The previous Wetumpka prison's usage decreased. Beginning in 1945 the State of Alabama began selling small parcels of the older prison land. [3] In 1973 the prison and site were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Several buildings survived to the last decades of the 20th century, but have since been demolished. [1]
Elmore County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 census, the population was 79,303. Its county seat is Wetumpka. Its name is in honor of General John A. Elmore.
Wetumpka is a city in and the county seat of Elmore County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 6,528. In the early 21st century Elmore County became one of the fastest-growing counties in the state. The city is considered part of the Montgomery Metropolitan Area.
Tutwiler is a town in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, United States. The population at the 2010 census was 3,550.
The Long Bay Correctional Complex, commonly called Long Bay, is a correctional facility comprising a heritage-listed maximum and minimum security prison for males and females and a hospital to treat prisoners, psychiatric cases and remandees, located in Malabar, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The complex is located approximately 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) south of the Sydney CBD and is contained within a 32-hectare (79-acre) site. The facility is operated by Corrective Services NSW, a department administered by the Government of New South Wales.
The Penitentiary of New Mexico (PNM) is a men's maximum-security prison located in unincorporated Santa Fe County, 15 miles (24 km) south of central Santa Fe, on New Mexico State Road 14. It is operated by the New Mexico Corrections Department.
Tennessee State Prison is a former correctional facility located near downtown Nashville, Tennessee. It opened in 1898 and has been closed since 1992 because of overcrowding concerns. The mothballed facility was severely damaged by an EF3 tornado in the tornado outbreak of March 2–3, 2020.
The Lorton Reformatory, also known as the Lorton Correctional Complex, is a former prison complex in Lorton, Virginia, established in 1910 for the District of Columbia, United States.
Julia Strudwick Tutwiler was an advocate for education and prison reform in Alabama. She served as co-principal of the Livingston Female Academy, and then the first woman president of Livingston Normal College. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1971.
The Ohio Penitentiary, also known as the Ohio State Penitentiary, was a prison operated from 1834 to 1984 in downtown Columbus, Ohio, in what is now known as the Arena District. The state had built a small prison in Columbus in 1813, but as the state's population grew the earlier facility was not able to handle the number of prisoners sent to it by the courts. When the penitentiary first opened in 1834, not all of the buildings were completed. The prison housed 5,235 prisoners at its peak in 1955. Conditions in the prison have been described as "primitive," and the facility was eventually replaced by the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum security facility in Lucasville. During its operation, it housed several well-known inmates, including General John H. Morgan, who famously escaped the prison during the Civil War, "Bugs" Moran, O. Henry, Chester Himes, and Sam Sheppard, whose story is said to have inspired the movie The Fugitive. A separate facility for women prisoners was completed within the walls of the Ohio Penitentiary in 1837. The buildings were demolished in 1997.
The Kentucky State Penitentiary (KSP), also known as the "Castle on the Cumberland," is a maximum security and supermax prison with capacity for 856 prisoners located in Eddyville, Kentucky on Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River, about 4.8 kilometres (3 mi) from downtown Eddyville. It is managed by the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Completed in 1886, it is Kentucky's oldest prison facility and the only commonwealth-owned facility with supermax units. The penitentiary houses Kentucky's male death row inmates and the commonwealth's execution facility. As of 2015 it had approximately 350 staff members and an annual operating budget of $20 million. In most cases, inmates are not sent directly to the penitentiary after sentencing, but are sent there because of violent or disruptive behavior committed in other less secure correctional facilities in the commonwealth. This was Kentucky's second penitentiary. The first Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort was made uninhabitable from the 1937 flood.
The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) is the agency responsible for incarceration of convicted felons in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is headquartered in the Alabama Criminal Justice Center in Montgomery.
The Missouri State Penitentiary was a prison in Jefferson City, Missouri, that operated from 1836 to 2004. Part of the Missouri Department of Corrections, it served as the state of Missouri's primary maximum security institution. Before it closed, it was the oldest operating penal facility west of the Mississippi River. It was replaced by the Jefferson City Correctional Center, which opened on September 15, 2004.
The Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is a prison for women of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), located in Wetumpka, Alabama. All female inmates entering ADOC are sent to the receiving unit in Tutwiler. Tutwiler houses Alabama's female death row, which qualifies it for the "maximum security" classification.
The Wyoming State Penitentiary is a historic and current prison in Rawlins, Carbon County, Wyoming, which has operated from 1901. It moved within Rawlins to a new location in 1981. In 2018, it is a Wyoming Department of Corrections state maximum-security prison for men.
Limestone Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections state prison for men located in Harvest, Limestone County, Alabama. Opened in October 1984 and with a capacity of 2086 prisoners, Limestone is the largest prison in the Alabama state system. This institution is classified as a maximum security correctional facility.
Draper Correctional Facility was an Alabama Department of Corrections state prison for men located in Elmore, Elmore County, Alabama. The prison first opened in 1939 with a capacity of 600 beds, replacing the former Speigner Reformatory. Speigner had been founded circa 1900 and employed inmates on a farm and cotton mill on site. It was destroyed by fire in November 1932
The Alton Military Prison was a prison located in Alton, Illinois and originally built in 1833 as the first state penitentiary in Illinois and later closed in 1857. During the American Civil War, the prison was reopened in 1862 to accommodate the growing population of Confederate prisoners of war and ceased to be prison at the end of the war in 1865. The prison building was demolished not long after the Civil War. All that remains of the former prison site is a section of ruin wall that is maintained by the State of Illinois as an historic site. The prison site is included in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The South Carolina Penitentiary was the state of South Carolina's first prison. Completed in 1867, the South Carolina Penitentiary served as the primary state prison for nearly 130 years until its demolition in 1999. It was located adjacent to the Congaree River in Columbia, South Carolina and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 4, 1996. It was replaced by the Lee Correctional Institution as the main prison in the state of South Carolina after the prison was deemed too overcrowded by a federal court.
Edwina Donnelly Mitchell (1894–1968) was the Superintendent (warden) of Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women located in Wetumpka, Alabama.
![]() | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wetumpka State Penitentiary . |