Image: Rotary Jail Museum (14609994818)
Description: We carried a list of historic sites when we visited Crawfordsville, Indiana. The website for the museum: "The Montgomery County Rotary Jail opened in 1882 as a solution to the problem of housing prisoners safely and efficiently. Its unique structure as a rotary jail was the first of its kind ever built in the United States. Today, it stands as the only operational rotary jail structure in the country. "Builders William H. Brown and Benjamin F. Haugh of Indianapolis believed their patented design would help maintain strict Victorian social order by limiting personal contact between inmate and jailer. By rotating a hand crank on which the two-tiered turntable pivoted, a jailer could bring one of sixteen pie-shaped cells to the opening, allowing one prisoner in or out."
Title: Rotary Jail Museum (14609994818)
Credit: Rotary Jail Museum
Author: Don O'Brien from Piketon, Ohio, United States
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
License: CC BY 2.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes
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