19-YUMA TERRITORIAL PRISON

Before going to Yuma, we stopped for a night in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Dear friends, Roxanne and Allen Summers from Sunriver have a winter home in Casa Grande. They are also RV’ers and have traveled a lot of the same roads we have. We had a fun evening seeing their new house and visiting over Mexican food at a local restaurant.

Today Don and I went to prison. Fortunately, after a couple hours, we were able to leave. Not everyone who has gone there has been that fortunate.

First, let me mention that the Arizona Territorial Prison is now an Arizona State Park.

In 1876 the first seven inmates entered the Territorial Prison at Yuma and were locked into the new cells they had built themselves.

The prison was dug out of granite rock and cell doors out of strap iron.

As population increased, there were six inmates per cell, with steel cots, a chamber pot for bathroom facilities and an iron ring in the middle of the cell where misbehaving prisoners were chained for punishment. (I could not get a picture that included the top two bunks as they were very close to the ceiling.)

A total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, lived within these walls during the prison’s thirty-three years of operation. Their crimes ranged from murder to adultery with grand larceny being the most common. One hundred eleven died in prison, most from “consumption,” (Tuberculosis) which was very common at the time. There were 26 successful escapes from this prison.

Written evidence indicates that the prison was humanely administered and was a model institution for its time. The most severe punishments was the “Dark Cell” for inmates who broke prison regulations, and the ball and chain for those who tried to escape.

Inside the Dark Cell, which was like a small cave, was a cage that was about six by eight or so feet, but only five feet tall. Prisoners were chained there and could not stand inside the cage. It was constructed of strap iron with no bedding and only a small ditch underneath for bathroom waste. Sewer roaches were rampant.

There was a hole in the ceiling about the size of my hand for ventilation and a tiny amount of light. With summer temperatures of upwards of 115 degrees, it must have been unbearable. There was basically no limit to the number of prisoners who would be put in there at one time as long as they would fit in there.


Guards were said to occasionally toss snakes and scorpions in to the cell through the small ventilation hole in the ceiling.

Most prisoners were only in the Dark Cell for a matter of a few days, however, one was there for 105 days. No one seems to know what he did to deserve this but once let out, became a “model prisoner.” I don’t think he wanted to go back in there.

During their free time prisoners hand-crafted many items which were sold at bazaars on Sunday afternoons and were open to the public. We saw examples of wood work, stone carving, horse hair braiding and one guy who knitted the most amazingly fine lace.

Prisoners had medical care and a hospital considered to be very good for the time.

There was a barber chair complete with a rat in the corner.

Schooling was also available and many prisoners learned to read and write. They also had a substantial library.

A guard tower over looks the complex.

There graves of those who died here are marked only with a pile of rocks.

In 1907, the prison was severely overcrowded and finally moved to Florence, Arizona.

Due to a fire, the Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings form 1910 to 1914.

The Yuma football team became known as the “Criminals,” when taunted by the heavily favored Phoenix team they were playing. When the Yuma team began hearing the taunts of, “Criminals!” they handily beat the Phoenix team.  They are still known by this nick name to this day…and they are very proud of the moniker.

During the Dust Bowl, there were many homeless who camped here in the deserted prison and carved their names in the cells. The cells also provided free lodging for hobos riding the trains.

Eventually as the place began to crumble from the ravages of time, the state came in and restored it and made it a State Park.

There is a museum there that has lots of interesting information about some of the prisoners and things that went on there.

This lists the breakdown of crimes of the prisoners housed there. We couldn’t help but laugh at the 27 people who were imprisoned for Adultery and the one for Seduction. Would be different numbers if it were today.

There were a few posters of some of the more memorable prisoners. This “lady” let her cheating lover know she was having none of his activities.

Pearl Hart gained notoriety because at only about five feet tall, she and her boyfriend robbed a stage coach. Not being very good at their craft, they were quickly arrested.

Pearl flirted with the jury during the trial to the degree that they convicted her boyfriend and acquitted her. The judge was so infuriated with the jury’s decision that he charged her with possession of a gun for which she was convicted.

She then used her feminine charms in prison to earn a pardon after three years. After that she then tried to become an actress but was no better at that then at robbing stage coaches and pretty much disappeared from the scene.

 

The Yuma townspeople called the prison a “Country Club” because of all the things that the prisoners had, like electricity, that they did not have.

Electricity or not, this is not a place where you would ever want to be housed as a “guest.” The electricity did not provide air conditioning or flushing bathrooms. And no matter how hot it got, the prisoners had to bathe once a week, like it or not.

My nose is twisted in a knot just thinking about it.

More Yuma adventures up next time.