Rotary jail

Updated on Dec 14, 2023

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A Rotary jail was an architectural design for some prisons in the US Midwest during the late 19th century. Cells in the jails were arranged so that they rotated in a carousel fashion; allowing only one cell at a time to be accessible from the single opening per level.

Rotary jail Rotary jails of Indiana Missouri and Iowa

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Design and patent

Rotary jail PrisonGoRound Rotary Jails Spin on Axis to Let Inmates Enter and

The rotary jail was initially designed by architect William H. Brown, and built by the Haugh, Ketcham & Co. iron foundry in the Indianapolis, Indiana neighborhood of Haughville.

The application for United States Patent No. 244,358, on July 12, 1881 has this description:

The object of our inventions is to produce a jail in which prisoners can be controlled without the necessity of personal contact between them and the jailer or guard... it consists, first, of a circular cell structure of considerable size (inside the usual prison building) divided into several cells capable of being rotated, surrounded by a grating in close proximity thereto, which has only such number of openings (usually one) as is necessary for the convenient handling of prisoners.

Features

Rotary jail Rotary Jails Futility Closet

The pie-shaped cells rotated around a core having a sanitary plumbing system, which was considered an unusual luxury at that time. The cell block could be rotated by a single man hand-rotating a crank. It was connected to gears beneath the structure which rotated the entire cell block. The structure was supported by a ball bearing surface to allow for smooth rotation.

Condemned

The jails encountered problems almost immediately with inmates' limbs being crushed or interfering with the cellblock's rotation. Most of the jails had to be welded in a fixed position and refitted with individual cell accesses. All of them, except for one, were condemned by June 22, 1939. The Pottawattamie County Jail in Council Bluffs, IA remained in use until 1969.