YUMA TERRITORIAL PRISON

Remember the movie “3:10 to Yuma?”  Well, it’s all true and the prison at the end of the ride is an amazing yet desolate place.  We took a guided tour of the prison on Thursday and it was well worth the time spent.  The paragraphs in Italics are from their brochure:

On July 6, 1876, the first seven inmates entered the Territorial Prison at Yuma and were locked into the new cells that they had built themselves.  A total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, lived within the walls during the prison’s 33 years of operation.  Severe overcrowding forced it’s closure on September 15, 1909.

Due to the arid climate in Yuma, the prison was constructed of adobe bricks and the prisoners’ cells were open to the outside air.  This helped to keep them cooler in the summer and probably comfortable enough during the winter months.  However, can you imagine six prisoners living in one cell like this?

The cells were fitted with flat iron riveted gates that the prisoners themselves had to build.  There was no free ride for anyone of them.  They had to work 8 to 10 hours a day constructing and expanding the prison, cooking meals, making footwear and other goods that were required to support their existence.

They did have some free time each day and any prisoner who could not read or write was offered instruction in those skills for English, Spanish or German.  A large library was set up to supply reading material and it was so extensive that the citizens of Yuma were allowed to borrow books from the prison library.

Many of the inmates were there because of the terrible crimes they committed—murder, robbery, adultery and one old guy (77 years) was imprisoned for selling alcohol to an Indian.  No messing around in those days.

There was no personal cruelty administered to unruly citizens.  However, their punishment was being put in “The Dark Cell” alone or sometimes in groups for as many days as their misbehaviour warranted.  The Dark Cell was 15 foot by 15 foot room with an iron cage in the middle of the room that measured 8 ft wide by 10 ft long and 5 ft high.  There was an air hole through the ceiling but no other light.  The prisoners were kept in the cage with no bathroom facilities and were fed bread and water once a day.  The Dark Cell was not cleaned for weeks or months.  The longest stay in the Dark Cell was 104 days and some of the prisoners were sent to an insane asylum after their time was complete.

When the first woman was sent to the prison, they were not prepared to handle her presence so they housed her in the infirmary for a short term.  They couldn’t decide what to do for the long term so the political powers of the day decided to pardon her rather than deal with the issue.  Later on, cells were built for the female prisoners.

From 1910 to 1914, the Yuma Union High School occupied the prison buildings.  When the school’s football team upset a heavily-favoured Phoenix team, the Phoenix crowd taunted the Yuma team as “criminals.”  The school thereafter adopted that name with pride and as still known as the “Criminals” or “Crims.”

During the Great Depression, the prison structures fell into great disrepair, but the Yuma community fought to preserve the prison as a city museum and then a state historic park.  In 2010, Yuma “Chain Gangs” (locale merchants and citizens) raised the funds to once again save the park.  A wonderful heritage for the city of Yuma.

http://westernamericana2.blogspot.com/2010/06/yuma-territorial-prison-1875-1909-by.html