Correction History resources found on-line across U.S.A. by New York Correction History Society webmaster.
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A state-by-state national survey of correction history web pages.


*** *** *** Alabama *** *** ***

Alabama Department of Corrections' web site history page provides extensive and detailed background from the official DOC Employee Handbook. Here is just a small excerpt sample from that interesting and informative chroncile:

"Credited by some historians as being the Father of Alabama Corrections, Governor John Gayle repeatedly tried during 1831 through 1834 to introduce legislation that would create a more civilized criminal code that included a state penitentiary system.

Fearful of state government encroachment, the "home rule counties preferred their brand of justice," and resisted the state’s efforts to develop a penitentiary system until January 26, 1839. Then, under Governor Arthur P. Bagby, the State Legislature enacted a criminal code that authorized a state penitentiary system.

"By August 21, 1839, after seeking a location that was central to Alabama, property for a prison was purchased adjacent to the Coosa River near Wetumpka. In October of that year, Governor Bagby laid the cornerstone of the Wetumpka State Penitentiary and by 1841 the 208 cell prison surrounded by walls twenty-five feet high was completed at a cost of $84,889. . . .The first inmate entered the Wetumpka State Penitentiary (WSP) in 1842 with a twenty year sentence for harboring a runaway slave. WSP was called 'The Walls of Alabama' or [just] the 'Walls' . . . ."

For more, visit the Alabama Department of Corrections' web site history page

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Pauly Jail Building Company of Indianapolis, Ind. and South Pasadena, Fla. is reputed to be the oldest professional builder of correctional facilities in the U.S. Its web site includes pages telling the 150-year history of the company, with 19th century catalog illustrations (its cover shown above).
Alabama's oldest surviving jail, the Pauly Jail Museum in Union Springs, Bullock County, contains a gallows and trap door still visible on the third floor. Here is just a few sample passages from the interesting information about the jail to be found among the web pages hosted by the community's tourism council.

". . . a three-story red brick structure, the Victorian Gothic style building is almost square in plan and looks like a small donjon or brooding house. . . .

Pauly Jail image above from Union Springs/Bullock County tourism council.
"The castle-like facade features small projecting square brick turrets with witch’s hats (spiked metal caps) at the corners. The building has a metal hipped roof. . . .

"On the third level, a trap door is set in the floor. The door, which could be opened by pushing a lever, was used for hanging condemned prisoners in the early 1900s. Today the jail serves as a museum. . . A restoration of the jail was recently completed. . . The jail is open for tours by appointment. . . . The only wooden materials in the structure are found in the windows and the attic vent above the door. . . .

"The Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company was founded in 1856 by Mr. P. J. Pauly, a German-American born in 1832. . . . The company was the first to succeed after discovering the advantages of steel jail construction. . . . Within the concrete and brick walls of the jail, small cells are constructed of metal lattice and other areas are enclosed by common jail bars. All exterior windows have metal bars. A catwalk surrounds the cell area of the third floor. Although the jail was a securely built structure, inmates still managed to escape. . . ."

*** *** *** Alaska *** *** ***

The web site of the Alaska Department of Corrections -- which by the way includes Parole and Probation -- does not appear to feature a separate page on its own history as an agency but three of its institutions feature historical background material among their pages: Spring Creek, Wildwood and Lemon Creek. The last named institution's history page includes old jail photos. Here are just few excerpt samples from it:

(Above) 1897 Juneau Jail.
(Below) 1903 Juneau Jail.

". . . on the permanent site of the attractive State Office Building, once stood the State Jail facility. Originally built in 1893, the Juneau Jail Facility was destroyed by fire in 1897. It was reconstructed on the same site in 1903 and contained basically the same type of offenders as the original jail, and was considered very modern by 1904 standards. . .

"In 1967 the State Legislature appropriated $2,200,000 to construct a new jail facility for Southeast Alaska . . . .

"The Lemon Creek Valley location for the new Juneau institution was selected from available land and consists of 117 acres.

"The Federal Bureau of Prisons provided Correctional services for Alaska prior to statehood. On January 3, 1959, Alaska assumed correctional jurisdiction. The Alaska Constitution stipulates that the Department of Corrections must protect the public and provide for reformation of the Offender."

For more, visit the History of Lemon Creek Correctional Center

*** *** ***

Since 1961 the McCabe College building (left), constructed in 1899 of native granite as Alaska’s first institution of higher education, has served as Skagway City Hall, Museum and Archives. In prior eras, it also served as a school, court house, jail, and marshal’s office for Skagway, Alaska's first incorporated city.

According to The Skagway News, the Methodist college-preparatory school was sold to the federal government in 1901 when legislation provided public schools for Alaska. It served as the U.S. Court House. The U.S. Marshal’s office, the U.S. Commissioner’s office, and the jail occupied the first floor. District Court was held on the second floor in the former chapel.

*** *** ***

The Kotzebue Police Dept. web site includes links to on-site images and story of the "old" jail's demolition in May 2000 and a virtual tour of the "new" 1995 jail (right).

Built in the late 1970s, the "old" jail building continued in limited use a few years after the new Kotzebue Regional Jail opened but had been vacant since the fall of 1999. The jail had been on the first floor of the old structure.

*** *** ***

The University of Alaska Anchorage's "Justice Center web site is an excellent resource on criminal justice subjects generally, not only on Alaskan aspects.

Among its many interesting features is a section devoted to capital punishment issues. It includes the carefully researched A History of the Death Penalty in Alaska by Melissa S. Green. Here are a few sample excerpts:

"Alaska as a state has never had a death penalty. However, in Alaska's territorial days, eight men were executed under civil authority between 1900 and 1957. Because these executions were conducted by federal officials, the condemned men are generally classified in historical statistics as federal, rather than Alaska, prisoners. . . .

"Other persons in Alaska were executed extrajudicially in the late 19th century under so-called 'miner's laws.' . . . . Alaska became a U.S. territory in 1867 as the result of the Treaty of Cession, in which the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia, which had formerly claimed it. . . .
The UAA's Justice Center web site includes a thoughtful essay by Averil Lerman on The Trial and Hanging of Nelson Charles, first man hanged in Juneau under the auspices of the Territorial Court. He had been convicted of killing his mother-in-law. Above is an image of the federal jail where the execution took place in 1939.

"The Organic Act of 1884 authorized the appointment of Alaska's first territorial governor, established a territorial court in Sitka, and provided for a U.S. marshal, U.S. attorney, and four unpaid, roving court commissioners headquartered at Juneau, Wrangell, and Unalaska. . . .

"The Organic Act of 1884 also extended federal mining law to Alaska, thereby providing for the organization of mining districts and the election of local recording officers. Absent other government institutions in many areas of Alaska, miner's institutions were often the only form of government in some places, and paved the way for unofficial, ad-hoc miner's courts to administer justice on an as-needed basis.

"K.S. Kynell (1991) writes, 'Miners were not vigilantes. They organized into prosecuting bodies only within their own camps, and usually discriminated between such concepts as motive and result. Based on rough analogies to the common law, the miners's code limited its punishments to three: hanging for murder, banishment for assault and stealing, and a fine for all other offenses' . . ."

For more, visit the A History of the Death Penalty in Alaska
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The above excerpted texts and images from -- and links to -- Correction History resources were found on-line in a state-by-state web survey across the U.S. A. by the New York Correction History Society (NYCHS) webmaster. While undertaken as an independent research project, the survey and this site are in keeping with NYCHS general goals promoting interest in and access to the histories of correction agencies, both governmental and non-governmental. The NYCHS name & logo are provided for identification purposes.