A Look at the Illinois State Penitentiary of the 1870’s:

What Does the Nation’s Largest Prison Reveal About Society?

Fellowship Lesson 2006

Don Barbour

Illinois State Archives

To download this entire unit in PDF format, click here.

Abstract: This set of lessons will examine the social history of Illinois in particular and America in general during the 1870’s by looking a primary sources associated with the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet, which was the nation’s largest prison at that time. Resources in this unit include government reports and statistics, warden’s records, and period photographs. Students will understand American society during the end of Reconstruction, particularly in the North before the Great Migration.

Assessment: Students will create a series of short essays describing the nature of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet, drawing inferences and conclusions from a variety of primary sources created in the years 1869 through 1874.

Essential Questions:

• What can you tell about life in the 1870’s by looking at the Illinois State Penitentiary during that time?
• Who was incarcerated during the 1870’s and why were they in prison?
• What was prison life like in Illinois in the 1870’s?

Setting the Purpose: Prisons are interesting places to think about for students.

Considering that schools occasionally inhibit freedoms, restrict personal expression, and seem like foreboding institutions at times, they can relate to the prison experience. Students all have some impression of what modern prisons entail: small cells, armed guards, and threats of violence, but what did prison look like 120 years ago?

Lesson 1

The first lesson involves a discussion of the nature of penal institutions themselves, and concludes with an essay challenging students to debate the purpose of prisons.

Lesson 2 (may take several days)

Students will examine photographs of the Illinois State Penitentiary, drawing conclusions about the nature of the institution based on its architecture. They sum up their impressions of the buildings in an essay at the end of the lesson.

Lesson 3

The next phase of this unit deals with the people in the Illinois State Penitentiary and the jobs they worked. They will then draw conclusions about the types of crimes committed by unskilled workers.

Lesson 4

This final segment of the lesson deals with how prisoners were treated in the early 1870’s. There is clearly a desire on behalf of the state to create a self-sustaining prison system that would not draw upon public resources and financially burden the state. Work was not seen as redemptive as much as it was sound fiscal policy. Students examine photos and documents to draw conclusions.

Final essay question: Consider all the evidence throughout the lessons, and describe to what extent the Illinois State Penitentiary sought to reform and to what extent it sought to punish felons. What conclusion can you then draw about the society that created this institution?