Idaho State Penitentiary

Friday we took a trip down to Boise. We went in Fred's truck and the drive was much better without the trailer.
We are going Pendlelton, OR back through Boise when we leave tomorrow.
We specifically went down to see the Old State Penitentiary. It was closed after the last riot in 1973. The state was building a new facility and the riot was the driving force in moving the inmates.We had a guide that led us on the tour for over 2 hours. It was very enlightening.
We toured most of the buildings, that were left as they were, when the last of the inmates were removed to the new facility.
The prison is a fairly large complex with many different buildings. The original Buildings were built in 1874 as a territorial prison. There were only 2 buildings that held inmates with a wooden outer wall. When Idaho became a state in 1890, the prison became a state facility and construction was begun on the outer walls, which are stone.
The inmates built most of the buildings and the walls. There is a stone quarry on the property and all of the stones were taken from that quarry and cut and laid for all of the structures there.
The buildings facilities improved as new ones were built. Some of the older buildings still do not have toilet facilities. The inmates were given a bucket of water to use as their toilet and the inmate took his bucket out and emptied it daily, if he was not in some sort of punishment cell for breaking the rules.
The Women's prison was built in 1920 in a separate area of the complex. It could house up to 12 prisoners with an open area in the middle for meals, etc. The need to build this facility was due to the fact that there were more women coming to the facility and the need to keep them separated from the men became harder to do.After seeing this place I can understand why there were so many riots throughout the years.
This kind of facility could not exist in today's litigious society.This is the wardens office. All inmates received in the prison facilities were taken through this office for interview and photographs.
The warden knew every inmate in his prison.

When we got to the maximum security facility, any and all who wanted to experience being locked up could go into one of the cells and the door locked behind them.
Since I had worked in the jail for Harris County Sheriffs Office, I declined going into the cell. I had been in many cells at one time or another while working there.The kids seemed to enjoy the tour and the guide was especially attentive to the small ones.

Yesterday, we took the 12 foot jon boat over to Cascade Lake. It is a large lake that acts as a reservoir for the area. Fred was not comfortable taking the boat into the river as it is very swift. The small engine probably couldn't have taken us back up the river.
It was quite windy and the lake was choppy.
Fred and I took out to the lake but had no luck at catching fish. The fish finder saw many large fish, but they didn't like what we were offering them. We didn't get one hit.
We moved to a different, more protected area of the lake. Fred and Becky went out while I watched Lindsay and Kaetlyn.
They wanted to swim and play in the water. It was so cold and windy, I don't know how they did that. I was in jeans and a long sleeve shirt and I was chilled.
Becky and Fred came in with one 10" Rainbow trout and said that they stayed out longer than they had intended trying to catch another fish.

We leave Mark, Jennifer and family tomorrow. They are headed to Coure d' Alene to meet her folks then they will meet us in Vantage, Wa and caravan into the Seattle area with us.

Ta ta for now