I'm not sure if I have ever reviewed a jail or a prison before, having never been inside one. I did not do the Alcatraz tour when I was last in San Francisco and I did walk past the Reading Gaol (Reading, UK which once housed Oscar Wilde). Does "Jailbreak Brewing Company" in Laurel MD count?
From the National Register, where the Jail was listed in 1971, "The 1823 Lancaster County Jail is a significant example of Robert Mills architecture and reflects his innovative ideas on the proper construction of penal institutions. The jail is a stuccoed brick building of three stories with Palladian style stone quions and stringcourses. It features a gable roof, iron grates, first floor windows and doors within recessed arches, and gable parapets with coping and a raised center section. Although Mills never signed his buildings and often failed to sign his plans, a number of building characteristics and facts substantiate the 1823 jail is his design. Some characteristics of Mills' work are the following: Mills advocated free circulation of air in jail construction, and this was achieved in the Lancaster County Jail by placing barred cages for prisoners in the middle of the room; the absence of a dungeon reflects a Mills innovation in penal reform; classifying prisoners according to their crime was a Mills recommendation, and this was achieved in the Lancaster County Jail by placing prison rooms for debtors on the first floor and other cells were on the second floor; Mills was a member of the Board of Public Works for the State of South Carolina from 1820-1830, and he was referred to in public documents of that period as the 'State Engineer and Architect.'"
The nearby Lancaster County Courthouse https://www.yelp.com/biz/lancaster-county-courthouse-lancaster is also worth a visit as it was also designed by Mills who is most famous as the architect of the Washington Monument.
[Review 13095 overall, 412 of 2020.] read more