What has a fearsome reputation and 350 days of sunshine? The Yuma Territorial Prison. Construction for the prison was authorized in 1875 and did not open until April 1876 with the first convict, William Hall (Gates). It held some of the most notorious desperados of the old southwest. The Yuma Territorial Prison operated between 1875 and 1909, holding over 3000 men and 29 women behind bars. The prison only operated for 33 years, when it started to overcrowd, all inmates were moved to a new location in Florence, Arizona, 60 miles southeast of Phoenix. The Yuma Territorial Prison is significant to the Southwest region of the United States because of where it was located, how it was designed and how it impacted the growth of Yuma, Arizona. a a …show more content…
There are multiple reasons as to why the Yuma Territorial Prison is located in Yuma: the Gila River is to the east, the Colorado River is to the north, Yuma to the west, and the arid desert to the south harsh and quick sand in all directions helped to prevent prisoners to escape. Originally, the Fifth Territorial Legislature met and proposed a bill calling for a prison to be located in Phoenix in 1868, But the reason as to why it was built in Yuma is because two legislators, Jose Maria Redondo and R.B. Kelly, thought it would help boost Yuma’s economy (Murphy). The scorching hot temperatures Yuma reached made the Yuma Territorial Prison more of a “hell-hole,” as most prisoners would describe it. Although the motive was simple, its influence was noteworthy. a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a …show more content…
Even though by modern standards it was thought to be inhumane, the people of Yuma called it the “the Country Club on the Colorado,” and even thought that the prisoners ‘had it easy,’(Booth). Most prisons would treat the convicts like animals. Criminals and other prisons lasted through/tolerated severe injury, branding, torture, or even put to death. But the land based prison, however was peculiar. Solitary confinement was a very common punishment. The Dark Cell or the “Snake Den” was the most serious of punishments, where prisoners were locked in a 15 by 15 foot room with little to no light and were only fed water and bread once a day (Murphy). The prison had a library, a school, a hospital, toilets that could flush, a sewer system, electricity, and forced air ventilation system, the rest of the town did not have any of these privileges. The library and the school was used to educate the prisoners and teach them how to read and write. The hospital was for prisoners who got injured or were sick, which was common because tuberculosis, an infectious bacterial disease characterized by the growth of nodules in the tissues, was the number one killer at the