Texas Prison Museum

November 19, 2002 9:26 AM

Bread and Circuses The Texas Prison Museum as an odd mix of entertainment and education. If someone gives it $100 million will the prison museum unenroll from the Kroger Share Card Program and lose the value of 1% of participants' grocery purchases? A veritable treasure trove of the absurd and frightening. What's your favorite? Mine are the pavers. We could get up a collection for one from Metafilter. Who's with me?
posted by elgoose (2 comments total)

Incarce-tainment!

The chipperness of the site is creepy:

Capital Punishment Exhibit
One of the most chilling exhibits at the Texas Prison Museum is "Old Sparky," the decommissioned electric chair in which 361 prisoners were executed between 1924 and 1964. This grisly device, made by prison workers, was rescued from a prison dump and stored in a warehouse before being donated to the museum, and is the museum's most controversial exhibit.

Prison Contraband Exhibit
This exhibit shows the craftiness and creativeness of inmates who manufacture weapons from materials found within the prison units.

Jeez...
posted by gottabefunky at 1:31 PM on November 19, 2002

Prison museums, for some reason, are popular attractions all over the place, a regular sub-section of the historic travel category. You can find an interesting prison page here. Individual prisons with either museums or tours include Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, Ohio's Mansfield Reformatory (used to film The Shawshank Redemption, although the Maine prison that inspired Stephen King's story was recently torn down), the Wyoming Frontier Prison, and the West Virginia Penitentiary. Don't forget the Rock. And if you want to spend a night in jail, this establishment can help. Seems like a lot of people like to get into places that other people would have liked to leave.
posted by Man-Thing at 1:44 PM on November 19, 2002