Penitentiary stripes, days in "the hole," contraband knives, murder, sex, suicide, and the daily reality of "diabolical, penal servitude"--prisons of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were dangerous, sometimes deadly, stone fortresses bent on exacting punishment and penance from their inmates.
When it was founded, the old State Prison at Stillwater, Minnesota--the facility where "incorrigibles" were sent to do "hard time"--was no...