The Missouri State Penitentiary: 170 Years inside "The Walls"

The End of an Era

98 The End of an Era KAI250 standing down. 168 years of tradition has ended—a new tradition begins. —Captain John Motel, quoted by Mark Schreiber , interview by author As far back as the 1954 riot,officials knew that the old prison needed to be replaced, but problems of funding and increasing offender populations caused officials to focus on creating more prisons rather than replacing the existing penitentiary facility. It was not until 1998 that Missouri officials began to plan the closing of the Missouri State Penitentiary. In the 1980s and 1990s, the number of prisons in Missouri exploded . By this time, officials had strict guidelines for how many prisoners could be kept in each facility. When that was combined with the rising number of offenders, the result was an almost constant stream of groundbreakings. In the late 1990s, more than one new prison opened in Missouri every year. Still, the Department of Corrections had difficulty finding places for all the prisoners. Prisoners were kept in tents at some facilities; some prisoners were sent to other states. At least one inmate at the penitentiary thought these attempts were misguided. As with most The End of an Era 99 inmates, freedom was foremost on his mind, and he wrote to the Department of Corrections newsletter Horizon, suggesting that prisoners be released rather than kept in tents. Not surprisingly, officials did not embrace his suggestion. In September 2001, the Department of Corrections broke ground on the new Jefferson City Correctional Center. The facility was state of the art. The physical design of the cellblocks improved visibility so that fewer correctional officers could supervise more inmates. It was estimated that the facility would require sixty fewer employees than the penitentiary, saving Missouri taxpayers $1.5 million a year. The decision was a tough one. Many felt the historic importance of the old facility justified the cost. But subsequent events proved that the time had come to abandon the use of the penitentiary. At the turn of the twenty-first century, a reporter from the Jefferson City News Tribune described the penitentiary as “a city within a city.” Seventy officers were on duty during every shift to supervise more than 1,900 of Missouri’s most dangerous offenders. The walls of cells were covered with almost 200 years’ worth of graffiti; the artwork of men longing for freedom contained portraits, cars, names, and even calendars. The prison yard was surrounded by twenty-five buildings that had been continually modified over the course of the prison’s history. Underneath the prison, there was“a maze of electrical , plumbing and ventilation systems.” This design—or lack thereof —left numerous nooks and crannies where inmates could hide and plan nefarious activities ranging from murder to escape. Continuous maintenance was required to keep the prison operating , and by 2002, even that was not enough. On May 19, 2002, a portion of the wall collapsed. Two fences equipped with razor wire and motion detectors were quickly built to bridge the gap, and officials obtained a replacement guard tower from another Missouri correctional center. The cause of the collapse was determined to be age. Although no one was injured and no one escaped, the wall collapse helped solidify commitment to the building of a new prison. Another problem with the old facility was the difficulty it created for supervising inmates. Jefferson City residents learned this in a visceral way in October 2002. 100 The Missouri State Penitentiary On Wednesday, October 22, 2002, Chris Sims, Shannon Phillips, and Toby Viles reported for work at the prison ice house at approximately three in the afternoon. The men, all convicted of murder, had worked peacefully together in the past and were allowed to work together unsupervised, with only periodic checks by the guards. They were scheduled to work until 9:00 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., Sims reported for dinner as usual. Prisoners often skipped meals, so the guards were not alarmed when neither Phillips nor Viles appeared. At about 6 p.m., the guards called down to check on the inmates and spoke with Viles. Nothing more was heard from the inmates for several hours. About a half an hour after the inmates’ shift was supposed to have ended, the guard on duty called the ice house to tell the inmates to This aerial view of the penitentiary was taken during the 1980s. Across the bottom of the...