STATE PENITENTIARY McAlester, Oklahoma. In January, 1909, before the penitentiary buildings were completed six hundred and forty-three men were brought to McAlester from the Kansas State penitentiary, and were held in a temporary wooden cell house, without cells or protection of any kind of walls except a guard line of armed men. The prisoners were fed and housed at a great hazard. Time and again mutiny started and it required men of strong courage to stay among them and keep down attempts of concerted breaks. It is now looked upon as a miracle that the desperate criminals were held by only a few men without a single escape. It was only by appealing to the better senses of the men and keeping them in good humor that a wholesale delivery was prevented. This Pris As soon as arrangements could be made, a temporary wire fence was thrown around the buildings and charged with electricity. fence was fourteen feet high, of barbed wire four inches apart. oners experimented with it until they found that to touch it meant death and after that time it became a secure wall. Temporary cells and plumbing followed and attention was then turned to building the new penitentiary. As soon as plans could be completed and approved, the work of construction was begun in June, 1909. The prison walls enclose a fraction less than ten acres of ground. It is of concrete piers and slabs eighteen feet above the grade line on the inside of the grounds, and twenty-four feet on the outside, and goes eight feet below the surface. The State Board of Public Affairs advertised for bids in October, 1910, for the administration building and the west cell wing. The admin istration building has a frontage of eighty feet, a depth of sixty-eight feet, and is two stories high with a basement. It is, also, built of concrete and ceiled throughout with tool proof grating. The cell wing is 240 by 58 feet, four stories high and mostly of steel. The outside window gratings are twenty-eight feet high and of tool proof steel. The windows are operated by a patent window opening device. Between the guards and prisoners' corridors, tool proof grating is used. There are four tiers of cells on each side, each tier containing forty cells or three hundred and twenty in all. The cells are of Bessemer steel three-eighths of an inch in thickness with tool proof grating doors operated by a Pauly automatic device. The cell floor carries four inches of concrete and finish above the steel plate. Each cell is equipped with two bunks, toilet, lavatory and is lighted by electricity. The contract for these two buildings was awarded for a contract price of $267,000.00. In March, 1911, the prisoners which were held at the old Federal jail in McAlester were moved to the new penitentiary. The east cell wing is now under way of construction. The state is doing this work independent of contract. This cell wing is to be an exact duplicate of the west cell wing except the dungeons and work cells are to be in the basement. The central rotunda is to be octagonal, sixty-eight feet in depth. All corridors lead to the central rotunda where all entrances will be operated by an automatic locking device from a central tower. From this central station all doors to the cell houses, administration building, dining hall, chapel and school rooms as well as those leading to the grounds will be handled by this locking device. And all the prisoners passing in and out will be registered. A temporary dining hall has been erected which seats the 1,063 prisoners now at the penitentiary. The laundry is in the rear of the temporary dining hall. A model prison hospital has also been planned and a power and storage plant where ice and electricity for the light and power service of the institution will be manufactured. It is now in course of construction. A woman's building, under separate wall, is also in course of construction. Six work shops also will be built inside of the north wall, each large enough to accommodate about one hundred men at work. A force of nearly one hundred convicts were put to work on the construction of roads around and through the farm and nearly fourteen miles of first class wagon road has been built. Pittsburg county furnished two bridges, and the roads are the best and most permanent in the state. The farm is to be the chief support of the institution. Under the Constitution, convict labor is limited practically to farm and road work. In order to make the institution self sustaining, many departments have been planned for the farm. It is gradually being stocked with poultry and livestock. Several hundred head of fine hogs are raised each year, and all the meat for the institution in course of time will be produced upon this farm. In order to properly drain and shape up the farm, it was found necessary to straighten creeks, and drains, and in places to construct entirely new ones. About two miles of this work was done, some of it very heavy, creeks being walled to a depth of ten or twelve feet, and old channels refilled. In order to insure a permanent supply of water, an artificial lake has been constructed by building a dam between two hills. This lake will drain a water shed of 600 acres, and when filled will cover about ten acres to a maximum depth of eighteen feet. It is proposed to establish a water system which will serve to irrigate a portion of the penitentiary farm, as well as furnish water for domestic purposes. The first year the farm was put in cultivation proved very successful, although the season was a bad one, and a large amount of vegetables and forage was raised. A large force of prisoners are still engaged in improving the farm, and also in excavating and grading around the penitentiary property. There have been five wagon bridges constructed along the road surrounding the farm, and several more are contemplated. This work was done entirely with prison labor. From the beginning of the penitentiary, a prison shoe shop has been operated, wherein all the shoes used by inmates of the institution are manufactured. A tailor shop is also in operation in which is manufactured all of the underwear, shirts, overalls, caps, and a large portion of the prison clothing. It is proposed to enlarge this department in order that all of the clothing used by the inmates may be made by them. A large amount of sugar cane was raised during the past year, and a cane mill was installed. This mill enabled the officers to make sufficient molasses to supply the needs of the prison. Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars has been appropriated for penitentiary building purposes, of which about $650,000 has been expended in the erection of said buildings and improvements up to the present time, and $20,000 which was appropriated for the purchase of land, has also been expended. It is estimated that the balance in the above mentioned appropriation will complete the rotunda, east cell wing, power plant, mess hall, hospital, woman's building' and stables, all of which are now in course of construction. Owing to the fact that all of the common labor used in the construction of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary was done by convicts, the estimated value of the buildings are far in excess of their actual cost. An estimated value of the land, buildings which have been erected and are now in course of erection, and improvements, follow: Value of roads and bridges around and through the peni |