old joliet prison tour

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Old Joliet Prison Tours

1125 N. Collins Street, Joliet, IL 60432

State Parks & National Forest

The castle-like Prison was built with Joliet limestone, with over 20 buildings inside its four walls. Take the hour-long tour on specific days of the week, and learn more about Joliet Correctional Center ... which is more known as Old Joliet Prison.

The Old Joliet Prison was built in the 1850's, housing infamous criminals like Leopold, Loeb and Gacy. The prison also housed some famous characters, including Joliet Jake Blues (The Blues Brothers) and Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrons (Prison Break).

Pre-scheduled, guided tours are offered via the Joliet Area Historical Museum for select areas of the Prison “campus” from the months of April – October. Walking tours last approximately 90 minutes. Visitors should please note that because the site has been abandoned for over fifteen years, certain areas of the facility are off limits to the general public.

At the current time, tours are not ADA approved. 70% of the tour is accessible for all patrons.

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Health | Old Joliet Prison Historic Site reopens for…

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Health | Old Joliet Prison Historic Site reopens for public tours

Guests can take walking tours — either self-guided or arranged — from March to October at Old Joliet Prison Historic Site.

“Coming to Old Joliet Prison, you’re in for a true experience,” said Elizabeth Covelli, prison tour coordinator for Joliet Area Historical Museum, which manages the Old Joliet Prison tour program in partnership with the city of Joliet.

“You’re going to see an amazing amount of overall architecture and you’re going to hear so many different stories, not just history about the inmates but you’re also going to hear history about guards who used to work there and administrators who used to live on the property.

“We’re looking to make sure we’re telling all of those stories together.”

Old Joliet Prison has been a filming location for movies including “The Blues Brothers” starring the late John Belushi as former fictional inmate “Joliet” Jake Blues, “Weeds,” “Natural Born Killers,” “Stir of Echoes,” “Derailed” (2005), “Let’s Go To Prison” and “Public Enemies” (2009).

TV shows that have filmed there include “Prison Break,” which featured the Joliet site as Fox River State Penitentiary, and “Empire.”

“You see so many productions interested in the property because of its unique castle-like structure. You can pull interesting things about the building without just being focused on the prison,” said Covelli of Romeoville.

Designed by William W. Boyington and featuring Joliet limestone, Old Joliet Prison opened as Illinois State Penitentiary in 1858 and housed inmates until 2002 when Joliet Correctional Center closed.

The city of Joliet took control of the property in December 2017 and reopened the site for public tours in August 2018.

“It covers 160 years’ worth of history. The history didn’t stop when the prison closed. It very much continues throughout today,” said Covelli, who began working with Joliet Area Historical Museum more than a decade ago while she was a senior at Lockport Township High School.

“You have a massive amount of people who came through and so many stories to tell. After one visit you’ll want to come back. You’ll want to find out more.”

Safety precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic include limiting the number of people on site and everyone being required to wear a mask or face covering.

The self-guided prison tour, which began in June 2020 amid measures to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, is $20 for general public, $15 for museum members or Joliet residents, $10 for ages 3-12 and free for ages younger than 3 who must be registered to be admitted.

“You can spend your time roaming the property within the areas that are open. You’re not going inside buildings but you can still look into buildings and see inside through windows or grates,” said Covelli about the tour along a designed path with informational signs.

“The self-guided tour has been great for people who are coming out during the day and interested in taking their time or even people just interested in photographing the property.”

New for 2021 is the Ghost Hunt 101 tour ($50) for ages 15 and older.

“Ghost Hunt 101 is more focused on those people interested in the paranormal aspect of the prison. We’ll have equipment that they can work with and actually use,” said Covelli about the tour, which takes place at night and is led by Rob Johnson.

“He’s a volunteer of the prison. He’s been passionate about the prison project for a long time. He actually works on our Saturday cleanup squad. He has been a paranormal expert in the field for a long time and offered to be a part of this as well to help people learn more about the property.”

Old Joliet Prison offerings include the historical tour ($30 general public, $25 museum member) for ages 10 and older, the popular haunted history tour ($40) for ages 16 and older and the guard tour ($40), which is led by docents who worked at the prison, for ages 16 and older.

The site also offers the photography tour ($50) for ages 10 and older to take pictures during morning light in the prison yard and predesignated buildings and the paranormal investigation tour ($75) for ages 18 and older who may bring equipment to use in the buildings.

Old Joliet Prison Historic Site tours

When: March-October

Where: Old Joliet Prison Historic Site, 1125 N. Collins St., Joliet; tours depart from west parking lot off Hills Avenue

Tickets: $20-$75 at jolietmuseum.org (click on Schedule a Tour under Prison) or 312-978-1282

Information: 815-723-5201; jolietprison.org

Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

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Old joliet prison tours are back, new format revealed, this also marks the 40th anniversary since the world-famous movie "blues brothers" was filmed at joliet's 1858-era limestone fortress..

John Ferak , Patch Staff

JOLIET, IL — If you thought the new coronavirus health crisis would force the Joliet Area Historical Museum to cancel its highly anticipated tourism season at the world-famous Old Joliet Prison, think again. On Tuesday, museum director Greg Peerbolte notified Joliet Patch that self-guided prison tours will begin at 9 a.m. June 1.

For the first time since the long-abandoned prison grounds were reopened in 2018, the tours will take place seven days a week. Peerbolte said the tours will be done in accordance with Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Restore Illinois program.

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With stay-at-home orders giving Americans a new perspective on confinement, "it is an opportune time to consider the experience of prisoners confined at the Old Joliet Prison since 1858," Peerbolte stated in his news release.

Visitors will be allowed inside the limestone walls to explore the Old Joliet Prison's 16-acre grounds, and "while tours will be limited to outdoor areas only, there will be plenty to see," he said.

Through a grant funded from the Illinois Office of Tourism, the Joliet museum will debut nearly two dozen interpretive signs with several historical photos of the prison, Peerbolte said.

(Article continues below Joliet Patch photo.)

Additionally, the museum is offering virtual 3D tours of selected building interiors courtesy of Dietrich Zeigler/Elements of Media. Guests to the Old Joliet Prison will be able to use QR codes placed throughout the prison yard's tour route by using their smartphones.

Peerbolte said the prison tours will initially be limited to nine guests per group and that all staff and guests will be expected to follow social distancing guidelines.

Admission for the Old Joliet Prison will be $20 per adult. There are discounts and price reductions for museum members as well as children and Joliet residents. All proceeds from the prison tours go toward the Joliet Area Historical Museum's ongoing building restoration efforts at the Old Joliet Prison grounds.

"The reality of the financial impact of COVID-19 is that many cultural arts institutions and nonprofits like our museum have been doubly impacted," Peerbolte said. "We've faced not only the loss of revenue from closing our doors, but cuts in operational support from government entities who struggle with the financial impact of the pandemic alongside us.

"As an organization, we have challenged ourselves to rethink activities to generate vital revenue and adhere to public health guidelines which keep our guests safe, while at the same time maintaining our intellectual credibility and providing a memorable experience."

Tickets: To assist with public health mandates, all tickets are available only by reservation with prepayment, at the museum's website here.

Want to go to the Old Joliet Prison?

Old Joliet Prison, 1125 N. Collins St., tours enter at Western Gate via Hills Avenue, north side of the prison.

Prison, Self-Guided Tours : $20 per adult; museum members and Joliet residents, $15 per adult, $10 per child, ages 3-12, children under 3 free, reservation required. Strict limit of 10 individuals per appointment window (each quarter hour), tours begins at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Tour duration will be limited to approximately 90 minutes to assist with public health guidelines.

Guided History Tours (led by certified museum guide): $30 per person (no discounts) Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Groups limited to nine participants.

Guard Tours (led by former prison employees): $40 per person (no discounts), alternating Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m. Groups limited to eight.

Haunted History Tours (True stories of some of the prison’s most notorious residents): $35 (no discounts), every Friday night, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Groups limited to eight.

Photography Tours (Amateur or professional photographers, bring tripods and wander the grounds): $50 per person, alternating Sundays, three-hour time window, no models.

Getting In : All guests will be required to sign an online waiver before entering the prison grounds. Guests will enter the site via contactless check-in at the prison’s West Gate.

Related Joliet Patch Coverage:

Illinois Coronavirus Update May 19: 4,379 Deaths Joliet Dine-In Restaurants May Reopen Under City's Plan Joliet's 89 Deaths Mostly At Nursing Homes: Mayor

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Historical Tours Resume At Old Joliet Prison

Famed site along route 66 opens for 2023 season.

Old Joliet Prison.

Guided and self-guided tours are back at the Old Joliet Prison. The legendary penitentiary turned historical site, managed by the Joliet Area Historical Museum in partnership with the city of Joliet, has kicked off the 2023 season with a variety of tours suitable for various interests and age groups.

The Old Joliet Prison is without a doubt one of the most widely photographed sites along The First Hundred Miles, and for good reason. The palatial former penitentiary has been featured in dozens of popular films and television shows, including the classic movie comedy “The Blues Brothers” and the first season of Fox’s “Prison Break.” Prior to its closing in 2002, the towering neoclassical compound housed its share of notorious inmates as well, including Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy, James Earl Ray and Baby Face Nelson.

Originally constructed in 1858, the gigantic limestone prison remained in operation for nearly a century and a half. After its closure, operation of the vacant facility was taken over by the Joliet Area Historical Museum, which now offers guided, self-guided and specialty themed tours throughout the year. Tours currently booking include:

(Shaw Media)

Prison After Dark Tours

General public: $40, museum member: $35

A 90-minute walking tour explores the darker side of the prison. The historical tour will cover some of the more macabre stories as you walk through the site at dusk. The tour takes you into the East and West Cell Houses, North Segregation, Cafeteria, Chapel and the Honor Dorm.

Disclaimer: This tour does not involve ghost hunting or paranormal activity, and is not recommended for small children.

Guard Tours

A 90-minute walking tour is led by two docents who worked at the prison while it was still in operation until its closing in 2002. You will hear about daily life at the prison during their time there, gaining a more personal take on the site’s history. The tour takes you into the East and West Cell Houses, North Segregation, Cafeteria, Chapel and Honor Dorm.

Disclaimer: Adult themes and language are used.

General History Tour

General public: $30, museum member: $25

A 90-minute walking tour of the Old Joliet Prison is led by docents and trained tour guides from the Joliet Area Historical Museum. The tour talks about the general history of the site from when it first opened in 1858 until its closure in 2002. The historic tour is a great introduction to the prison and its history. The tour takes you into the East and West Cell Houses, North Segregation, Cafeteria, Chapel and the Honor Dorm.

Self-Guided Tours

General public: $20, children (ages 3-12): $10; free to children younger than 3 and museum members

Walk the site at your own pace. Informational signs are stationed throughout the grounds providing historical information and photos. The North Segregation Building, Cafeteria and East Cell House are open to walk through. Are you a photographer looking to take photos up close of this famed historic site? For a $10 photography tripod fee, you bring your equipment along on your self-guided tour.

For more information and to reserve your tour, visit JolietPrison.org/About-Our-Tours .

Follow the Old Joliet Prison and Joliet Area Historical Museum on Facebook.

https://www.thefirsthundredmiles.com/2023/03/10/historical-tours-resume-at-old-joliet-prison/

clock This article was published more than  5 years ago

Outside Chicago, historic Old Joliet Prison is open for tours — at least for now

At the start of “The Blues Brothers,” the 1980 comedy classic, “Joliet Jake” Blues walks out the front gate of Joliet Correctional Center, a looming, limestone fortress built in 1858. Now, for the first time since the facility closed in 2002, tourists can walk in through that gate. The Old Joliet Prison, as it’s known locally, is offering public tours.

But the prison outside Chicago is not the Alcatraz of the Midwest. It hasn’t been spruced up with exhibits and an audio tour. There is no heat or jail-cell restoration. Instead it is a tourist experience in “ruin porn” — the trendy photography genre that showcases abandoned and decaying buildings. And the Joliet Area Historical Museum hopes visitors will pay $20 each to walk through and listen to tales from local historians and former prison guards.

“It literally looks like someone just got up and walked away” from the prison, said Greg Peerbolte, executive director of the museum, which is coordinating the tours. “The forbidden-ness is definitely an asset. There’s a voyeuristic aspect.”

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Indeed, a pair of shorts lie on the floor of a cell, left there by a former prisoner — or an actor in one of the shows that filmed in the prison after it closed. Peeling paint drapes down from the ceiling. In the former hospital — built in 1895, one of the oldest buildings on the yard — grime and graffiti tags cover exam-room walls.

The 90-minute walking tour starts at the gate where Jake (John Belushi) walks out of the prison and across the street to meet his brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd), who is waiting to pick him up.

The prison walls, more than 20 feet high, back right up to the streets surrounding them, and the gate opens onto the roadway. I couldn’t help but crane my neck at the tall limestone barriers as I went in.

“The prisoners built this around themselves,” Peerbolte said from the center of the 16-acre yard, motioning to the walls that surrounded us. Prisoners mined the rock from a nearby quarry, carried it here and walled themselves in.

Inside the fortress, the scenery still looks much like it did in a Season 1 episode of “Prison Break,” the Fox television series that was filmed here.

Peerbolte credits the series, and the John Landis film, with driving much of the tourism the prison is experiencing — especially from international visitors. The museum already has booked a 200-ticket block this summer with a tour operator based in China, where “Prison Break” is very popular.

A man visiting from Italy spoke no English, Peerbolte said, except to ask where John Belushi’s cell was. When he found it, he broke down in tears.

The man “talked about how he’d waited his whole life to see it,” Peerbolte said. “I’m like, ‘You’re from Rome, the cradle of civilization!’ ”

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Jessamyn Moore, the museum’s internal operations manager, said she has started recommending that docents watch the shows to not only brush up on pop culture, but to learn what the prison looked like before the decay set in.

As the tour continues around the yard, visitors can read lines engraved above the doorways. “Make time serve you,” greets visitors to the old school. “Make ye a new heart and a new spirit, Ezekiel 18:31” is emblazoned above the chapel. Etched into the floor of the segregation unit, which held cells for prisoners in solitary confinement, are the words that famously appear in the movie’s final scene : “It’s never too late! To mend.”

The building was designed by Chicago architects William W. Boyington and Otis L. Wheelock in the castellated Gothic style. The second-oldest prison in Illinois, built to house 1,800 people, was already over capacity — at nearly 2,000 inmates — by 1878, Peerbolte said.

In “Joliet Prisons: Images in Time,” local historian Robert E. Sterling chronicles the dramatic changes at the facility during the decades it was in operation. Until 1896, black-and-white striped pants, shirts and hats were standard-issue, and prisoners were forced to walk in lock-step. There was no separate facility for young offenders : In 1864, for example, the ages of inmates living in the prison ranged from 10 to 68 years old.

Until 1903, when the dining hall was built, the men ate in their cells. Before showers were installed in the 1920s, prisoners bathed once a week in the summer and once every two weeks in the winter in the prison’s 15 iron tubs. To save time, some were forced to share a soak.

By 1915, prisoners were allowed one hour of daily outdoor recreation. Strict quiet time during meals, work and marching was lifted and inmates could talk to one another. The prison launched a day school and its own newspaper, and trusted inmates were allowed outside the walls to work on a farm, growing food for the prison, according to Sterling’s book. But many of those allowances were eliminated after prisoners rioted in 1917 and set fire to seven buildings.

Our next stop was a cell that was preserved and put on display in the prison yard when the facility was decommissioned. A plaque next to the cell calls Joliet the “last of the Illinois medieval prisons.” It held iron bunk bed frames for mattresses barely wide enough to roll over on. The room was four feet wide, seven feet long and seven feet high. These cells were in use until the late 1940s and early 1950s, when they were remodeled and replaced.

I declined the offer to step inside; just peering in made me want to run in the other direction. Peerbolte said many people have a similar response.

We also visited the cells for solitary confinement, which were a little bigger because, Peerbolte said, prisoners there were allowed outside for only an hour a day. Others spent more of their day at work or in the yard.

In the chapel, a mid-century modern building across the yard, sunlight streamed in through smashed windows and illuminated a roughly hewed altar that was probably built by prisoners. The variety of architectural designs, Peerbolte said, is common as the prison was added onto and improved to meet changing needs over time. The limestone is constant throughout the prison’s buildings.

The question of what to restore, what to remodel and what to save is key to the future of the facility, officials agreed. The answer could determine how far into the future the tours will be offered.

Steve Jones, deputy city manager and economic development manager for the City of Joliet, said the city and the museum have a five-year intergovernmental agreement with the Illinois Department of Corrections to research whether the prison is worth preserving as a community asset and, if so, how to do it. The Illinois Department of Corrections still owns the site.

Along with the historical tours and the tours led by former prison guards, the museum staff is considering tours for amateur photographers and private groups, and even ghost tours, Moore said.

The staff has received inquiries from folks representing travel channels and conducting “paranormal explorations,” as well as film crews from various networks, Jones said. “Empire” recently filmed on site. Joliet’s minor-league baseball team, the Slammers, filmed their promotional video there. A concert held on the prison yard last summer drew 3,500 people and raised $137,000. Peerbolte said he’s even had inquiries about getting married in the chapel.

“Think of all the ball-and-chain jokes,” he said.

There are many other sections of the prison, such as the former warden’s quarters, that remain off limits but could be a big draw for tours once they’re restored.

“People lived and died here. This is a house of pain,” Jones said. But it’s also one that holds more than a century of history, and served as one of the city’s largest employers. “People need to see this place.”

Bookwalter is a writer based in Chicago. Find her on Twitter: @GenevieveBook .

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Old Joliet Prison Tours

1125 N. Collins St., Joliet

815-723-5201

jolietprison.org

The Old Joliet Prison was built in 1858 and held thousands of prisoners during its more than 140 years in use. Tours from April through October. Nonrefundable tickets cost $20 each for 90-minute tour. Guests must be 10 or older; closed-toe shoes required. Tours happen rain or shine. Email [email protected] 72 hours before tour for special accommodations.

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