Dating back to the early 1930’s, this defunct jail building is part of a larger complex that originally was a working prison farm. This complex now serves an entire county as new buildings were added in the 1990’s. The original prison building was built to have approximately 250 cells for me, and just over two dozen for women. In modern times, it holds close to 2,000 inmates in the medium security facility adjacent to these cell blocks.


We were able to locate the following excerpt written by a former inmate as a cautionary tale to others: “I remember thinking during our first night in jail [...] whoever had designed [J. Fox Prison] couldn't ever have intended to spend a single night there himself. The prison is designed to satisfy someone's theory of good prison security rather than to serve any human purposes [...] The noise level is constant and wears away at your nerves. The cell where we were kept was furnished with four metal shelves called "beds," an antiquated toilet without a seat, a wash basin of sorts which emptied into the toilet, and 4 metal wall lockers. Lighting was inadequate. The cell was drafty and the one blanket I was given wasn't enough to keep me warm[...]."