Montana State Prison
Encyclopedia
The Montana State Prison is a men's correctional facility
of the Montana Department of Corrections in unincorporated
Powell County
, Montana
, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Deer Lodge
. The current facility was constructed between 1974 and 1979 in response to the continued degeneration of the original facility located in downtown Deer Lodge.
The "Old Prison" served as the Montana Territorial Prison from its creation in 1871 until Montana
achieved statehood in 1889, then continued as the primary penal institution for the State of Montana until 1979. Throughout the prison's history, the institution was plagued with constant overcrowding, insufficient funds, and antiquated facilities. The administration of Warden Frank Conley from 1890 to 1921 proved the exception to this rule, as Warden Conley instituted extensive inmate labor projects that kept many inmates at work constructing the prison buildings and walls as well as providing various state and community services like road building, logging, and ranching.
After Conley left office, the prison experienced almost forty years of degeneration, mismanagement, and monetary restraints until an explosive riot in 1959 captured the attention of the nation. Led by Jerry Myles and Lee Smart, the riot maintained the prison under inmate control for thirty-six hours before the Montana National Guard
stormed the institution to restore order. The facility was retired in September 1979, and the inmates were moved to the current prison. The Old Prison was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1976 and is now a museum.
-style form of justice present in the newly formed Montana Territory
, in 1867 the US Congress allotted $40,000 to Montana for the express purpose of constructing a territorial prison. On 19 November 1867, the territorial government chose Deer Lodge as the site of the facility, and on 2 June 1870, the cornerstone was laid. The original plans for the building called for a structure which held three tiers of fourteen cells, but due to the difficulty of acquiring materials, the cost to ship those materials, and the expense of hiring labor, the new building would house only one of the three tiers. On 2 July 1871, US Marshal William Wheeler took possession of the first nine prisoners to be incarcerated in the facility.
It only took a single month before the prison was overcrowded; by August, six more prisoners had arrived. The burgeoning population was quelled somewhat when, in June 1874, another tier of fourteen cells was constructed, and the civilians of Deer Lodge were calmed when a twelve foot board fence went up in 1875. The prison's population continued to grow, so Congress allocated an additional $15,000 for the construction of another tier of cells, but the soft brick of the building could not support any more weight. Instead, the money went into an administration building with guard barracks, a warden's office, and a visitor's reception. Finally, in 1885, $25,000 served to provide the prison with a three story cellblock with 42 double-occupancy cells which was completed in 1886. The Montana Territorial Prison was finally completed to original specifications, just in time to be handed over to the new State of Montana in March 1890.
of penal reform, a method pioneered at Auburn Prison
in New York
state in the 1820s. The Auburn system, or the silent system, hinged on prisoners working in groups during the day, maintaining solitary confinement at night, and adhering to a strict code of silence at all times. This rehabilitation method was doomed to fail in Montana, primarily due to the severe overcrowding which plagued the facility from the start.
Within a month of the prison opening its doors, the building was overcrowded. This state of affairs persisted throughout the territorial years, reaching its peak in 1885. In that year, 120 inmates were incarcerated at the institution which claimed only 28 cells, or five inmates per cell. Inmates camped on the prison grounds, but it wasn't until the completion of the 1886 cellblock with its 42 double-occupancy cells and a round of generous paroles that the prison felt relief.
Although the completion of the cellblock meant a roof over a prisoner's head, the amenities of the facility were sparse. The cells measured 6 X 8 ft (2.4 m), were constructed of soft brick, and had no plumbing or artificial lights. The building had no heating or ventilation, and, in a region which often experienced temperatures below -30 °F in the winter and above 100 °F (37.8 °C) in the summer, this made for very uncomfortable tenants. To alleviate the discomfort, the administration used wood stoves to heat the building and oil lamps to light it, the smoke from which combined with the stench of bucketed human waste and unwashed bodies to make the environment rank.
The prison hired a physician to keep the inmates somewhat healthy but provided no pharmaceuticals; any drugs required to administer to the inmates had to be purchased using his own salary. Between May and November 1873, the overworked doctor reported 67 illnesses in a population of 21 inmates, or about 3 maladies per prisoner during a span of six months. These sicknesses can be mostly attributed to the crowded, unsanitary conditions of the prison itself and to the poor quality of food provided the inmates. Since the prison was operating on a shoestring budget, it had to feed the inmates with what the territory could provide. Therefore, few fruits and vegetables found their way into the diet, and the inmates made due with a menu heavy in proteins and starch.
, Frank Conley set off for the American West at the age of sixteen and landed in Montana, working to create what would later become Yellowstone National Park
. By 1884, he was a member of the Central Montana Vigilance Committee and later became Deputy Sheriff of Custer County, Montana
. In 1886, he supervised a prisoner transport to Deer Lodge, and, upon learning of a vacancy in the ranks of the guards, immediately took the post. In March 1890, he ascended to the position of Warden of the Montana State Prison, while McTague remained more-or-less aloof from the administration of the prison, focusing his attentions on the financial backing of the institution. Conley oversaw everything else and launched a series of projects which made the Montana State Prison function.
At first, Conley focused on bettering the prison facility. Immediately after taking the position of warden, he put the inmates to work to build a log cell-house to alleviate the rampant overcrowding. The building housed 150 inmates in one large room in two tiers of wooden bunks, and was used on and off over the course of the next decade.
Conley waited for a few years before starting one of his biggest projects—the prison walls. In 1893, he put his prisoners to work to construct the 20 to 22 ft (6.7 m). high walls which extended underground for four feet and were 3½ ft. thick underground and tapered to two feet thick at the top. The wall was constructed of locally quarried sandstone mined, shaped, mortared, and placed by prison labor. The walls had six towers, a sally port
to admit vehicles, and a smaller portal to admit people. The imposing structure with its crenellated towers dominates the southern end of Main Street Deer Lodge and resembles a medieval castle.
In 1896, Conley deemed the old Territorial Penitentiary insufficient, even after remodeling it to house 164 inmates, so he constructed the first of two cellblocks. The 1896 Cellblock bordered the Territorial building on its southern side and could house 256 inmates in four tiers of thirty-two cells, each measuring 6 ft (1.8 m). long, 8 ft (2.4 m). deep, and 7 in 4 in (2.24 m) tall. None of these cells had plumbing, however, and inmates again used the bucket system: one for fresh water, the other for human waste. Each door locked individually, which, when combined with the wood stoves which heated the building and the wooden roof, created a safety hazard in the case of a fire. Electricity didn't enter the building until after the turn of the century, but this building was a marked improvement from the antiquated Territorial building.
In 1908, in response to concerns over women's rights, Conley built a separate building outside the walls for his female prisoners. It was a small, stuffy building with no plumbing and a tiny exercise yard, but it gave the women inmates a degree of separation and safety they had previously been denied. This building would eventually be converted into a maximum security facility in 1959 in response to the riot which happened in that year, and Montana's women prisoners would eventually be moved to their own prison.
1911 saw an extension of the original walls by 48000 sq ft (4,459.3 m²). Tower Seven, in the middle of the eastern wall which bordered Main Street, became the main entrance to the prison and would remain so until the facility closed.
To respond to the ever-increasing number of inmates flooding the Montana correctional system, in 1912, Conley supervised the building of another cellblock. Called "Cellblock 1" by guards and prisoners, the building sandwiched the old Territorial building between itself and the 1896 cellblock, now called "Cellblock 2". The building was made of cut granite and prison-made brick, could house 400 prisoners in 200 cells along two corridors of four tiers of 25 cells each, and came complete with a sink and self-flushing toilet in each cell, a ventilation system, and a door-locking system which could open any combination of doors simultaneously.
In 1919, Warden Conley's personal friend William A. Clark, one of Butte, Montana
's Copper Kings
, donated $10,000 for the construction of a first in US Prison history—a prison theater. Dubbed the WA Clark Theatre, the pride of the Montana State Prison was completed in March 1920. It boasted seating for 1,000 people in leather-covered seats and catered to prisoners and members of the community alike. It hosted concerts, plays, prizefights, movies, and more. For Conley, it became an instant disciplinary tool; unruly inmates were denied access to the theater. The theater was a mainstay of prison life until its destruction by an unknown arsonist on 3 December 1975.
Though the buildings inside the prison grounds were extensive and labor and time consuming, Warden Conley did not stop there. During his tenure as warden, he used prison labor to run eleven separate ranches which produced beef, pork, poultry, and dairy products for prison use, a prison farm which produced vegetables for the inmates and feed for the animals on the ranches, and a slaughterhouse. He also built and operated a brickyard which could produce up to 60,000 bricks per day. His prisoners were also loggers, and they processed their lumber at a lumberyard and sawmill they had built. Conley also assisted the state by using inmate labor to build 11 buildings of the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs, 4 buildings for the Montana State Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Galen, and over 500 miles (804.7 km) of roads in the State. About road building, Conley stated:
Additional punishment came in the form of reprimands for minor infractions and time in "the hole" for more serious transgressions. According to Warden Conley, his system for punishment was as follows:
Conley's dungeon, or the hole, was a "lightless, straw-lined subterranean cell". A description of an inmate after spending three full weeks in the hole read:
A more serious escape attempt happened in 1908 that left Deputy Warden Robinson dead and Warden Conley severely wounded. It was Conley's habit to hold what he called a "warden's court" each morning where inmates could air their grievances. At 6 in 6 in (1.98 m) tall and weighing roughly 300 lb (136.1 kg)., Warden Frank Conley was an imposing man, and he considered himself more than a match for the men he maintained. What his physical bulk could not handle, the .41 caliber pistol he habitually carried would. He was shown just how vulnerable he was when, on the morning of 8 March, Deputy John A. Robinson admitted the men lined up to speak with the warden and was rushed by four men, W.A. Hayes, C.B. Young, Oram Stevens, and George Rock. Hayes managed to get past Robinson and burst into Conley's office, waving a knife and threatening the warden. Conley drew his pistol and fired twice, hitting Hayes in the ear. The remaining three inmates rushed in and Conley fired again, hitting George Rock, who retreated from the office. Hayes got back to his feet, and Conley shot him again and threw him into the hall after Rock. Conley then went to help Robinson, who was on the ground under Rock. Rock had already slashed the Deputy's throat and was stabbing him when Conley threw a chair at the assailant, who turned on Conley. The warden fended the armed man off with the butt of his now empty pistol, and the escape attempt was ended at the end of a billy-club wielded by Guard E.H. Carver, who had had to break through the locked door to the hallway.
Deputy Robinson had been killed, and it took 103 stitches to stabilize Warden Conley. One of the slashes from Rock's blade had come a mere eighth of an inch from severing the warden's jugular, and he carried the scar from that wound to his deathbed. None of the rioters had died, and Conley made sure they were all fully healed before bringing them up on charges. Rock and Hayes were both given the death sentence for the assault, Stevens won his acquittal and served his original sentence, and Young's was extended to a life sentence. Conley oversaw both of the executions (Rock on 16 June 1908 and Hayes on 2 April 1909). The men were hanged using the upright jerker
method, which used a 300 lb (136.1 kg). weight to jerk the sentenced man from his feet. This method was supposed to snap the neck, but it failed in both instances. Rock and Hayes were the only two men to be executed within the prison walls.
, a subsidiary of John D. Rockefeller's
Standard Oil
. Conley moved up the social stratus with his marriage to a Missoula, Montana
socialite. While using prison labor to construct the prison itself, roads for the state, and buildings for state institutions, he had also found a way to have the inmates build him an expensive warden's residence across Main Street from the prison, a hunting lodge on the shores of his private lake and another for Thomas McTague, and a racetrack where he ran his own thoroughbred
s. He also used the produce of the prison ranch and farm to entertain guests like Theodore Roosevelt
, Franklin D. Roosevelt
, Secretary of the Treasury
William Gibbs McAdoo
, several Montana governors, and, of course, Copper King William Clark and a number of directors of the Anaconda Mining company. At these events, he commonly used prisoners as cooks, waiters, and servants.
Warden of the Montana State Prison was not the only office Frank Conley held; he was voted Mayor of Deer Lodge from 1892–1893, 1895–1903, and again from 1907–1929, a position he held for eight years after being removed from his duties as warden. The man responsible for Conley's downfall was Governor Joseph M. Dixon
. Dixon took office under the promise to remove the powerful Ananconda Mining company from state politics, and, upon hearing that the warden of the state prison was heavily involved with the Company, he launched a series of investigations and audits which laid bare the extent of Warden Conley's corruption between 1908 and 1921. Some points Dixon's auditor found were:
Dixon wasted no time in bringing Conley to trial on charges of corruption. The judge, however, could find no written statute which fully defined the relationship the state of Montana shared with Frank Conley, and so could find no laws Conley had broken. In the words of the judge, "every act of Conely…was in the interest of the state of Montana".
Although stripped of the influential office of warden, Conley continued as Mayor of Deer Lodge until 1929, and lived in the city until his death in Butte on 5 March 1939.
and the early years of the Prohibition
to keep overcrowding to a minimum and costs down. However, without Conley and his series of contacts to keep the prisoners busy, the number of extramural work programs dwindled, forcing more inmates to return to the facility. The prisoners were now faced with a heavily crowded living space that was not well suited to house them.
Only three construction projects happened at the prison between 1921 and 1959. The first, funded in 1927 by a $40,000 grant from the state for use in constructing a license plate and garment factory inside the walls, instead went toward remodeling the old Territorial building, converting the central section into administerial offices, one wing into a license plant and the other wing into the garment factory. In 1932, this building would come down in the second construction opportunity for inmates—the construction of a new administration building. The simple, rectangular concrete building bridged the gap between the older, Gothic
-style cellblocks and housed administration offices on the top floor and a dining hall, shoe shop, and laundry in the lower floor. 1935 saw the last new construction in the prison with an industrial shop complex that went up parallel to the north wall, perpendicular to the 1912 Cellblock. This building housed the prison's new hospital, including an infirmary, surgery, dentist's office, psych ward, and doctor's office. Also in this building was the new license plate factory, which moved to the prison ranch in 1960, and eight cells, which were sometimes used as Death Row
.
Meanwhile, the institution's existing buildings continued to degrade. The 1896 Cellblock still had no individual plumbing in the cells; a flush toilet had been installed on the ground level, but inmates had no access to it after lights out. The lighting in the cells was insufficient even for reading; the wiring installed at the turn of the century could barely power a 25 watt bulb. There was no ventilation, the wooden roof had not been replaced, and the cell doors still unlocked individually. A state investigation in 1931 found this cellblock to be "a disgrace to civilization".
The 1912 Cellblock was in better shape, though it was still substandard. It was stifling in the summer, when inmates on the top tiers would throw items through the windows to create a breeze, and freezing in the winter, when inmates on the bottom tiers would drape the bottom half of their cell doors with blankets to keep out the chill. There was one shower facility for the 400 inmates with three shower heads; one for a rinse, one for a soap, and the third for a final rinse. The prisoners would step under these one at a time in a single-file line.
The succession of wardens added to the low morale of both guards and prisoners. Appointed by the Governor of Montana for their pliability, ease of placement, and political stature, the wardens of the prison rarely had law enforcement experience, and none had penal institution experience. Unfortunately, due to Conley's aggressive control of the facility, most of the administration of the prison rested in the hands of the warden, including the hiring and firing of guards, requests for new building permits from the state, and most of the parole
functions of the institution. In fact, a parole board was not instituted until 1955. Many of the wardens, like A.B. Middleton, tried to better the facility, but those who did often failed. Middleton, who held the position from 1925 to 1937, oversaw all the new construction, but he did little to ease the strain of overpopulation and low morale. Possibly the least effective warden to hold the office was Faye O. Burrell, who was warden from 1953 to 1958. Burrell had been a Ravalli County sheriff before his tenure, and was a man who prided himself on his frugality. The state actually increased funding to the prison during his time, but Burrell decreased his implementation of funds, allowing money slated for updating facilities to go back into general state funds. His wardenship of the prison weathered two riots, and he resigned under heavy controversy.
The jobs available to the prisoners were few; between 1930 and 1960, about 200 inmates out of a population averaging 550 had something to do. In the 1940s and '50s, most prisoners spent twenty-two hours a day in their cells. The industries that were available were managed not by civilians or guards, but, due to the shortage of staff at the prison, by a system of inmate overseers. Called "con-bosses," these privileged inmates had complete control over their areas, reserving the right to choose which inmates worked under them, how much work they received, and what they had to do to receive work at all. Since work meant not only something to do other than sit in a cell but also time earned off a sentence, this system led to rampant corruption, favoritism, and ill-feelings among the prisoners, since the con-bosses often sold positions or used them as leverage for any number of illicit favors.
The onset of the Great Depression
flooded the prison with new inmates, and Montana state further curtailed the use of inmate labor to provide jobs for civilians. In another blow to the prisoners, in 1934, the state prohibited the sale of convict-made goods to civilians. Prisoners now had almost no legitimate, worthwhile industries to keep themselves busy, and to exacerbate the situation further, most of the prison yard within the walls had been converted into a vegetable garden, eliminating exercise as a pastime.
and about 200 National Guardsmen, lasted about 24 hours. The warden, Faye O. Burrell, was out of town, taking delivery of an inmate from Indiana who had escaped years earlier. The prisoners clamored for better conditions, better food, better mail service, and the firing of Benjamin W. Wright, the man in charge of Montana's relatively new parole system. Anderson offered an eight-point program which sated the prisoners, and they retreated to their cells without bloodshed. Upon Burrell's return, however, he revoked the program drawn up by Anderson, claiming that he had not, and would not, negotiate with convicts.
The second riot, in response to Warden Burrell having ignored Anderson's eight-point program, happened on 27 January 1958. During a tour of the prison by the Montana Council on Corrections, the inmates instigated a twenty-four hour sit-down strike in which they refused to report to work, ignored orders from guards, and loitered about the cell house corridors. Warden Burrell ordered the lights and heat be turned off, which, in January, meant many hours of frigid darkness. The cold, hungry inmates returned to their cells and, for punishment, for a week were refused mail and access to the canteen where they could purchase cigarettes, candy, and other sundries.
Then, in August of the same year, an earthquake structurally damaged Cellblock 2, leading to its destruction.
, Powell arrived in Deer Lodge knowing the only way to truly modernize the prison rested in building a whole new facility; what existed in downtown Deer Lodge was far too antiquated to be worth revitalizing. Within weeks of taking charge of the prison, Powell summoned his friend and subordinate, Ted Rothe, from Wisconsin to be his deputy warden.
Between the two of them, Powell and Rothe began a series of reforms which were targeted at updating the facility. They began to abolish the "con-boss" system, improved inmate food quality by instilling a "Take all you want, but eat all you take" policy and by supplying condiments on the tables. They also sought to crack down on the rampant drug use and black market inside the walls and began performing exhaustive background checks on the prisoners, a practice that was not standard operating procedure until Powell's tenure. A training regimen for the guards was also instilled, which bettered communication between shifts and cut back on guard contributions to the black market. Something they were unable to initiate until too late was the removal of firearms from the cellblocks; Powell and Rothe wanted to completely sweep both cellblocks of the rifles the guards carried on the catwalks. They saw the .30-30 Winchester rifle
s' presence as an instigator for inmate uprising, but the guards refused to surrender the guns.
Though the pair from Wisconsin were doing their best to better the conditions in the prison, they felt heavy resistance from both inmates and guards who had flourished under the previously lax security, as well as from the population of Montana who viewed any improvement in the quality of life of an inmate nothing more than coddling convicts. In his own words in a report to the Board of Prison commissioners, Powell stated:
Although Powell and Rothe meant well with their reforms, their alteration of the power structures within the facility led to a bloody riot which started on 16 April 1959.
, on 15 January 1915 under the name Donald Groat. His mother was an unmarried transient who quickly put her son up for adoption. By the time he was sixteen, he was in reform school, and for the rest of his life he would spend more time inside correctional facilities then outside them. Described as having an "emotionally unstable, psychopathic personality" by psychiatrist
Romney Ritchey at Alcatraz, Jerry Myles nonetheless had a genius intellect, scoring 125 and 147 on intelligence tests in Atlanta and Montana, respectively. Using suicide attempts, petty disturbances, and sexual deviancy, he strove to become the center of attention. He was an institutionalized career prisoner, often committing small acts of burglary to get sentenced to more prison time whenever he found himself free, and, once incarcerated, struggled to be noticed.
On 4 December 1944, he organized a mutiny at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia
on the grounds of poor medical care, no church services, and having to wait in line in the mess hall with "the German intake and the Negro intake". After the mutiny, the administration at USP Atlanta declared Jerry Myles to be incorrigible and a danger to the security of their prison. They determined that their facilities were insufficient to fully monitor Myles' activities, so on 8 May 1945 they transferred him to the federal penitentiary at Alcatraz
.
Jerry Myles would spend about seven years at Alcatraz between 1945 and 1952, after which he was transferred to Leavenworth
. While Jerry was at The Rock, the legendary "Battle of Alcatraz
" occurred on 2 May 1946, and Myles, while he did not take part in the escape attempt, learned much from the methods of Bernard Coy
, who initiated the riot. The disturbance Myles would later start in Montana shared many elements with the Battle of Alcatraz. Myles was released from Leavenworth on 3 March 1952, after which he finished his sentence at the Georgia State Penitentiary and was released in May 1958. During his long prison tenure, Myles had learned of a prison in Montana where the convicts ran the industries, and Myles was interested in what he viewed was a place where he could have power.
After his release, Myles bought a bus ticket to Butte, about 40 miles (64.4 km) from Deer Lodge, where he was arrested for burglary. He was sentenced to five years at the Montana State Prison and arrived in Deer Lodge in June 1958. Since the prison at that time was not in the habit of running background checks on incoming prisoners, his previous penal experience went unnoticed, and he was assigned to a cell in the general population. Myles quickly rose to the position of con-boss of the garment shop, due to his experience in similar places in other penitentiaries around the country and the notoriety of his experience in USP Atlanta, Leavenworth, and, of course, Alcatraz. He used the position to his advantage, decorating his apartment-like cell in the garment shop with niceties and manipulating young inmates into providing him with sexual favors for work in the factory. When Warden Powell abolished the con-boss system in October 1958, Myles was stripped of his favor in the prison community and started acting out, which earned him time in segregation. He had a short, heated interview with Deputy Warden Rothe in which Myles took an intense dislike to Rothe and threatened his life. Rothe sentenced Myles to isolation, or the hole, for an indefinite amount of time followed by a longer stint in segregation.
Walter Jones, the prison's newly graduated sociologist, recognized the danger Myles represented and suggested further segregation in Siberia in the base of the northern towers of Cellblock 1. The area known as Siberia was separated from the rest of the prison yard by a razor-wire topped chain-link fence and was used to keep known troublemakers apart from the rest of the population. The cells were cramped, cold, and isolated. Rothe rejected this treatment of Myles, claiming that he wanted to gain inmate trust by showing equal rights to all prisoners regardless of their past activities. On 27 February 1959, Rothe released Myles back into the general population and assigned him to the water crew—the group of inmates who emptied toilet buckets from Cellblock 2 and the guard towers. In April of that same year, Myles would incite the riot.
on 28 April 1956. Smart had bludgeoned Ward to death with a pair of lineman's pliers and robbed him of $100 cash. Smart was almost 6 ft (1.8 m). tall and weighed 147 pounds, wore a ducktail haircut, a black leather jacket, and had tattooed arms and chest. He and a friend had escaped from a reformatory camp in Cedar Creek, Washington, on 14 April 1956. The two then went on a two-week criminal binge which ended in Great Falls, Montana
. Lee Smart left his friend in Great Falls and went north, where he ended up killing Ward.
Once inside the walls of the Montana State Prison, Smart eventually found his place playing drums for the prison band. Though one of the youngest convicts in Montana, he had fallen in with a relatively powerful group of convicts—the "band gang" was the largest trafficker of narcotics in the prison. Lee became a regular member of the cadre, and his crime of murder gave him standing among the inmates, most of whom were incarcerated for larceny
. One of the inmates who was highly impressed by Smart's haughty, impulsive nature was Jerry Myles, who befriended the boy. Smart got in trouble a few times, once for being in possession of a weapon, once over his haircut (which led him to receive a buzz cut
by an inmate barber), and again over having an illicit weapon (which earned him time in isolation).
Since the prison had no system of segregating inmates based on age, crime, or sexual proclivities, Smart was housed in general population where his youthful frame became an instant target for older, predatory cons. His crime of murder and connection with the band gang lent him a modicum of notoriety, but he still felt obliged to hire George Alton, a known troublemaker, for protection at the cost of ten dollars a month. Alton, who had been in and out of prison since 1952, regularly sold protection services to newer inmates who could not fight for themselves. A diminutive, wiry Montanan, Alton was well respected by guards and inmates alike, known for his vicious left hook and his prowess in the prizefighting rink, held weekly in the WA Clark Theatre. Alton and Smart became friends and eventual cellmates, until Alton was moved outside the walls into minimum security housing.
Taking full advantage of his "trusty" status, Alton escaped with a fellow inmate in a prison vehicle marked "Registrar of Motor Vehicles" on 26 August 1958, the day after Floyd Powell started his job as warden. The two prisoners waved to the new warden on their way past the prison, and Powell waved back. By the time the warden realized what had happened, Alton and his confederate were too far away to do anything. Alton managed to stay hidden until November 1958, when he was apprehended in his hometown of Culbertson
. He was remanded to the prison and spent time in the hole, then more time in segregation. It was during this time that he met, and had extensive conversations with, Jerry Myles, who had been placed in the cell right next to Alton's in segregation.
Jerry Myles knew that timing would play a major factor in the successful initiation of the riot. Between the time he was released back into general population in February 1958 until he decided to start the riot, he paid close attention to the movements of the guards and found a loophole in their routine; each day during the dinnertime turnover, the ratio of guards to inmates was decreased in Cellblock 1. His plan was to seize a rifle from one of the guards who walked the catwalk outside his cell when the guard was alone. The catwalk was close to the tier of cells. Guards routinely moved between the catwalk and the tiers by little more than hopping from one to the other; since neither walkway was caged, the maneuver was simple.
Myles also needed to recruit other inmates to his cause but limit the number of prisoners who knew specifics to ensure the administration would be caught unawares. He chose to let Lee Smart in on the plans, coaxing the boy along with promises of freedom and adventure. George Alton, a shrewd, intelligent man, was less easily convinced, though a workable escape plan attracted him. Myles needed Alton because of his rapport with the inmate population. Alton also worked in the prison garage and had access to gasoline, a crucial part of Myles' plans. Myles assured Alton that they would use Deputy Warden Rothe as a shield and hostage to gain exit from Tower 7, and from there to freedom. Myles also strong-armed Harold Laureys, a known lockpicker, or "gopher man" in prison lingo, into being ready for an escape attempt, but gave him few specifics other than that.
Myles, Smart, and Alton constructed a reservoir in one of the shelves in Smart's cell, and Alton regularly filled that space with gasoline he smuggled out of the garage. The trio waited until they had filled the container before enacting their plans.
Lee Smart had tossed the gasoline as Jerry Myles lit a match to a torch he had constructed from a mop. He thrust the mop at the guard, who froze in fear. Smart and Alton lit a broom and tossed it onto the catwalk behind Byars, who, with his vision blurred by the gasoline, saw he was surrounded by fire. He quickly surrendered his keys and rifle and allowed himself to be led to the hole.
While Myles, Smart, and Alton were securing the rifle and keys, other inmates ambushed the only other two guards in Cellblock 1, threatening them with knives. The guards surrendered their keys and were also led to the hole.
At this point, the inmates were in full possession of three guards, a rifle, and keys to the facility, though they still had no ammunition for the weapon. They quickly moved over to Cellblock 2, where they knew the ammunition was stored, and were in possession of that building within minutes, even after a tense standoff between a guard holding a loaded rifle and an inmate with a knife. The guard hesitated and received a slashed hand in return. Had he fired on the inmate, the riot may not have progressed. As it was, the inmates were now in control of two rifles, seventeen rounds of ammunition, and both cellblocks. Over the course of the next ten to fifteen minutes, several more guards would walk into Cellblock 1, be immediately and quietly overwhelmed, and led into the hole.
Ted Rothe had been across the street attending a meeting with Warden Powell and some architects who were designing the new facility Powell wanted to build. Rothe returned to his desk inside the prison at a few minutes before 4:00, oblivious to the inmate takeover. To this point, there had been almost no noise, few scuffles, and no casualties. He chatted with a guard for a few minutes before sitting behind his desk, which was in view of the door where inmates came to receive their medication. Myles, Smart, and a third inmate named Toms came up to the door, where Myles asked to receive some pills for his migraines. The guard on duty, Officer Cox, turned to retrieve them as another guard opened the door to let a third guard out. As soon as the door opened, Myles rushed through, brandishing a meat cleaver he had acquired from the kitchens. Toms threatened the other guards with a knife, and they allowed themselves to be herded into a nearby lavatory. Myles burst into Deputy Warden Rothe's office and attacked Rothe with the cleaver. Rothe deflected the blow with a plywood letterbox.
The struggle continued for a few seconds. Cox grabbed a chair and raised it to hit Myles, but Lee Smart unveiled the rifle he had had wrapped in a cone of leather and fired once, hitting Rothe in the chest, killing him instantly. Myles turned on Cox and slashed with his cleaver, slicing Cox along his arm. The inmates quickly herded the guards into the lavatory, along with a civilian mail-sorter, and locked them in. Another guard, Officer Simonsen, was coming up the steps to Inside Administration, and Myles and Smart took him hostage and had him call the warden.
Inside, Warden Powell came face-to-face with Myles and Smart, who immediately forced Powell to call Governor Aronson in Helena
. Aronson, however, was out of town and would not return until about 6:30 that evening. Powell left a message with the governor's secretary to have Aronson call Powell at Number 8 as soon as he returned. "Number 8" was a pre-arranged warning that told the governor that Warden Powell had been compromised and that Aronson should not return the call.
After the call, Powell managed to convince Myles that Cox and Rothe needed medical attention and should be allowed to leave the facility. Myles agreed, and an ambulance collected the bleeding guard and the deceased deputy warden. Powell also attempted to talk the ringleaders into discontinuing the riot to no avail.
While Myles and Smart coerced guards and wardens to make telephone calls, Alton, armed with the second rifle, set about securing the remaining guards and administrators of the facility. By 4:30, he had locked 20 men into the hole, including sociologist Walter Jones. At a few minutes before 5:00, Myles and Smart led Warden Powell and the other four hostages down to the mess hall, and from there led the hostages into cells in Cellblock 1. Warden Powell sat under guard on one of the mess halls, where he was offered coffee and cake by an inmate. He accepted, and he ate while the rest of the hostages were led from the hole and placed in cells in "Cook's Row" where the kitchen workers were housed.
At about 6:20, the inmates led Powell back to Inside Administration to wait for Governor Aronson's call, which never came. Myles and Smart became anxious and left, leaving Powell in the care of Walter Trotchie, who had orders to kill the warden with a kitchen knife at 8:00 if the governor didn't call. 8:00 came and went, and, instead of killing Powell, Trotchie surrendered his weapon and freed the warden, who offered amnesty to any prisoner who wanted to retreat to minimum security. Six inmates agreed to go, including Trotchie, and Warden Powell escaped the prison, secured the inmates who had come with him, and began managing the handling of the riot from outside .
Meanwhile, Alton approached Myles with the argument that since Deputy Warden Rothe had been shot and killed, their escape plan was now null. Myles acknowledged that the original plan had failed, so he forwarded the idea of tunneling under the walls. He chose a place in the northwestern tower of Cellblock 1 and put a team of inmates, eventually including the kitchen staff, to work with picks and shovels. The progress on this tunnel would continue for the remainder of the riot, but was doomed to fail. Warden Conley had built the cellblocks and the walls specifically to keep inmates from tunneling, and his designs proved effective.
Outside the walls, Warden Powell was busy trying to deal with budding public reaction to the riot. The word had leaked quickly, and wives of guards who were hostages started showing up at his house. Powell decided to again enter the prison through the tunnel system which gave access to the gun ports in the mess hall and the catwalks in the cellblocks. Luckily, the riot leaders had been unable to secure a key to the access points to this tunnel system, or else Powell may have been taken hostage again. Just after sundown, Powell made his way through the tunnels to the mess hall and shouted for Myles and Smart. Myles showed up, leading Jones with a knife at his throat. Powell asked what Myles wanted, and received a verbal tirade from Myles, who stalked away, leaving Jones with Alton. Powell was told that Myles wanted at least thirty members of the press to come inside the prison, take pictures of the conditions and speak with the inmates. Powell offered to get three reporters inside the walls under the understanding that they would not print a word of what they learned until the hostages were released. Alton agreed to the plan. Powell returned to his residence to await the coming day.
Meanwhile, National Guard forces were consolidating at Trask Hall, the gymnasium of Montana's first college campus, just four blocks from the prison. Members of the press were converging upon the warden's residence, and the city and county switchboards were becoming overrun with calls regarding the riot, some as far away as London, England. By the next day, reporters from magazines like Life
and TIME
descended upon the town, and Deer Lodge's prison riot made international news.
After midnight, Myles summoned Jones to talk to the media. Through Jones, Myles warned that any offensive action against the prison would end in the killing of the hostages by fire, hanging, or stabbing. Myles then spoke up, telling the amassed media that he was fighting for better conditions and just wanted to be heard. He again threatened the hostages with death if any action was taken against the prison and paraded Jones in front of the windows with a knife at his throat to make his point. Afterward, Myles led Jones back to a cell.
At midmorning on Friday, Myles and Smart allowed Jones to exit the prison walls to escort the three reporters, one from the Associated Press
, another from United Press International
, and the third from radio station KREM of Spokane, Washington
. Myles allowed Jones eight minutes to return with the media before he threatened to begin killing hostages. Jones met with the warden and the reporters outside Tower 7 and managed to get the reporters into the mess hall inside his eight minute window.
Only seven inmates met with the reporters, one of which was George Alton, but neither Jerry Myles or Lee Smart took part in the interview. Jones remained to assist the prisoners with their statements. The reporters recorded a plethora of complaints ranging from the sanitation in Cellblock 2 to the use of the hole as a disciplinary tool, but the most common grievance was the parole system. The inmates demanded the resignation of Benjamin Wright, the same man the convicts had asked to have fired during the pea riot of 1957.
The reporters were allowed to leave the prison without incident, and Warden Powell announced that he expected to have the hostages released as per the agreement he had made with Alton. Myles, however, demanded more reporters come inside the facility to take pictures, and he stated that nobody would be allowed to leave until he saw the story in print. Powell, on the other hand, would not re-negotiate a deal. Since Myles refused to release guards, Powell refused to allow the story to run.
This started a twenty-four-plus hour standoff in which Myles railed openly to the media outside the walls; Alton retired to his cell after an argument with Myles, convinced that no escape was forthcoming; Jones was again allowed to leave the prison to negotiate with Powell and, under orders from the warden, did not return; and the hostages survived repeated threats of death by fire, rope, or knife. The hostages were eventually crowded into three cells, and the frightened men planned to press the thin prison mattresses against the bars to ward off any attack, but they knew the shield would not hold long against fire or at all against the rifles. Governor Aronson
, still in Helena, continued to refuse to negotiate with the prisoners, saying:
…standing firm on my original statement that I have no intention to go to Deer Lodge or to talk to any of the rebellious convicts until order has been restored, all hostages released unharmed and convicts back in their cells.
Thirty-six hours after Myles, Smart, and Alton pitched gasoline at a guard to start the riot, the Montana National Guard ended the riot. At about 4:45 a.m. on 18 April 1959, Bill Rose of the National Guard fired a World War II bazooka
at the southwest tower of Cellblock 1 while Highway Patrolman Bob Zaharko fired a Thompson submachine gun
through a window which had been identified as where Myles and Smart were hiding on the northeast tower of Cellblock 1. The media had been placed under watch to ensure they did not leak news of the attack to the inmates, who were listening to the radio inside the prison.
While Rose and Zaharko rained ordnance on Cellblock 1, a contingent of seven teams of National Guard waited outside the door to the women's prison on the western wall of the prison. As soon as the first bazooka round hit Cellblock 1, they burst through the door and split up, some rushing the main entrance to Cellblock 1, others going to Cellblock 2, and more circling around to storm Inside Administration.
The team that invaded Cellblock 1 had to burst through two barricaded doors before gaining access to the tiers of cells. Most of the inmates were already in their cells and did not give the Guardsmen any problems. The soldiers filed up to where the hostages were kept and freed them, escorting them through the door into the minimum security facility in the northeast corner of the wall. All the hostages emerged unharmed.
Back in Cellblock 1, a team of Guardsmen entered the tower where Myles and Smart were hiding. The soldiers had to push past a pile of rubble which had been removed from the unsuccessful tunneling attempt as they made their way up the stairs. During their ascent, Jerry Myles managed to shoot Lieutenant Francis "Russ" Pulliam in the arm, who was removed and remanded to the hospital at Fort Harrison in Helena. Just after Pulliam was shot, a third bazooka round exploded against the tower, followed by tear gas canisters fired from the walls. Moments after the gas began to take effect, Myles and Smart fully ended the riot with a murder-suicide
.
, and many, including George Alton, had the dead bodies of Myles and Smart paraded in front of them before the cadavers were surrendered to the coroner. In their search of the cellhouses, the guards found 382 knives and had to haul away other contraband to the city dump in several 2½ ton truck loads.
Warden Powell decided that severe segregation for the remaining instigators of the riot was in order, so he moved the women prisoners out of their building and into housing across the street. They would eventually end up in the Montana Women's Prison
in Billings, Montana. He converted the small building into a maximum security
facility which had twenty-four high security and disciplinary cells. George Alton spent two years in one of these cells, which, at the time, did not have plumbing. Inmates were provided a "honey bucket
", and it was common practice for recalcitrant inmates to slosh the contents of this waste bucket at passing guards, which led to the installation of screens or wooden doors outside the bars. Two cells were installed with an angled bar along one wall to which an inmate could be hand- and ankle-cuffed to prevent him from suicide attempts, and two more were converted into "black box" cells, much like the hole had been.
In the years that followed the riot, Floyd Powell strove to provide the state of Montana with a new facility. The riot had raised awareness of the need for reform, but a five million dollar bond issue put to the citizens of the state failed by a resounding 70%. A large earthquake damaged Cellblock 2 on 17 August 1959, and the antiquated building was condemned. Its destruction kept inmates busy for a few weeks, but led to severe overcrowding in Cellblock 1. In 1961, Governor Nutter
curtailed the construction of new state buildings and the state government cut funding to the prison in the amount of $500,000. Warden Floyd Powell resigned in February 1962, a "distraught and frustrated man".
, fire broke out in the WA Clark Theatre. The fire managed to burn for two and a half hours before a guard noticed smoke coming from the building, and by the time help arrived, it was too late. Warden Frank Conley's "proudest achievement" had been destroyed. The state fire marshal would later determine the fire had been caused by a "homemade incendiary device". The arsonist was never discovered, but the remaining cellblock was searched and the presence of contraband, including weapons, inspired Warden Crist to sentence a dozen inmates to the maximum security building, which had been closed for three years.
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
of the Montana Department of Corrections in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
Powell County
Powell County, Montana
-National protected areas:* Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest * Flathead National Forest * Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site* Helena National Forest * Lolo National Forest * Bob Marshall Wilderness Area...
, Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Deer Lodge
Deer Lodge, Montana
Deer Lodge is a city in and the county seat of Powell County, Montana, United States. The population was 3,421 at the 2000 census. The city is perhaps best known as the home of the Montana State Prison, a major local employer...
. The current facility was constructed between 1974 and 1979 in response to the continued degeneration of the original facility located in downtown Deer Lodge.
The "Old Prison" served as the Montana Territorial Prison from its creation in 1871 until Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
achieved statehood in 1889, then continued as the primary penal institution for the State of Montana until 1979. Throughout the prison's history, the institution was plagued with constant overcrowding, insufficient funds, and antiquated facilities. The administration of Warden Frank Conley from 1890 to 1921 proved the exception to this rule, as Warden Conley instituted extensive inmate labor projects that kept many inmates at work constructing the prison buildings and walls as well as providing various state and community services like road building, logging, and ranching.
After Conley left office, the prison experienced almost forty years of degeneration, mismanagement, and monetary restraints until an explosive riot in 1959 captured the attention of the nation. Led by Jerry Myles and Lee Smart, the riot maintained the prison under inmate control for thirty-six hours before the Montana National Guard
Montana National Guard
The Montana National Guard consists of the:* Montana Army National Guard* Montana Air National Guard ** 120th Fighter Wing ** 219th RED HORSE Squadron When National Guard troops are called to federal service, the President serves as Commander-in-Chief...
stormed the institution to restore order. The facility was retired in September 1979, and the inmates were moved to the current prison. The Old Prison was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1976 and is now a museum.
Facility history
In response to rampant lawlessness and the vigilanteVigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
-style form of justice present in the newly formed Montana Territory
Montana Territory
The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 28, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Montana.-History:...
, in 1867 the US Congress allotted $40,000 to Montana for the express purpose of constructing a territorial prison. On 19 November 1867, the territorial government chose Deer Lodge as the site of the facility, and on 2 June 1870, the cornerstone was laid. The original plans for the building called for a structure which held three tiers of fourteen cells, but due to the difficulty of acquiring materials, the cost to ship those materials, and the expense of hiring labor, the new building would house only one of the three tiers. On 2 July 1871, US Marshal William Wheeler took possession of the first nine prisoners to be incarcerated in the facility.
It only took a single month before the prison was overcrowded; by August, six more prisoners had arrived. The burgeoning population was quelled somewhat when, in June 1874, another tier of fourteen cells was constructed, and the civilians of Deer Lodge were calmed when a twelve foot board fence went up in 1875. The prison's population continued to grow, so Congress allocated an additional $15,000 for the construction of another tier of cells, but the soft brick of the building could not support any more weight. Instead, the money went into an administration building with guard barracks, a warden's office, and a visitor's reception. Finally, in 1885, $25,000 served to provide the prison with a three story cellblock with 42 double-occupancy cells which was completed in 1886. The Montana Territorial Prison was finally completed to original specifications, just in time to be handed over to the new State of Montana in March 1890.
Prison life
The system of managing inmates at the Montana Territorial Prison was intended to follow the Auburn systemAuburn system
The Auburn system is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times...
of penal reform, a method pioneered at Auburn Prison
Auburn Prison
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison located on State Street in Auburn, New York, built on land that was once a Cayuga Indian Village. It is classified as a maximum security facility....
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
state in the 1820s. The Auburn system, or the silent system, hinged on prisoners working in groups during the day, maintaining solitary confinement at night, and adhering to a strict code of silence at all times. This rehabilitation method was doomed to fail in Montana, primarily due to the severe overcrowding which plagued the facility from the start.
Within a month of the prison opening its doors, the building was overcrowded. This state of affairs persisted throughout the territorial years, reaching its peak in 1885. In that year, 120 inmates were incarcerated at the institution which claimed only 28 cells, or five inmates per cell. Inmates camped on the prison grounds, but it wasn't until the completion of the 1886 cellblock with its 42 double-occupancy cells and a round of generous paroles that the prison felt relief.
Although the completion of the cellblock meant a roof over a prisoner's head, the amenities of the facility were sparse. The cells measured 6 X 8 ft (2.4 m), were constructed of soft brick, and had no plumbing or artificial lights. The building had no heating or ventilation, and, in a region which often experienced temperatures below -30 °F in the winter and above 100 °F (37.8 °C) in the summer, this made for very uncomfortable tenants. To alleviate the discomfort, the administration used wood stoves to heat the building and oil lamps to light it, the smoke from which combined with the stench of bucketed human waste and unwashed bodies to make the environment rank.
The prison hired a physician to keep the inmates somewhat healthy but provided no pharmaceuticals; any drugs required to administer to the inmates had to be purchased using his own salary. Between May and November 1873, the overworked doctor reported 67 illnesses in a population of 21 inmates, or about 3 maladies per prisoner during a span of six months. These sicknesses can be mostly attributed to the crowded, unsanitary conditions of the prison itself and to the poor quality of food provided the inmates. Since the prison was operating on a shoestring budget, it had to feed the inmates with what the territory could provide. Therefore, few fruits and vegetables found their way into the diet, and the inmates made due with a menu heavy in proteins and starch.
Warden Conley years
Montana became a state in November 1889, but the fledgling state had neither the will nor the money to assume possession of the prison until March 1890. The facility was a money-sink, costing over $2 per day per inmate to run, an eyesore, and an administerial nightmare. Montana decided to do what many other states at the time were doing; they contracted the running of the prison to a pair of men who offered to care for the inmates at the rate of $.70 per day per inmate for the first 100, and $1.00 per day for each inmate over. These men were the warden of the facility since 1885, Thomas McTague, and his partner, Guard Frank Conley.Warden Frank Conley
Born on 28 February 1864 in Havre de Grace, MarylandHavre de Grace, Maryland
Havre de Grace is a city in Harford County, Maryland, United States. Located at the mouth of the Susquehanna River and the head of the Chesapeake Bay, Havre de Grace is named after the port city of Le Havre, France, which was first named Le Havre de Grâce, meaning in French "Harbor of Grace." As...
, Frank Conley set off for the American West at the age of sixteen and landed in Montana, working to create what would later become Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
. By 1884, he was a member of the Central Montana Vigilance Committee and later became Deputy Sheriff of Custer County, Montana
Custer County, Montana
-Economy:The main source of income for Custer County has largely come from cattle ranching and dryland farming. Miles City serves as the center of commerce in an area extending for 100 miles in every direction...
. In 1886, he supervised a prisoner transport to Deer Lodge, and, upon learning of a vacancy in the ranks of the guards, immediately took the post. In March 1890, he ascended to the position of Warden of the Montana State Prison, while McTague remained more-or-less aloof from the administration of the prison, focusing his attentions on the financial backing of the institution. Conley oversaw everything else and launched a series of projects which made the Montana State Prison function.
Conley builds
Possibly the most important, or at least longest lasting, contribution Warden Conley made to the Montana State Prison are the plethora of buildings he left in his wake. He believed that idleness bred insurrection, so he set about using prison labor to build the prison.At first, Conley focused on bettering the prison facility. Immediately after taking the position of warden, he put the inmates to work to build a log cell-house to alleviate the rampant overcrowding. The building housed 150 inmates in one large room in two tiers of wooden bunks, and was used on and off over the course of the next decade.
Sally port
The primary modern meaning for sally port is a secure, controlled entryway, as at a fortification or a prison. The entrance is usually protected in some way, such as with a fixed wall blocking the door which must be circumvented before entering, but which prevents direct enemy fire from a distance...
to admit vehicles, and a smaller portal to admit people. The imposing structure with its crenellated towers dominates the southern end of Main Street Deer Lodge and resembles a medieval castle.
In 1896, Conley deemed the old Territorial Penitentiary insufficient, even after remodeling it to house 164 inmates, so he constructed the first of two cellblocks. The 1896 Cellblock bordered the Territorial building on its southern side and could house 256 inmates in four tiers of thirty-two cells, each measuring 6 ft (1.8 m). long, 8 ft (2.4 m). deep, and 7 in 4 in (2.24 m) tall. None of these cells had plumbing, however, and inmates again used the bucket system: one for fresh water, the other for human waste. Each door locked individually, which, when combined with the wood stoves which heated the building and the wooden roof, created a safety hazard in the case of a fire. Electricity didn't enter the building until after the turn of the century, but this building was a marked improvement from the antiquated Territorial building.
In 1908, in response to concerns over women's rights, Conley built a separate building outside the walls for his female prisoners. It was a small, stuffy building with no plumbing and a tiny exercise yard, but it gave the women inmates a degree of separation and safety they had previously been denied. This building would eventually be converted into a maximum security facility in 1959 in response to the riot which happened in that year, and Montana's women prisoners would eventually be moved to their own prison.
To respond to the ever-increasing number of inmates flooding the Montana correctional system, in 1912, Conley supervised the building of another cellblock. Called "Cellblock 1" by guards and prisoners, the building sandwiched the old Territorial building between itself and the 1896 cellblock, now called "Cellblock 2". The building was made of cut granite and prison-made brick, could house 400 prisoners in 200 cells along two corridors of four tiers of 25 cells each, and came complete with a sink and self-flushing toilet in each cell, a ventilation system, and a door-locking system which could open any combination of doors simultaneously.
Butte, Montana
Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...
's Copper Kings
Copper Kings
The Copper Kings, industrialists William Andrews Clark, Marcus Daly, and F. Augustus Heinze, were collectively known for the epic battles they fought in Butte, Montana and the surrounding region during the Gilded Age over the control of the local copper mining industry, a fight which had...
, donated $10,000 for the construction of a first in US Prison history—a prison theater. Dubbed the WA Clark Theatre, the pride of the Montana State Prison was completed in March 1920. It boasted seating for 1,000 people in leather-covered seats and catered to prisoners and members of the community alike. It hosted concerts, plays, prizefights, movies, and more. For Conley, it became an instant disciplinary tool; unruly inmates were denied access to the theater. The theater was a mainstay of prison life until its destruction by an unknown arsonist on 3 December 1975.
Though the buildings inside the prison grounds were extensive and labor and time consuming, Warden Conley did not stop there. During his tenure as warden, he used prison labor to run eleven separate ranches which produced beef, pork, poultry, and dairy products for prison use, a prison farm which produced vegetables for the inmates and feed for the animals on the ranches, and a slaughterhouse. He also built and operated a brickyard which could produce up to 60,000 bricks per day. His prisoners were also loggers, and they processed their lumber at a lumberyard and sawmill they had built. Conley also assisted the state by using inmate labor to build 11 buildings of the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs, 4 buildings for the Montana State Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Galen, and over 500 miles (804.7 km) of roads in the State. About road building, Conley stated:
- The work done by the men in the way of road construction is itself of inestimable value to the state and counties; and greater still are the benefits derived by the prisoners. The outside work, the absence of physical restraint, and the trust and confidence instill in each man a sense of pride, both for himself and for his work. He values his advantages and his privileges. He does not brood and ponder over his sufferings and wrongs, his failures and disappointments. He awakens to a new appreciation of life and determines to make a better future.
Response to Conley's administration
Warden Conley was the primary administrator of the prison at Deer Lodge for 31 years, and his system of running the prison was beneficial to everyone: the state, the community, the prison, the prisoners, and, of course, himself. For the state, he managed to decrease the cost of maintaining prisoners during his tenure of contractor, reducing his contracted rate to $.40 per day per inmate by 1893. He successfully averted issues related to overcrowding at the prison facility by having most of the inmates at work outside of the prison walls. Two-thirds of the prisoners, for example, were at work building state roads in 1914, a year in which they constructed 119 miles (191.5 km). He also had prisoners stationed at ranches, farms, the brickyard, logging, and any other number of contracted work for the community he could find. The prisoners outside the walls were not shackled; the punishment for misbehavior was a speedy return to the prison. In return for good work performed, they received a reduction on their sentences.- The first report, take away two picture shows; second report, cut off hair; third report, thirty days writing privileges; fourth report, dungeon on bread and water from four to thirty days.
Conley's dungeon, or the hole, was a "lightless, straw-lined subterranean cell". A description of an inmate after spending three full weeks in the hole read:
- His garb was in tatters, his beard an ugly stubble, his eyes bloodshot. He had the gauntiness [sic] in feature of a wasted consumptive. He was shackled. He was a man of stalwart frame, but his bony hands looked ugly. He might as well have been three weeks out of the world…For a time, in the prison yard, he acted like one who was an utter stranger to this earth.
Escape attempts
Perhaps in response to punishment like the hole, some prisoners strove to escape. In 1902, the inmate stable boss of a barn outside the walls named Thomas O'Brien drugged Conley's dogs, used for hunting and tracking down escaped convicts, stole Conley's prized racehorse, and escaped. O'Brien ended up leaving the horse, bridle, and saddle in a nearby pasture and disappeared for 18 days, after which he turned himself in. He was paroled in 1903 and quickly published a controversial book, Infamy Immortal, describing his treatment at the hands of Conley. The book caused a minor stir, but nothing came of it.A more serious escape attempt happened in 1908 that left Deputy Warden Robinson dead and Warden Conley severely wounded. It was Conley's habit to hold what he called a "warden's court" each morning where inmates could air their grievances. At 6 in 6 in (1.98 m) tall and weighing roughly 300 lb (136.1 kg)., Warden Frank Conley was an imposing man, and he considered himself more than a match for the men he maintained. What his physical bulk could not handle, the .41 caliber pistol he habitually carried would. He was shown just how vulnerable he was when, on the morning of 8 March, Deputy John A. Robinson admitted the men lined up to speak with the warden and was rushed by four men, W.A. Hayes, C.B. Young, Oram Stevens, and George Rock. Hayes managed to get past Robinson and burst into Conley's office, waving a knife and threatening the warden. Conley drew his pistol and fired twice, hitting Hayes in the ear. The remaining three inmates rushed in and Conley fired again, hitting George Rock, who retreated from the office. Hayes got back to his feet, and Conley shot him again and threw him into the hall after Rock. Conley then went to help Robinson, who was on the ground under Rock. Rock had already slashed the Deputy's throat and was stabbing him when Conley threw a chair at the assailant, who turned on Conley. The warden fended the armed man off with the butt of his now empty pistol, and the escape attempt was ended at the end of a billy-club wielded by Guard E.H. Carver, who had had to break through the locked door to the hallway.
Deputy Robinson had been killed, and it took 103 stitches to stabilize Warden Conley. One of the slashes from Rock's blade had come a mere eighth of an inch from severing the warden's jugular, and he carried the scar from that wound to his deathbed. None of the rioters had died, and Conley made sure they were all fully healed before bringing them up on charges. Rock and Hayes were both given the death sentence for the assault, Stevens won his acquittal and served his original sentence, and Young's was extended to a life sentence. Conley oversaw both of the executions (Rock on 16 June 1908 and Hayes on 2 April 1909). The men were hanged using the upright jerker
Upright jerker
The upright jerker was an execution method and device intermittently used in the United States during the 19th and early 20th century. Intended to replace hangings, the upright jerker did not see widespread use....
method, which used a 300 lb (136.1 kg). weight to jerk the sentenced man from his feet. This method was supposed to snap the neck, but it failed in both instances. Rock and Hayes were the only two men to be executed within the prison walls.
Conley's downfall
In addition to the problems Conley had with prisoners, the community began to complain of his use of prisoners and the office of warden for personal gain. When he arrived in Deer Lodge, he had been a lowly deputy, but within twenty years had risen to be one of the most powerful men in the region. Through the years, he had become personal friends with William A. Clark, and through him the Anaconda Copper Mining CompanyAnaconda Copper
Anaconda Copper Mining Company was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century. The Anaconda was purchased by Atlantic Richfield Company on January 12, 1977...
, a subsidiary of John D. Rockefeller's
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
. Conley moved up the social stratus with his marriage to a Missoula, Montana
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
socialite. While using prison labor to construct the prison itself, roads for the state, and buildings for state institutions, he had also found a way to have the inmates build him an expensive warden's residence across Main Street from the prison, a hunting lodge on the shores of his private lake and another for Thomas McTague, and a racetrack where he ran his own thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
s. He also used the produce of the prison ranch and farm to entertain guests like Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, Secretary of the Treasury
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
William Gibbs McAdoo
William Gibbs McAdoo
William Gibbs McAdoo, Jr. was an American lawyer and political leader who served as a U.S. Senator, United States Secretary of the Treasury and director of the United States Railroad Administration...
, several Montana governors, and, of course, Copper King William Clark and a number of directors of the Anaconda Mining company. At these events, he commonly used prisoners as cooks, waiters, and servants.
Warden of the Montana State Prison was not the only office Frank Conley held; he was voted Mayor of Deer Lodge from 1892–1893, 1895–1903, and again from 1907–1929, a position he held for eight years after being removed from his duties as warden. The man responsible for Conley's downfall was Governor Joseph M. Dixon
Joseph M. Dixon
Joseph Moore Dixon was a Republican politician from Montana. He served as a Representative, Senator, and the seventh Governor of Montana. A businessman and a modernizer of Quaker heritage, Dixon was a leader of the Progressive Movement in Montana and nationally...
. Dixon took office under the promise to remove the powerful Ananconda Mining company from state politics, and, upon hearing that the warden of the state prison was heavily involved with the Company, he launched a series of investigations and audits which laid bare the extent of Warden Conley's corruption between 1908 and 1921. Some points Dixon's auditor found were:
- Appropriating beef, assorted groceries and produce, cream, and butter for his private use in the amount of some $8,330;
- Using over a half million tons of state coal for his private residence;
- Using and maintaining thirteen private autos at state expense, running up a gas, oil, and maintenance bill of over $12,000 per year on the vehicles;
- Using the prison's ranch to feed his private dairy herd and employing free inmate labor to care for and feed his livestock; and
- Selling to the state (for use in the prison), dairy products and beef produced by the herd, at market rates
Dixon wasted no time in bringing Conley to trial on charges of corruption. The judge, however, could find no written statute which fully defined the relationship the state of Montana shared with Frank Conley, and so could find no laws Conley had broken. In the words of the judge, "every act of Conely…was in the interest of the state of Montana".
Although stripped of the influential office of warden, Conley continued as Mayor of Deer Lodge until 1929, and lived in the city until his death in Butte on 5 March 1939.
Degeneration of the facility
Immediately after the retirement of Warden Conley, the first in a long string of gubernatorial appointees, Warden M.W. Potter, strove to keep the prison functioning on a cost-effective basis. He pardoned a significant number of prisoners incarcerated during World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the early years of the Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
to keep overcrowding to a minimum and costs down. However, without Conley and his series of contacts to keep the prisoners busy, the number of extramural work programs dwindled, forcing more inmates to return to the facility. The prisoners were now faced with a heavily crowded living space that was not well suited to house them.
Buildings
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
-style cellblocks and housed administration offices on the top floor and a dining hall, shoe shop, and laundry in the lower floor. 1935 saw the last new construction in the prison with an industrial shop complex that went up parallel to the north wall, perpendicular to the 1912 Cellblock. This building housed the prison's new hospital, including an infirmary, surgery, dentist's office, psych ward, and doctor's office. Also in this building was the new license plate factory, which moved to the prison ranch in 1960, and eight cells, which were sometimes used as Death Row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
.
Meanwhile, the institution's existing buildings continued to degrade. The 1896 Cellblock still had no individual plumbing in the cells; a flush toilet had been installed on the ground level, but inmates had no access to it after lights out. The lighting in the cells was insufficient even for reading; the wiring installed at the turn of the century could barely power a 25 watt bulb. There was no ventilation, the wooden roof had not been replaced, and the cell doors still unlocked individually. A state investigation in 1931 found this cellblock to be "a disgrace to civilization".
The 1912 Cellblock was in better shape, though it was still substandard. It was stifling in the summer, when inmates on the top tiers would throw items through the windows to create a breeze, and freezing in the winter, when inmates on the bottom tiers would drape the bottom half of their cell doors with blankets to keep out the chill. There was one shower facility for the 400 inmates with three shower heads; one for a rinse, one for a soap, and the third for a final rinse. The prisoners would step under these one at a time in a single-file line.
Administration
In addition to the outdated facilities, the guard staff was underpaid, undertrained, and insufficient to manage the ever-increasing number of inmates. Guards at the Montana State Prison during this period were some of the lowest paid correctional officers in the United States, ranked 115 out of 120 state and local institutions. Their median salary was $1200 per year, where the national average was $2000. There were no benefits and no pension plan. Few wardens of the time ran background checks on potential guards, and there was no formal training after hire. By the mid-1950s, 80% of the guard staff were retirees over the age of 55, and in 1957, there was a 75% turnover of guards. In order for this staff to keep order in the prison, a re-institution of the Auburn system came into play, keeping inmates quiet, obedient, and segregated.The succession of wardens added to the low morale of both guards and prisoners. Appointed by the Governor of Montana for their pliability, ease of placement, and political stature, the wardens of the prison rarely had law enforcement experience, and none had penal institution experience. Unfortunately, due to Conley's aggressive control of the facility, most of the administration of the prison rested in the hands of the warden, including the hiring and firing of guards, requests for new building permits from the state, and most of the parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
functions of the institution. In fact, a parole board was not instituted until 1955. Many of the wardens, like A.B. Middleton, tried to better the facility, but those who did often failed. Middleton, who held the position from 1925 to 1937, oversaw all the new construction, but he did little to ease the strain of overpopulation and low morale. Possibly the least effective warden to hold the office was Faye O. Burrell, who was warden from 1953 to 1958. Burrell had been a Ravalli County sheriff before his tenure, and was a man who prided himself on his frugality. The state actually increased funding to the prison during his time, but Burrell decreased his implementation of funds, allowing money slated for updating facilities to go back into general state funds. His wardenship of the prison weathered two riots, and he resigned under heavy controversy.
Prison life
Since Conley's theory of reform was based so heavily on manual labor, he had spent little time and money on things like education and vocational training. In the 1920s, the prison library was the only means of inmate education; the only classes being taught boiled down to English-speaking instruction for immigrant inmates. The library itself, donated mostly by William Clark before 1920, was outdated, contained mainly light fiction, and had been stringently censored by prison officials. As far as vocational training was concerned, Conley had dealt the prison another blow by removing all his personal equipment from the warehouse, garage, and machine shop; since his contract specified that the buildings, grounds, and land belonged to the state, he had populated these important industries with his own materials to further entrench himself within the prison. This left the prisoners with only industries relating to the upkeep of the prison: laundry, garment construction, maintenance, a toy shop (which made toys for children in state institutions) and the prison band. In the '20s, the warden of the prison took on the role of Registrar of Motor Vehicles and obtained permission for inmates to manufacture license plates.The onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
flooded the prison with new inmates, and Montana state further curtailed the use of inmate labor to provide jobs for civilians. In another blow to the prisoners, in 1934, the state prohibited the sale of convict-made goods to civilians. Prisoners now had almost no legitimate, worthwhile industries to keep themselves busy, and to exacerbate the situation further, most of the prison yard within the walls had been converted into a vegetable garden, eliminating exercise as a pastime.
Riots
The mismanagement, insufficient guard staff, and intolerable living conditions led to three riots in the late 1950s. The first riot, called the "pea riot," took place on 30 July 1957 when the members of the prison band refused to pick peas in the garden which was the prison yard. The temperature was hot, and the band members were used to being left alone, if not coddled, by the prison staff. One member flatly refused the order, which won him time in the hole. The other members decided to work, but after one member flicked a pea at another, the job quickly turned into a foliage-destroying free-for-all. The destructive attitude in the garden quickly infected the rest of the prison, and inmates rushed from the cellblocks to take part in the destruction. The guards on duty were quickly overrun and locked into cells. A standoff between the prisoners and government officials, including Attorney General Forrest AndersonForrest H. Anderson
Forrest Howard Anderson was an American politician and judge who served as the 17th Governor of Montana from 1969 to 1973. He was a Democrat. Anderson served in the Montana House of Representatives. Anderson was also an Associate Justice on the Montana Supreme Court from 1953–1956 and Montana...
and about 200 National Guardsmen, lasted about 24 hours. The warden, Faye O. Burrell, was out of town, taking delivery of an inmate from Indiana who had escaped years earlier. The prisoners clamored for better conditions, better food, better mail service, and the firing of Benjamin W. Wright, the man in charge of Montana's relatively new parole system. Anderson offered an eight-point program which sated the prisoners, and they retreated to their cells without bloodshed. Upon Burrell's return, however, he revoked the program drawn up by Anderson, claiming that he had not, and would not, negotiate with convicts.
The second riot, in response to Warden Burrell having ignored Anderson's eight-point program, happened on 27 January 1958. During a tour of the prison by the Montana Council on Corrections, the inmates instigated a twenty-four hour sit-down strike in which they refused to report to work, ignored orders from guards, and loitered about the cell house corridors. Warden Burrell ordered the lights and heat be turned off, which, in January, meant many hours of frigid darkness. The cold, hungry inmates returned to their cells and, for punishment, for a week were refused mail and access to the canteen where they could purchase cigarettes, candy, and other sundries.
1959 Riot
1959 was a turbulent year in Montana State Prison history. Following Warden Burrell's resignation in February 1958, the Montana Council on Corrections decided that, in order to modernize the facility, the next warden of the prison would be selected from a nationwide search, putting an end to the tradition of gubernatorial appointees. Floyd Powell, of Wisconsin, was chosen from the candidates who applied, and he took control of the prison in August 1958. He managed to instill some reforms before, in 1959, a riot kept the prison and the town of Deer Lodge on edge for thirty-six hours. The riot started on 16 April 1959 and was the longest and bloodiest riot at the facility. Instigated by a pair of inmates, Jerry Myles and Lee Smart, the riot would claim the lives of three people, wound several others, and maintain the facility under inmate control for thirty-six hours. It ended in the early hours of 18 April 1959 when a brace of National Guard troops stormed the facility.Then, in August of the same year, an earthquake structurally damaged Cellblock 2, leading to its destruction.
Warden Floyd Powell
Born in LaValle, Wisconsin, just before World War I, Floyd Powell came to Montana in response to the nationwide search for a warden who would update the Montana State Prison into a modern facility. With more than eighteen years of penal experience at the Wisconsin State Prison in WaupunWaupun, Wisconsin
Waupun is a city in Dodge and Fond du Lac Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 10,718 at the 2000 census. In Fond du Lac County, there is also the Town of Waupun which abuts the city of Waupun....
, Powell arrived in Deer Lodge knowing the only way to truly modernize the prison rested in building a whole new facility; what existed in downtown Deer Lodge was far too antiquated to be worth revitalizing. Within weeks of taking charge of the prison, Powell summoned his friend and subordinate, Ted Rothe, from Wisconsin to be his deputy warden.
Between the two of them, Powell and Rothe began a series of reforms which were targeted at updating the facility. They began to abolish the "con-boss" system, improved inmate food quality by instilling a "Take all you want, but eat all you take" policy and by supplying condiments on the tables. They also sought to crack down on the rampant drug use and black market inside the walls and began performing exhaustive background checks on the prisoners, a practice that was not standard operating procedure until Powell's tenure. A training regimen for the guards was also instilled, which bettered communication between shifts and cut back on guard contributions to the black market. Something they were unable to initiate until too late was the removal of firearms from the cellblocks; Powell and Rothe wanted to completely sweep both cellblocks of the rifles the guards carried on the catwalks. They saw the .30-30 Winchester rifle
Winchester Model 1894
Winchester Model 1894 is a lever-action rifle which became one of the most famous and popular hunting rifles...
s' presence as an instigator for inmate uprising, but the guards refused to surrender the guns.
Though the pair from Wisconsin were doing their best to better the conditions in the prison, they felt heavy resistance from both inmates and guards who had flourished under the previously lax security, as well as from the population of Montana who viewed any improvement in the quality of life of an inmate nothing more than coddling convicts. In his own words in a report to the Board of Prison commissioners, Powell stated:
- To bring about the tremendous change needed to make the Montana correctional system a workable, valuable, efficient, adequate activity is an almost insurmountable job, particularly trying to do it in a grossly inadequate physical plant and with a lack of trained personnel.
Although Powell and Rothe meant well with their reforms, their alteration of the power structures within the facility led to a bloody riot which started on 16 April 1959.
Jerry Myles
The primary leader of the riot, Jerry Myles was born in Sioux City, IowaSioux City, Iowa
Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
, on 15 January 1915 under the name Donald Groat. His mother was an unmarried transient who quickly put her son up for adoption. By the time he was sixteen, he was in reform school, and for the rest of his life he would spend more time inside correctional facilities then outside them. Described as having an "emotionally unstable, psychopathic personality" by psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Romney Ritchey at Alcatraz, Jerry Myles nonetheless had a genius intellect, scoring 125 and 147 on intelligence tests in Atlanta and Montana, respectively. Using suicide attempts, petty disturbances, and sexual deviancy, he strove to become the center of attention. He was an institutionalized career prisoner, often committing small acts of burglary to get sentenced to more prison time whenever he found himself free, and, once incarcerated, struggled to be noticed.
On 4 December 1944, he organized a mutiny at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
on the grounds of poor medical care, no church services, and having to wait in line in the mess hall with "the German intake and the Negro intake". After the mutiny, the administration at USP Atlanta declared Jerry Myles to be incorrigible and a danger to the security of their prison. They determined that their facilities were insufficient to fully monitor Myles' activities, so on 8 May 1945 they transferred him to the federal penitentiary at Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. Often referred to as "The Rock" or simply "Traz", the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal...
.
Jerry Myles would spend about seven years at Alcatraz between 1945 and 1952, after which he was transferred to Leavenworth
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
The United States Penitentiary , Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005. It became a medium security prison in 2005.It is located in Leavenworth, Kansas...
. While Jerry was at The Rock, the legendary "Battle of Alcatraz
Battle of Alcatraz
The Battle of Alcatraz, which lasted from May 2–4, 1946, was the result of an unsuccessful escape attempt at Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary. Two guards—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed along with three of the inmates. Eleven guards and one convict were also injured...
" occurred on 2 May 1946, and Myles, while he did not take part in the escape attempt, learned much from the methods of Bernard Coy
Bernard Coy
Bernard Paul Coy was a bank robber and federal prisoner best known as the planner of a failed escape attempt from Alcatraz prison, on May 2, 1946 which turned into a bloody two day armed confrontation leaving Coy, two fellow would be escapers and two prison guards dead.Coy was a native of Kentucky...
, who initiated the riot. The disturbance Myles would later start in Montana shared many elements with the Battle of Alcatraz. Myles was released from Leavenworth on 3 March 1952, after which he finished his sentence at the Georgia State Penitentiary and was released in May 1958. During his long prison tenure, Myles had learned of a prison in Montana where the convicts ran the industries, and Myles was interested in what he viewed was a place where he could have power.
After his release, Myles bought a bus ticket to Butte, about 40 miles (64.4 km) from Deer Lodge, where he was arrested for burglary. He was sentenced to five years at the Montana State Prison and arrived in Deer Lodge in June 1958. Since the prison at that time was not in the habit of running background checks on incoming prisoners, his previous penal experience went unnoticed, and he was assigned to a cell in the general population. Myles quickly rose to the position of con-boss of the garment shop, due to his experience in similar places in other penitentiaries around the country and the notoriety of his experience in USP Atlanta, Leavenworth, and, of course, Alcatraz. He used the position to his advantage, decorating his apartment-like cell in the garment shop with niceties and manipulating young inmates into providing him with sexual favors for work in the factory. When Warden Powell abolished the con-boss system in October 1958, Myles was stripped of his favor in the prison community and started acting out, which earned him time in segregation. He had a short, heated interview with Deputy Warden Rothe in which Myles took an intense dislike to Rothe and threatened his life. Rothe sentenced Myles to isolation, or the hole, for an indefinite amount of time followed by a longer stint in segregation.
Lee Smart and George Alton
Lee Smart was born in 1940 in Washington State and lived 17 years before being sentenced to thirty years confinement to the Montana State Prison for the second-degree murder of traveling salesman Charles Ward outside of Browning, MontanaBrowning, Montana
Browning is a town in Glacier County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,016 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Browning is located at ....
on 28 April 1956. Smart had bludgeoned Ward to death with a pair of lineman's pliers and robbed him of $100 cash. Smart was almost 6 ft (1.8 m). tall and weighed 147 pounds, wore a ducktail haircut, a black leather jacket, and had tattooed arms and chest. He and a friend had escaped from a reformatory camp in Cedar Creek, Washington, on 14 April 1956. The two then went on a two-week criminal binge which ended in Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...
. Lee Smart left his friend in Great Falls and went north, where he ended up killing Ward.
Once inside the walls of the Montana State Prison, Smart eventually found his place playing drums for the prison band. Though one of the youngest convicts in Montana, he had fallen in with a relatively powerful group of convicts—the "band gang" was the largest trafficker of narcotics in the prison. Lee became a regular member of the cadre, and his crime of murder gave him standing among the inmates, most of whom were incarcerated for larceny
Larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...
. One of the inmates who was highly impressed by Smart's haughty, impulsive nature was Jerry Myles, who befriended the boy. Smart got in trouble a few times, once for being in possession of a weapon, once over his haircut (which led him to receive a buzz cut
Buzz cut
A buzz cut, induction cut or wiffle is a very short haircut.The cut is usually performed using hair clippers without a comb guard. The sides are cut closely and then the top is either shaped or cut to the same short length all over. The cut takes just a few minutes to perform. A buzz cut can...
by an inmate barber), and again over having an illicit weapon (which earned him time in isolation).
Since the prison had no system of segregating inmates based on age, crime, or sexual proclivities, Smart was housed in general population where his youthful frame became an instant target for older, predatory cons. His crime of murder and connection with the band gang lent him a modicum of notoriety, but he still felt obliged to hire George Alton, a known troublemaker, for protection at the cost of ten dollars a month. Alton, who had been in and out of prison since 1952, regularly sold protection services to newer inmates who could not fight for themselves. A diminutive, wiry Montanan, Alton was well respected by guards and inmates alike, known for his vicious left hook and his prowess in the prizefighting rink, held weekly in the WA Clark Theatre. Alton and Smart became friends and eventual cellmates, until Alton was moved outside the walls into minimum security housing.
Taking full advantage of his "trusty" status, Alton escaped with a fellow inmate in a prison vehicle marked "Registrar of Motor Vehicles" on 26 August 1958, the day after Floyd Powell started his job as warden. The two prisoners waved to the new warden on their way past the prison, and Powell waved back. By the time the warden realized what had happened, Alton and his confederate were too far away to do anything. Alton managed to stay hidden until November 1958, when he was apprehended in his hometown of Culbertson
Culbertson, Montana
As of the census of 2000, there were 716 people, 295 households, and 192 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,213.7 people per square mile . There were 356 housing units at an average density of 603.5 per square mile...
. He was remanded to the prison and spent time in the hole, then more time in segregation. It was during this time that he met, and had extensive conversations with, Jerry Myles, who had been placed in the cell right next to Alton's in segregation.
Preparations
Myles also needed to recruit other inmates to his cause but limit the number of prisoners who knew specifics to ensure the administration would be caught unawares. He chose to let Lee Smart in on the plans, coaxing the boy along with promises of freedom and adventure. George Alton, a shrewd, intelligent man, was less easily convinced, though a workable escape plan attracted him. Myles needed Alton because of his rapport with the inmate population. Alton also worked in the prison garage and had access to gasoline, a crucial part of Myles' plans. Myles assured Alton that they would use Deputy Warden Rothe as a shield and hostage to gain exit from Tower 7, and from there to freedom. Myles also strong-armed Harold Laureys, a known lockpicker, or "gopher man" in prison lingo, into being ready for an escape attempt, but gave him few specifics other than that.
Myles, Smart, and Alton constructed a reservoir in one of the shelves in Smart's cell, and Alton regularly filled that space with gasoline he smuggled out of the garage. The trio waited until they had filled the container before enacting their plans.
Start of the riot
At about 3:30 p.m. on 16 April 1959, guard Gus Byars was alone on the catwalk of Cellblock 1 across from where Myles and Smart were loitering. Byars turned to open a window to the brisk spring wind when he heard someone call his name. He turned into a splash of gasoline which hit him in the face and chest, soaking his shirt.Lee Smart had tossed the gasoline as Jerry Myles lit a match to a torch he had constructed from a mop. He thrust the mop at the guard, who froze in fear. Smart and Alton lit a broom and tossed it onto the catwalk behind Byars, who, with his vision blurred by the gasoline, saw he was surrounded by fire. He quickly surrendered his keys and rifle and allowed himself to be led to the hole.
While Myles, Smart, and Alton were securing the rifle and keys, other inmates ambushed the only other two guards in Cellblock 1, threatening them with knives. The guards surrendered their keys and were also led to the hole.
At this point, the inmates were in full possession of three guards, a rifle, and keys to the facility, though they still had no ammunition for the weapon. They quickly moved over to Cellblock 2, where they knew the ammunition was stored, and were in possession of that building within minutes, even after a tense standoff between a guard holding a loaded rifle and an inmate with a knife. The guard hesitated and received a slashed hand in return. Had he fired on the inmate, the riot may not have progressed. As it was, the inmates were now in control of two rifles, seventeen rounds of ammunition, and both cellblocks. Over the course of the next ten to fifteen minutes, several more guards would walk into Cellblock 1, be immediately and quietly overwhelmed, and led into the hole.
Death of Deputy Warden Rothe
By 4:00, Myles, Smart, and Alton had control over the whole facility except for the minimum security housing outside the southern wall and the upper floor of the administration building, called "Inside Administration." This portion of the facility housed offices for the warden, the deputy warden, the sociologist, and other prison infrastructure. The only woman working within the prison walls, Babe Lightfoot, held an office in Inside Administration, but by the time the rioters reached this area of the prison, she had already evacuated upon orders from an inmate.Ted Rothe had been across the street attending a meeting with Warden Powell and some architects who were designing the new facility Powell wanted to build. Rothe returned to his desk inside the prison at a few minutes before 4:00, oblivious to the inmate takeover. To this point, there had been almost no noise, few scuffles, and no casualties. He chatted with a guard for a few minutes before sitting behind his desk, which was in view of the door where inmates came to receive their medication. Myles, Smart, and a third inmate named Toms came up to the door, where Myles asked to receive some pills for his migraines. The guard on duty, Officer Cox, turned to retrieve them as another guard opened the door to let a third guard out. As soon as the door opened, Myles rushed through, brandishing a meat cleaver he had acquired from the kitchens. Toms threatened the other guards with a knife, and they allowed themselves to be herded into a nearby lavatory. Myles burst into Deputy Warden Rothe's office and attacked Rothe with the cleaver. Rothe deflected the blow with a plywood letterbox.
The struggle continued for a few seconds. Cox grabbed a chair and raised it to hit Myles, but Lee Smart unveiled the rifle he had had wrapped in a cone of leather and fired once, hitting Rothe in the chest, killing him instantly. Myles turned on Cox and slashed with his cleaver, slicing Cox along his arm. The inmates quickly herded the guards into the lavatory, along with a civilian mail-sorter, and locked them in. Another guard, Officer Simonsen, was coming up the steps to Inside Administration, and Myles and Smart took him hostage and had him call the warden.
Warden Powell as hostage
At a little after 4:00, Officer Simonsen phoned Warden Powell, who was across the street at his residence. Simonsen told the warden there was a disturbance inside the prison and that someone had been knifed. Under duress from Myles and Smart, the officer told the warden little else, and Powell rushed through Tower 7 along with two guards to see what the "disturbance" was. As soon as he entered Inside Administration, he was yanked through the doorway. His escort realized something was wrong and retreated, escaping back through Tower 7. The guards on top of this tower knew something was wrong and had tried to warn the warden, but the blustery spring wind had obliterated their words.Inside, Warden Powell came face-to-face with Myles and Smart, who immediately forced Powell to call Governor Aronson in Helena
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...
. Aronson, however, was out of town and would not return until about 6:30 that evening. Powell left a message with the governor's secretary to have Aronson call Powell at Number 8 as soon as he returned. "Number 8" was a pre-arranged warning that told the governor that Warden Powell had been compromised and that Aronson should not return the call.
After the call, Powell managed to convince Myles that Cox and Rothe needed medical attention and should be allowed to leave the facility. Myles agreed, and an ambulance collected the bleeding guard and the deceased deputy warden. Powell also attempted to talk the ringleaders into discontinuing the riot to no avail.
While Myles and Smart coerced guards and wardens to make telephone calls, Alton, armed with the second rifle, set about securing the remaining guards and administrators of the facility. By 4:30, he had locked 20 men into the hole, including sociologist Walter Jones. At a few minutes before 5:00, Myles and Smart led Warden Powell and the other four hostages down to the mess hall, and from there led the hostages into cells in Cellblock 1. Warden Powell sat under guard on one of the mess halls, where he was offered coffee and cake by an inmate. He accepted, and he ate while the rest of the hostages were led from the hole and placed in cells in "Cook's Row" where the kitchen workers were housed.
At about 6:20, the inmates led Powell back to Inside Administration to wait for Governor Aronson's call, which never came. Myles and Smart became anxious and left, leaving Powell in the care of Walter Trotchie, who had orders to kill the warden with a kitchen knife at 8:00 if the governor didn't call. 8:00 came and went, and, instead of killing Powell, Trotchie surrendered his weapon and freed the warden, who offered amnesty to any prisoner who wanted to retreat to minimum security. Six inmates agreed to go, including Trotchie, and Warden Powell escaped the prison, secured the inmates who had come with him, and began managing the handling of the riot from outside .
Negotiations and a new escape plan
Myles was angry when he discovered that Powell had escaped, but his rage was bated when he realized they had Walter Jones as a hostage. Myles viewed Jones as one of the reasons he had been ousted as a con-boss. Jones managed to talk Myles out of murdering him by offering himself as a negotiator for the demands of the inmates.Meanwhile, Alton approached Myles with the argument that since Deputy Warden Rothe had been shot and killed, their escape plan was now null. Myles acknowledged that the original plan had failed, so he forwarded the idea of tunneling under the walls. He chose a place in the northwestern tower of Cellblock 1 and put a team of inmates, eventually including the kitchen staff, to work with picks and shovels. The progress on this tunnel would continue for the remainder of the riot, but was doomed to fail. Warden Conley had built the cellblocks and the walls specifically to keep inmates from tunneling, and his designs proved effective.
Outside the walls, Warden Powell was busy trying to deal with budding public reaction to the riot. The word had leaked quickly, and wives of guards who were hostages started showing up at his house. Powell decided to again enter the prison through the tunnel system which gave access to the gun ports in the mess hall and the catwalks in the cellblocks. Luckily, the riot leaders had been unable to secure a key to the access points to this tunnel system, or else Powell may have been taken hostage again. Just after sundown, Powell made his way through the tunnels to the mess hall and shouted for Myles and Smart. Myles showed up, leading Jones with a knife at his throat. Powell asked what Myles wanted, and received a verbal tirade from Myles, who stalked away, leaving Jones with Alton. Powell was told that Myles wanted at least thirty members of the press to come inside the prison, take pictures of the conditions and speak with the inmates. Powell offered to get three reporters inside the walls under the understanding that they would not print a word of what they learned until the hostages were released. Alton agreed to the plan. Powell returned to his residence to await the coming day.
Meanwhile, National Guard forces were consolidating at Trask Hall, the gymnasium of Montana's first college campus, just four blocks from the prison. Members of the press were converging upon the warden's residence, and the city and county switchboards were becoming overrun with calls regarding the riot, some as far away as London, England. By the next day, reporters from magazines like Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
and TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
descended upon the town, and Deer Lodge's prison riot made international news.
After midnight, Myles summoned Jones to talk to the media. Through Jones, Myles warned that any offensive action against the prison would end in the killing of the hostages by fire, hanging, or stabbing. Myles then spoke up, telling the amassed media that he was fighting for better conditions and just wanted to be heard. He again threatened the hostages with death if any action was taken against the prison and paraded Jones in front of the windows with a knife at his throat to make his point. Afterward, Myles led Jones back to a cell.
At midmorning on Friday, Myles and Smart allowed Jones to exit the prison walls to escort the three reporters, one from the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, another from United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, and the third from radio station KREM of Spokane, Washington
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
. Myles allowed Jones eight minutes to return with the media before he threatened to begin killing hostages. Jones met with the warden and the reporters outside Tower 7 and managed to get the reporters into the mess hall inside his eight minute window.
Only seven inmates met with the reporters, one of which was George Alton, but neither Jerry Myles or Lee Smart took part in the interview. Jones remained to assist the prisoners with their statements. The reporters recorded a plethora of complaints ranging from the sanitation in Cellblock 2 to the use of the hole as a disciplinary tool, but the most common grievance was the parole system. The inmates demanded the resignation of Benjamin Wright, the same man the convicts had asked to have fired during the pea riot of 1957.
The reporters were allowed to leave the prison without incident, and Warden Powell announced that he expected to have the hostages released as per the agreement he had made with Alton. Myles, however, demanded more reporters come inside the facility to take pictures, and he stated that nobody would be allowed to leave until he saw the story in print. Powell, on the other hand, would not re-negotiate a deal. Since Myles refused to release guards, Powell refused to allow the story to run.
This started a twenty-four-plus hour standoff in which Myles railed openly to the media outside the walls; Alton retired to his cell after an argument with Myles, convinced that no escape was forthcoming; Jones was again allowed to leave the prison to negotiate with Powell and, under orders from the warden, did not return; and the hostages survived repeated threats of death by fire, rope, or knife. The hostages were eventually crowded into three cells, and the frightened men planned to press the thin prison mattresses against the bars to ward off any attack, but they knew the shield would not hold long against fire or at all against the rifles. Governor Aronson
J. Hugo Aronson
John Hugo Aronson was an American politician from the Republican Party and the 14th Governor of the State of Montana.-Background:...
, still in Helena, continued to refuse to negotiate with the prisoners, saying:
…standing firm on my original statement that I have no intention to go to Deer Lodge or to talk to any of the rebellious convicts until order has been restored, all hostages released unharmed and convicts back in their cells.
End of the riot
Bazooka
Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless rocket antitank weapon, widely fielded by the U.S. Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was amongst the first-generation of rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat...
at the southwest tower of Cellblock 1 while Highway Patrolman Bob Zaharko fired a Thompson submachine gun
Thompson submachine gun
The Thompson is an American submachine gun, invented by John T. Thompson in 1919, that became infamous during the Prohibition era. It was a common sight in the media of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals...
through a window which had been identified as where Myles and Smart were hiding on the northeast tower of Cellblock 1. The media had been placed under watch to ensure they did not leak news of the attack to the inmates, who were listening to the radio inside the prison.
While Rose and Zaharko rained ordnance on Cellblock 1, a contingent of seven teams of National Guard waited outside the door to the women's prison on the western wall of the prison. As soon as the first bazooka round hit Cellblock 1, they burst through the door and split up, some rushing the main entrance to Cellblock 1, others going to Cellblock 2, and more circling around to storm Inside Administration.
Back in Cellblock 1, a team of Guardsmen entered the tower where Myles and Smart were hiding. The soldiers had to push past a pile of rubble which had been removed from the unsuccessful tunneling attempt as they made their way up the stairs. During their ascent, Jerry Myles managed to shoot Lieutenant Francis "Russ" Pulliam in the arm, who was removed and remanded to the hospital at Fort Harrison in Helena. Just after Pulliam was shot, a third bazooka round exploded against the tower, followed by tear gas canisters fired from the walls. Moments after the gas began to take effect, Myles and Smart fully ended the riot with a murder-suicide
Murder-suicide
A murder–suicide is an act in which an individual kills one or more other persons before or at the same time as killing himself or herself. The combination of murder and suicide can take various forms, including:...
.
Aftermath
In an interview for TIME Magazine which ran just after the riot, Warden Floyd Powell said, "Things are going to get a lot tougher around here." As soon as official control returned to the prison, the prison guards and National Guard soldiers locked all 438 inmates inside their cells and began a systematic search of the facility. Tier by tier, the guards removed the prisoners from their cells, had them strip down and stand naked in the prison yard while National Guardsmen removed all personal effects from the cells. The prisoners were subjected to cavity searchesBody cavity search
A body cavity search is either a visual search or a manual internal inspection of body cavities such as for prohibited material , such as illegal drugs, money, jewelry, or weapons...
, and many, including George Alton, had the dead bodies of Myles and Smart paraded in front of them before the cadavers were surrendered to the coroner. In their search of the cellhouses, the guards found 382 knives and had to haul away other contraband to the city dump in several 2½ ton truck loads.
Montana Women's Prison
The Montana Women's Prison is located in Billings, Montana. It houses roughly 265 female prisoners. The warden is Jo Acton and the deputy warden is Mike Aldrich.- References :...
in Billings, Montana. He converted the small building into a maximum security
Supermax
Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries...
facility which had twenty-four high security and disciplinary cells. George Alton spent two years in one of these cells, which, at the time, did not have plumbing. Inmates were provided a "honey bucket
Honey bucket
A honey bucket is a bucket that is used as a toilet in communities that lack a water-borne sewage system. The honey bucket sits under a wooden frame affixed with a toilet seat lid and may be lined with a plastic bag...
", and it was common practice for recalcitrant inmates to slosh the contents of this waste bucket at passing guards, which led to the installation of screens or wooden doors outside the bars. Two cells were installed with an angled bar along one wall to which an inmate could be hand- and ankle-cuffed to prevent him from suicide attempts, and two more were converted into "black box" cells, much like the hole had been.
In the years that followed the riot, Floyd Powell strove to provide the state of Montana with a new facility. The riot had raised awareness of the need for reform, but a five million dollar bond issue put to the citizens of the state failed by a resounding 70%. A large earthquake damaged Cellblock 2 on 17 August 1959, and the antiquated building was condemned. Its destruction kept inmates busy for a few weeks, but led to severe overcrowding in Cellblock 1. In 1961, Governor Nutter
Donald Grant Nutter
Donald Grant Nutter was an American politician. A recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross in World War II, Nutter served in the state senate and as the chair of the state Republican Party prior to being elected the 15th Governor of Montana in 1960...
curtailed the construction of new state buildings and the state government cut funding to the prison in the amount of $500,000. Warden Floyd Powell resigned in February 1962, a "distraught and frustrated man".
Last years
In the twenty years between 1959 and when the facility was shut down in 1979, the Old Montana Prison struggled with the same problems which had plagued the institution for the entirety of its history: overcrowding, underfunding, and substandard conditions. The 1959 riot had raised awareness, but few Montanans recognized the problems or realized the extent of them.1975 Theater fire
On 3 December 1975, after the building was vacated after a showing of The ODESSA FileThe ODESSA File (film)
The Odessa File is a 1974 film adaptation of the thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth, about a struggle between a young German reporter and the ODESSA, an organization for ex-Nazis. The film stars Jon Voight and was directed by Ronald Neame, with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber.- Plot :The plot opens...
, fire broke out in the WA Clark Theatre. The fire managed to burn for two and a half hours before a guard noticed smoke coming from the building, and by the time help arrived, it was too late. Warden Frank Conley's "proudest achievement" had been destroyed. The state fire marshal would later determine the fire had been caused by a "homemade incendiary device". The arsonist was never discovered, but the remaining cellblock was searched and the presence of contraband, including weapons, inspired Warden Crist to sentence a dozen inmates to the maximum security building, which had been closed for three years.
Retirement of the Facility
Almost ten years after Warden Floyd Powell resigned, Governor Forrest Anderson, who had been instrumental in the negotiations which led to the end of the pea riot in 1957, managed to get the state legislature to approve $3.8 million to be used in the construction of a new facility, but the funds did not become available until 1973. In 1974, contractors broke ground on the new prison, situated about three miles (5 km) outside of Deer Lodge on 33000 acres (133.5 km²) which had once been Warden Conley's ranch. The construction continued for five years, and the last inmates were removed from the Old Montana Prison on 5 September 1979. The old facility had been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, but, upon the removal of inmates from the facility, the state was at a loss as to what to do with it.Old Prison Museum
The city of Deer Lodge purchased the campus and turned the care of it over to the Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation. The prison is now the Old Prison Museum, a complex that includes tours of the historic prison and buildings housing other collections.- The Montana Auto Museum, operated by the Montana Auto Association, features many historic cars and trucks.
- The Frontier Montana Museum features collections of handguns, cowboyCowboyA cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
gear and collectibles, whiskey and saloonSaloonSaloon may refer to:* Saloon , a style of car body.* Saloon , a musical group.* Western saloon, a historical style of American bar.* Bar , a venue for alcoholic beverage consumption....
memorabilia. - The Powell County Museum's displays include mining, carving and local history.
- Yesterday's Playthings is a collection of dolls and toys.
External links
- Old Prison Museum - Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation