ALTON PENITENTIARY
The earliest punishments imposed upon public offenders in Illinois were by public flogging or imprisonment for a short time in jails rudely constructed of logs, which escape was not difficult for a prisoner of nerve, strength and mental resource.
The inadequacy of such places of confinement was soon perceived but popular antipathy to any increase of taxation prevented the adoption of any other policy until 1827.
A grant of 40,000 acres of Saline lands was made to the State by Congress and a considerable portion of the money received from their sale was appropriated to the establishment for a State penitentiary at Alton.
The sum set apart proved insufficient and in 1831 an additional appropriation of $10,000 was made from the State treasury. In 1833 the prison was ready to receive its first inmates. It was built of stone and had but twenty-four cells.
Additions were made from time to time but by 1857 the State determined upon building a new penitentiary which was located at Joliet and in 1860 the last convicts were transferred thither form Alton.
The Alton prison was conducted on what is known at "The Auburn Plan" associated labor in silence by day and separate confinement by night. The management was in the hands of a "lessee" who furnished supplies, employed guards and exercised the general powers of a warden under the supervision of a Commissioner appointed by the State, and who handled all the products of convict labor.