THE NORTHERN PENITENTIARY
An institution for the confinement of criminals of the State, located at Joliet, Will County.
The site was purchased by the State in 1857 and comprises some seventy-two acres. Its erection was found necessary because of the inadequacy of the first penitentiary at Alton.
The original plan contemplated a cell-house containing 1,000 cells, which it was thought would meet the public necessities for many years to come. Its estimated cost was $550,000 but within ten years, there had been expended upon the institution the sum of $934,000, and its capacity was taxed to the utmost.
Subsequent enlargements have increased the cost to over $1,600,000 but by 1877 the institution had become so overcrowded that the erection of another State penal institution became positively necessary.
The prison has always been conducted on "the Auburn system" which contemplates associate labor in silence, silent meals in a common refectory and (as nearly as practicable) isolation at night.
The system of labor has varied at different times, the "lessee system" the "contract system" and the "State account plan" being successively in forced. The whole number of convicts in the institution, at the date of the official report of 1895 was 1,566.
The total assets of the institution, Sept 30 1894 were reported at $2,121,308.86 of which $1,644,601.11 was in real estate.