Across Indiana
Rotary Jail Museum
Season 2023 Episode 4 | 5m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Crawfordsville’s Rotary Jail Museum is a portal to the past.
Crawfordsville’s Rotary Jail Museum is a portal to the past. This unusual jail was designed to rotate so prisoners could only enter or exit when their cell aligned with an outer door, keeping guards safe and inmates in their cells. Yet the mechanism had tragic flaws, and by the 1970s, a new jail was built. Now, the museum in Crawfordsville is the last of its kind.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Across Indiana is a local public television program presented by WFYI
Across Indiana
Rotary Jail Museum
Season 2023 Episode 4 | 5m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Crawfordsville’s Rotary Jail Museum is a portal to the past. This unusual jail was designed to rotate so prisoners could only enter or exit when their cell aligned with an outer door, keeping guards safe and inmates in their cells. Yet the mechanism had tragic flaws, and by the 1970s, a new jail was built. Now, the museum in Crawfordsville is the last of its kind.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- [Narrator] "Across Indiana" is on the road again.
This time to Crawfordsville, Indiana.
(somber guitar music) The town where "Ben Hur" was written and the home of a rotating jail.
(door squeaks) (door slams) - My name is Philip Roach and I give tours here at the museum.
When you step into there, you step into 1882.
- [Narrator] Benjamin Haugh, the namesake of Haughville in Indianapolis, designed the jail in 1881.
By 1882, this facility in Crawfordsville was operational.
(somber guitar music continues) It was made to be inescapable and to minimize the need for guards.
The circular two-story jail sits on a supportive base that can rotate.
- [Philip Roach] It's a miniature railroad turntable.
You crank it.
- [Narrator] Each section is a jail cell that can be spun around to the one and only exit.
Indiana's cold weather and over 150 years of wear and tear make operating the jail quite a workout.
(man panting) The Rotary Jail really was a success in many ways.
- Two guards could watch 37 inmates at any given time.
- [Narrator] But these jails were later decommissioned for many reasons.
The main one being injuries.
- Because of the inebriation and because of the impeccable engineering here, it made a disastrous morning.
These men who are inebriated sometimes have the tendency to feel like they're spinning, don't realize the floor is actually moving until they feel pain from the pressure of those bars.
- I imagine it was pretty harsh because I know the first couple of years it was built, it did not have heat.
- One of the things that they had to address was the toilet issue.
A cistern on the roof was used to collect rainwater and as long as there was enough water, they would manually flush that system twice a day.
It was sometimes very aromatic back there.
- [Narrator] Needless to say, most people didn't want to be here.
- I'd live here if they'd let me.
- [Narrator] Phil actually did live here as a kid.
- My uncle was the sheriff from 1949 to 1951.
That banister right behind me was a favorite toy.
You'd be surprised how fast you could go from the top to the bottom.
- [Narrator] The elected sheriff lived here on site to keep an eye on the inmates.
A few executions even happened here when Indiana was still hanging on to being the Wild West.
Stories of the notorious residents are sprinkled throughout its history, but one that really stands out is the story of John Coffee, just like the drink and spelled the same.
If local lore even holds some truth about this inmate from 1885, the guilty verdict was questionable.
He was mentally disabled but still arrested for two murders.
- When he was accused of those murders, he never denied being there when they happened.
- [Narrator] He claimed someone else did it.
- The sheriff and the guards working here completely boycotted the execution.
They would not be seen outside.
They would not perform their duties for the execution because they've felt so firmly that John was an innocent man.
- [Narrator] It's rumored that many of the guards bonded with Coffee because he was so childlike.
- [Elizabeth Peck] They actually took turns coming in off duty at night to sleep in his cell while he was being held here during the trial because he was afraid of the dark.
- [Narrator] Even though public executions were illegal at the time, Coffee's final moments of life would draw a crowd of over 200 people.
It took three hanging attempts to find a rope that wouldn't snap under Coffee's weight.
- It's a really unsatisfying story because there really was no justice for John.
- [Narrator] It is, of course, also rumored that John Coffee's ghost still haunts this place.
- [Elizabeth Peck] If he is here, I wanna stay his friend.
- When I come in every morning, I say, "Good morning, gentlemen."
I don't know whether they're here or not.
- [Narrator] 17 of these rotating jails were constructed in the US by the early 1900s but this is the only one that's still working.
- [Philip Roach] You will be surprised when you walk in the door and when you go out, you'll be thinking, "Why didn't I come here before?"
- [Narrator] The history, legends, and the jail itself are in good hands here in Crawfordsville.
- So we just push down.
- Push down on it, and just keep going.
(man grunts) - It's not easy.
That can't be good, Phillip.
What happened to the hat?
- [Narrator] Find more stories at wfyi.org/AcrossIndiana.
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Across Indiana is a local public television program presented by WFYI