Like a Spider in His Web 



So the guard sits in one of the new circular cell houses of Joliet 

 Prison. He can keep watch over two hundred and forty-eight cells 



By Fred Telford 



OCCASIONALLY somebody 

 earns the title of genius by 

 transplanting into action 

 what others regard as impossi- 

 ble or lack the perseverance 

 to carry through. Seemingly 

 this is what fate has in store 

 for W. Carnys Zimmerman, 

 of Chicago, the architect of 

 the new state penitentiary in 

 course of erection near Joliet, 

 Illinois, which is not only built 

 along new lines but is the last 

 word in prison construction. 



Jeremy Bentham was the first 

 man who seems to have realized that the 

 consequences of imprisonment should be 

 calculated both in their effect on the con- 

 vict and on society. More than a century 

 ago he proposed that the conventional 

 prison building with its long* tiers of cells 

 invisible to the guard except when he 

 walked in front of them, was well calculated 

 to defeat its own purpose, and that a cir- 

 cular cell-house, with the guard stationed 

 in the center where he could see the 

 interior of each cell, would 

 be better. Attempt 

 have been made in 

 England to 

 carry out 



cage in the center of each cell house- 

 Thus he can see into any cell 

 on any tier at any time without 

 taking a step. As the guard's 

 own room is in darkness, no 

 prisoner can ever be sure 

 that he is not under direct 

 observation. With the old 

 straight row of cells, the 

 prisoner could be observed 

 only while the guard was pass- 

 ing his cell; moreover, the 

 guard's approaching footsteps 

 were an audible warning to a 

 vigilant prisoner. 

 The same idea is carried a step further 

 in the grouping of the eight circular 

 cell houses about a circular dining-room, 

 with a covered corridor leading directly 

 from each cell house to the part of the 

 dining-room to be occupied by the prison- 

 ers from that building. Thus all crossing 

 of columns is eliminated, and in effect 

 each cell house is a unit for eat- 

 ing and lodging pur- 

 poses. The 



Bentham' s 

 idea, but it re- 

 mained for Mr 

 Zimmerman to work 

 out the idea perfectly in 

 the new Joliet buildings, now 

 nearly ready for occupation. 



Throughout the group of buildings, 

 ease of administration has been a cardinal 

 principle. The most radical departure from 

 the conventional style is the shape" of the 

 cell houses. The 248 cells are arranged in 

 four tiers around the periphery of the 

 structure, while a guard is stationed in a 



561 



The general plan 

 of the prison 

 buildings, all of 

 which are con- 

 nected by means 

 of corridors with 

 the dining-room, 

 so that all cross- 

 ing of columns 

 is eliminated 



accompanying drawing shows clearly 

 the general plan of the prison colony. 

 At the same time, economies are ef- 

 fected by preparing food in a central 



