Hard Time

About this book

"Few prisons can claim a past as colorful as the old Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater. In its sixty-five year history, from planning to closing, the prison witnessed the capture and imprisonment of the Younger gang in 1876; the prison fire of 1884; the daring escape of Frank P. Landers and Oscar J. Carlon in 1887; the twine shop insurrection of 1899; and the manhunt for escaped convicts Peter Juhl and Jerry McCarty in 1911. Its history is packed with such peculiar characters as "Bull Beef" Webber, the warden who allowed murderers to embark on hunting trips and an incarcerated prostitute to work out of the prison hospital; Charles Price, a convicted murderer who became famous for his prison greenhouse; and John Carter, the convicted thief turned poet who won his freedom with his verse." "The less remembered stories are here too: George L. Bartlett, who details the terrifying first days of incarceration; Azilda Beaudry, who writes achingly of her separation from her children as they die one by one of disease; Walter Turner, an African American inmate who renders advice on surviving solitary confinement; and Samuel A. Phillips, who speaks frankly about sex in the prison. Their stories give voice to the forgotten history of the prison."--Jacket.