Kinda related point…
I grew up mere blocks from the actual “Fox River State Penitentiary” (in reality, the
Joliet Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois), where much of the first couple of seasons of the TV series was filmed… the opening scenes of the Belushi/Akroyd classic,
The Blues Brothers, were filmed there as well.
Back in the late 50’s/early 60’s, when I was but a young sprat, the
Collins Street Prison, as the “locals” still refer to it today, was a minimum security facility, housing “trustees” who were regularly allowed outside the walls to tend to road work or work in the quarry that adjoins the facility. Me and my cousin would regularly ride our bikes past these trustee inmates, often times striking up friendly conversations with a few of them (that is, until the prison guards would run us off!).
Confession time: On more than one occasion I recall us treating some of the friendlier inmates to Hershey Bars … and I even recall raiding Dad’s refrigerator and smuggling a couple of cans of… ummm… shall we say “amber nectar” to some mighty appreciative trustees with patrched throats! Hey, the statute of limitations on smuggling contraband
has to have expired by now, right??
Back then, part of the prison was also used as the State of Illinois Inmate Processing Center, the first stop for the
really bad guys, prior to their being transferred to
Stateville, the maximum security facility about ten miles away. I recall standing right alongside the main doors as Richard Speck (you youngsters can google him, if you dare) was brought in… catching a glimpse of his cold eyes as they ushered him past me, standing mere feet away, still gives me shivers to this day…
