Kendall County Times

Led by Joliet City Council member Bettye Gavin, city officials were briefed earlier this month about plans council members have for the Historical and Old Prison, including now seeking investments for future projects.

During their March 21 meeting, Gavin added the prison is continuing to attract strong attendance and tour numbers, along with the rest of the Historical Center and museum, and is now seeking as much as $4 million in grant funding for projects that include stabilization efforts for the old structure.

Back in 2022, prison officials said they were awarded a $3.5 million grant with a $3 million appropriation grant, but the funds are still being processed and have not yet been received.

“That’s kind of what we discussed, that the further improvements that we do and the improvements that we've committed to already kind of put us in a better position to renegotiate a long term lease agreement,” council member Cesar Guerrero added in a video posted to YouTube. “As we've kind of demonstrated to the state of Illinois, our intention and our capacity is to be able to maintain the property. So we're working towards a better negotiation resolve, as the chairwoman said, it's just very slow.”

With the city currently leasing the building from the state through the end of the calendar year, tours of the Old Joliet Prison can now be purchased for all of 2023, including guided tours, self-guided tours and even tours after dark. The two sides are also now in talks about renewing the arrangement given all the improvements made to the facility over the last five years and the ones that remain planned for it.

Built nearly two centuries ago in 1831 as an insane asylum, the Old Joliet Prison was converted into a full-time prison in 1858 when 53 prisoners were brought in. Some two decades later, the facility housed over 2,000 inmates.

While calls for its shuttering began as early as in 1905 and another state penitentiary being built in the late 1920s, the Old Prison did not fully close to inmates until 2002. The facility sat dormant until the city took it over six years ago and made it a part of their Historical center, opening it up for public tours.