An excerpt from: "Criminal Carousel"
(Squirrel Cage Jail; Council Bluffs, Iowa)
In 1884, Cottonwood Jail burned down and the county was forced to house prisoners in a single room in the courthouse basement. The “Squirrel Cage,” as locals know it, is a rotary or “lazy-Susan” style jailhouse, built in 1885.
The rotary design of the jail was chosen for the Pottawattamie County Jail because the facility was designed to hold about 60 prisoners with only one jailer. However, there are accounts of as many as five men being put in each two-man cell. Each cell consisted of two bunks and a small privy, or primitive toilet system, in the inner part of the cell.
The Squirrel Cage structure is in the shape of a cylinder with each level divided up like a pie. The severity of the crime committed would dictate the level on which an inmate would be housed. The first floor housed petty crime criminals, while murderers were held on the third floor.
A giant crank installed on the second floor of the jail rotated the cells and opened up to three cells at one time. On each level, a small door opened to allow the prisoners to exit their cells, one cell at a time. Because the jail only rotated in one direction, if a prisoner on the backside of the facility needed to be let out, every cell in the facility turned until the prisoner needing to be let out had arrived at the small door.
Council Bluffs resident Donna Perdue visited the Squirrel Cage Jail for the first time this summer after having lived in the area her whole life.
“It is the meaning of the word punishment versus what we have today, which just seems like you are going to camp,” Perdue said. “This is punishment. You wouldn’t want to come back.”
To read more, visit http://detoursmagazine.com/winter-2009/43-destinations/109-criminal-carousel-
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