Letting it all hang out

While we may often think of them as being a bit prissy, in some ways the Victorians were much more upfront than us. This thought was stimulated by this delightful 1905 image of Tombs Prison, New York:


In Britain, old, city-centre Victorian prisons are closed down and new prisons are built on greenfield sites miles from everyday view. We like to put our criminals out of sight, presumably so we don't have to think about them. Which may partly explain why the prison population has more than doubled over the last decade.


Anyone wandering around Chicago will sooner or later encounter this striking piece of triangular, sandstone Modernism:


Turns out it's the County jail, slap-bang in the middle of the city, soaring above its surroundings and making its presence felt.


If you glance up at the roof, you'll even see the prisoners, gathered at the fence, looking out presumably longingly (although being paranoid I had the uncomfortable sensation that they could easily throw things at me...)


At first I thought this was some ghastly new type of Bedlam, but then I thought that it was actually an important statement: the state locks people up (and sometimes it should), and here's evidence of them doing it. All upfront and in the open.

On reflection, it feels like that Victorian approach was rather better than ours.