Prison Tours | Missouri State Penitentiary (2024)

FAQs

Does Eastern State Penitentiary have tours? ›

Throughout the day, we offer quick, interactive tours led by our educators. This program is what we call Unlocking History. They're a great way to explore otherwise-off-limits areas of the prison and learn more about life at Eastern State and in prison today.

The prison housed inmates for 168 years and was the oldest continually operating prison west of the Mississippi until it was decommissioned in 2004. Now the Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau offers a wide variety of tours at the site, once named the “The bloodiest 47 acres in America” by Time Magazine.

Tour the spooky halls of the Missouri State Penitentiary and experience a fascinating part of Jefferson City's history as you walk through the dungeon cells and other areas of the prison.

Buried Alive ; Or, Eighteen Years in the Missouri Penitentiary: The Story of J.B. Johnson's Life in a Dungeon, Graphically Described and Vividly Portrayed by His Own Pen ...

The Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola, and nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the South", "The Angola Plantation" and "The Farm") is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections.

Alphonse "Scarface" Capone

Chicago's most famous mob boss spent eight months at Eastern State in 1929-1930. Arrested for carrying a concealed, deadly weapon, this was Capone's first prison sentence. His time in Eastern State was spent in relative luxury.

Known for its grand architecture and strict discipline, this was the world's first true “penitentiary,” a prison designed to inspire penitence, or true regret, in the hearts of prisoners.

Its vaulted, sky-lit cells held nearly 85,000 people over its long history, including bank robber "Slick Willie" Sutton and "Scarface" Al Capone.

But countless injuries and deaths, plus a major inmate riot in 1954, led Time Magazine to call the prison “the bloodiest 47 acres in America.” Today, guides and guests alike attest to the apparitions, unusual sounds, and eerie vibes filling the storied halls.

Missouri History Today April 23, 1967: James Earl Ray escapes from the Missouri State Penitentiary. James Earl Ray was doing 20 years for a robbery when he escaped in a bread truck. It wasn't even big news at the time, but it sure became big news a year later when Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where are death row inmates held in Missouri? ›

Potosi Correctional Center (PCC) is a Missouri Department of Corrections prison located in unincorporated Washington County, Missouri, near Mineral Point. The facility currently houses 800 death row, maximum security and high-risk male inmates.

The Missouri State Penitentiary, also called MSP or the Walls, was a notoriously brutal prison. In 1967, Time Magazine named it “the bloodiest 47 acres in America.”

ADX Florence, USA

ADX Florence, located in the United States, has earned its reputation as one of the world's worst prisons due to its exceptionally high-security measures. Commonly known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” ADX Florence houses some of the most dangerous and notorious criminals.

BURIED ALIVE; OR, EIGHTEEN YEARS IN THE MISSOURI PENITENTIARY. THE STORY OF J.B. JOHNSON'S LIFE IN A DUNGEON, GRAPHICALLY DESCRIBED AND VIVIDLY PORTRAYED BY HIS OWN PEN... Kansas City: Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Company, 1903.