Museum of Colorado Prisons, Prison museum in Cañon City, United States.
The Museum of Colorado Prisons is housed in a former women's prison building next to the active Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility. The upper floor displays thirty cells, while the lower level contains the original kitchen, isolation cells, and exhibits focused on federal prisons.
The museum was founded in 1988 and preserves artifacts and documents from Colorado's correctional institutions. The collections document more than 140 years of regional prison history.
The museum displays personal stories from inmates and staff through photographs, documents, and belongings that belonged to them. These exhibits offer direct insights into life behind bars from different viewpoints.
The museum occupies the 1935 cell house, reached from U.S. Highway 50 just east of the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility; the entrance is off the highway side, not through the active prison. The city granted a 99-year lease to the foundation, and the cell house was renovated for disabled visitors before opening. Allow time to walk the two floors of cells and the lower-level kitchen and isolation cells.
The former women's cell house dates from 1935 and sits against the east wall of the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, an active prison since 1871. Volunteers catalogued artifacts of the state prison system from 1871 onward before the museum opened on June 18, 1988.
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