Historic Iowa State Penitentiary

Our nation was only 57-years-old when it was constructed, with only 26 states in the Union. Iowa was a territory, with Historic Iowa State Penitentiary acting as the territorial prison almost a decade prior to Iowa's statehood. It was 22-years-old at the beginning of the Civil War and had seen its 100th birthday before the end of World War II. The State of Iowa's Department of Corrections has moved to a new state-of-the-art facility just 1.5 miles away from the original location in 2015.