The Original Stearns County Jail: 1921-1987
Photos courtesy of Tim DesMarais
The original jail was built in the early 1920s, at approximately the same time as the current Courthouse building. The jail stood on the current site of the Stearns County Administration Center and faced south, toward the Courthouse. It was a state-of-the-art facility for its time.
The brick building was heated with coal. It retained lots of heat during the summers, and was often quite chilly in the winters unless you were near a radiator. Only portions of the building were ever air-conditioned.
The area to the left of the jail's front door (the west side of the building) was used as the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff and his family also lived in this portion of the jail building. A separate entrance on the west side was available for office visits.
The center of the building housed the inmates. The jail could hold 32 inmates at one time. There were two cell blocks on each floor, housing four cells with two bunks per cell.
To the right of the front door (the east side of the building) was the dispatch center.
Inside the Front Door
The public lobby, shown left, was at the front entrance to the jail. The mirror above the door is reflecting the Dispatch Center.
The public entrance, shown right, led to the Dispatch Center and the Jail. The sign on the barred gate of that entrance reads "DON'T PUSH until latch opens".
The photo shown below is of the main gate and was taken from inside the jail, from the perspective of an inmate, looking through the bars toward the Dispatch Center. Just inside the gate was cell block #4. This cell block contained four cells, each with two bunks. The next door led to a passageway between cell blocks (cell block #8 was on the other side of the passageway). Access to the wiring and plumbing for the cells was through this passage.
Entering the Cell Block
This "barrel door," located at the entrance to the cell block, was curved inward to give the officers a better field of view before they entered the cell block for rounds.
The photo on the right depicts what the officer would see after opening the barrel door and stepping inside. This walkway, or "catwalk," brought the officer past the four cells in the block.
Officers did not have a good view of what was happening inside the cells until they walked almost directly in front of them. The bars severely obstructed the view. Bars have been replaced in most modern jails by steel doors and/or a better arrangement of cells to improve visibility.
Cell Block Features
The cells were small rectangular rooms, approximately 7 feet wide by 10 feet long. Along one of the long walls, two bunks were suspended from the wall with chains, one bunk above the other. On the other side of the cell, a sink and toilet were installed. Unfortunately, we have no photos taken from the officer's perspective, looking into a cell from the catwalk.
The inmates were allowed to have a portable television brought in for their use. Creative measures sometimes had to be taken to fit the TV into the cell! The electrical wiring was run from the service passageway between the cell blocks.
Did you notice that the door to the cell is standing open? This was typical. It was determined that the cells' square footage was too small to house two inmates humanely at one time, so the interior door had to remain open when both bunks were occupied.
When an inmate needed to be separated from the others due to discipline measures or safety concerns, they were moved to one of the two segregation cells in the jail. These were the only cells with just a single bunk. Below, you'll see one of the segregation cells, as well as the shower room used by inmates who were placed in segregation.
Creative Use of Space
The jail kitchen staff served home-style meals to the inmates three times a day. The food was moved from the kitchen to the second floor cell block via a dumbwaiter built into the wall. The setup you see on the left, looking somewhat similar to a picnic table, is where the inmates took their meals. This area also served as a leisure area when the inmates were not on lockdown.
Staff had to improvise in a number of ways in order to perform their jobs. For example, a single small metal cabinet, placed at the end of a short hallway, served as the jail pharmacy, a repository for inmate medications and a first-aid station.
The small room shown at right is a good example of how the sheriff's staff learned to improvise to provide needed services in a small space. It functioned as a recreation room, an exercise room, a library, and a meeting room. Religious worship services were also held here.
The years took a toll on the jail, both inside and outside the cells. Over the years, the links in the chains suspending the inmates' bunks began to stretch, causing some bunks to tilt dramatically toward the floor! In 1987 the new Law Enforcement Center, with its modern jail, was more comfortable and a cleaner, safer environment for all concerned.