Old Jail Begun Year Before Town Got Its Charter Work on the old stone county jail, which still stands on W. 2d st., back of the court house, began the year before Media was chartered as a borough. Records show that the contract for the jail, as well as the first section of the court house, was let in August, 1849. Both buildings were to cost $32,000. Joseph Esrey, John Williamson and Joseph Lawson were awarded the contract. As the sheriff in those days was the keeper of the jail, the jail provided living quarters for him and his family. The prison, in the rear, provided only 16 cells. Crime was not too rampant in the old days, for a history discloses that for nearly one entire week after April 18, 1854, all of the cells were empty. Early Escape The escape record started very early. On Aug. 22, 1851, not very long after the prison was opened, John Cope scaled the high stone wall. Seven days later, Robert Lees hanged himself in his cell. By 1868, the records show, the prison had been extended to provide 40 cells. A few years later four men tried to dig their way out of the prison but they were detected when they had only one more stone to remove before they made a dash for freedom. Another addition was made in a 1878, adding 36 more cells, at a cost of $16,140. In the old days persons convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death were hanged in the yard of the old jail. The last hanging was of a man named West, just before the law was enacted providing for electrocution at a state penitentiary. It was the sheriffs job to act as hangman, using gallows erected in the exercise yard.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 15:33:00 +0000
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