Old Joliet Prison — Attraction in Joliet

The city has such great plans for the place. One group wants to turn it into a shopping/business area. Another a museum. Another a private golf course. Some want to tear it down. These city factions are constantly at odds with each other. The museum is slowly "restoring" the interior. It's interesting to watch clueless teenage volunteers scrape decades of lead based paint of the walls and under stairs, breathing in those little pieces of lead dust that's coating their hair, faces and clothes. But the city does provide protection - those little face-napkin things that keep the flu at bay. Works on the flu, so it will work on lead and asbestos, right?

The museum has stated that much of the location is dangerous. Apparently OSHA and the EPA got involved as well - but those kids are still cleaning up.... Anyway, the city must not have been CC'd because they are using the location for disc golf. And massive parties with thousands of people. Yep - everyone was warned that the tunnels that are located beneath the yard are in danger of collapse. Yet a thousand people walking around on top of those tunnels at a concert is fine. Maybe it's a stress test? One group was warned that the chimney for the old power plant is in danger of collapse. Oopsie - someone did not get the message. Parties and disc golf right under the chimney.

If we ignore the obvious safety concerns, environmental issues and literal toxic environment, the place is fun. In a Pripyat kind of way. The few times when I visited I had hair covering, extra clothes, extra boots, a commercial grade particle mask. I'd change and clean the clothes, jacket and boots later on. Unlike the many volunteers who would just get picked up or climb in their vehicles and track all that toxic crud home with them. So IF you do visit, be prepared. Mask rated for asbestos and lead dust. Extra shoes. Ideally overalls you can remove. The tour guides won't tell you any of this because it may cut back on business.

Walk around the outside, check out all the details and wonder how anyone fit in some of the really narrow guard house doors! The prison is leased by the city of Joliet - that means that's a multi-use venue! Concerts, disc golf, tours and more. The grass in the yard is mowed, all the points of entry have been secured, and there's a 24/7 police presence. The city offers seasonal walking tours and photo tours. Unfortunately much of the prison is now off-limits due to safety concerns. This includes the administration building, cell blocks and anything over the 1st floor in any building. You can still walk through parts of the building and spread around that asbestos and lead...

Very mixed fillings after completed tour. In general, I do like the place and I think it has a huge potential for a great museum. However, not everything is so great. Starting with a tour person. We went for a Historical Tour which supposed to be led by docents and trained tour guides from the Joliet Area Historical Museum. Unfortunately, instead of that we got a teenager working there for 2 months, dressed in a playboy shirt, and constantly was making jokes about his place of work. At very beginning he informed us that we can ask questions, but most probably we will not get answers. This way he convince us all that asking question is probably a waste of time. So there wasn’t many of those at end.

In general, whole prison is in a very bad shape. It makes me wonder what exactly is going on there. This place is literally falling apart. Which is very weird. It’s only 19 years since was closed down. Since that they have made a fortune from Hollywood for allowing to use prison in a multiple movies/tv shows productions. Only for one shot at the entry gate, the Blues Brother producents paid $37k. Not mentioned all money from the Prison Break series. We are not talking about 190 years, but only 19th. Also, advise for a future visitors. Get your fridge magnets sorted before tour began. You might not be lucky to find visitor center open again. That’s what happened to us. There was a mobile number left at door so you can contact someone. Unfortunately, they were not happy to reopen for us (at 2:30pm). Apparently all staff was giving tours. I got advised to buy stuff online LOL. Which also is quite a nightmare as for shipping from IL to WI they charge you $8 and their website is rejecting mostly all credit/debit cards. An adventure. Anyway, I hope I will have chance to return over there in next 10 years. As I said before, museum has real potential. Might need management/staff upgrade, but who knows…. Maybe one day 😊 Still recommending to all movie...

It's really difficult to give this place a good rating, due to the awful experience we had at the recent Blues Brothers Con. It was a Con alright... Don't get me wrong, the prison is historically a really, really cool place to visit. We really did enjoy walking around the buildings and taking it all in. But, unfortunately, that's where it ended. So, on to the concert... They were originally selling Standing Room General Admission, and Just Plain General Admission tickets online, but apparently ran out. So, we were left with General Admission tickets when we got there. There was still some room on the ground in front of the fenced area, which we decided to sit after taking in the sights of the prison. We probably ended up sitting there a good couple of hours before the Blues Bros finally came out. And that's when All HELL broke loose. The minute they started performing their first song, people out of nowhere came in and barged in front of everyone who had sat there for hours, pushing themselves in front, and invading your personal space. And, of course, one couple decided to do that right next to us. My wife is short, so of course, she was an easy target. Then, as I watched them, I could see they just kept invading her space more and more. And being my wife is as good natured as she is, she unfortunately allowed it to happen. With that I traded places with her, and soon got in an argument with the male, being that he continued to invade my space with his arms and body. It was not pretty at all, and as our voices raised, then came the Joliet Police to Take ME away! I couldn't believe it! Yeah, let's take this big guy troublemaker away, instead of the jerks that instigated the entire matter. They told us to go someplace else, and with that, we did, and left. Needless to say, we will NEVER be back to Blues Brothers, THE CON, or Joliet Prison, or Joliet for that matter. YOU...