Locked Away
Deep in the heart of Huntsville, Texas…okay, probably not. But locked in the town is a very famous museum dealing with prison paraphernalia and history. Welcome to the Texas Prison Museum.
The museum is located in a 10,000 square foot building that houses all of the past prison tools. The artifacts date back to 1848 up till today, having the usual ball and chains, electric chairs up to primitive lethal injection rooms. It’s a bit gory and a bit scary, but there’s the humanity of the situation in there.
The centerpiece of the museum is a lowly electric chair named Old Sparky, who has at least executed more than 360 prisoners in its lifetime. Made by prisoners, for the prisoners; is the running joke that was somehow grim and dark. It was salvaged before it could be scrapped, and is now on display at the museum, safe from rot.
There are also items of interest, like the Telex machine that was the last hope for death-row prisoners. The Telex delivered reprieves and presidential pardons. One wonders if it did ever work though. There are also prison contrabands, items fashioned by the prisoners as weapons from daily, oftentimes inconspicuous, items. Knives, makeshift guns, mauls, etc. you name it, they almost have all of it.
You can have your picture taken for fun, only for three bucks. You could get your picture taken in a life-like prison room. For an additional fee, you could borrow a t-shirt (a striped one?) to complete the ensemble.
Unsurprisingly, the people who most frequent the museum would be the ex-prisoners themselves. It’s like a big irony. When asked how it feels to be looking at the things they lived with for a big part of their lives; they can only say ‘feels different’.
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