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Wyoming State Penitentiary

Location	2900 S Higley Blvd, Rawlins, Wyoming
Status	In Use
Security class	Level IV/Level V Maximum Security
Capacity	750 inmates
Opened	Frontier Prison: 1901 North Facility: 1980 Current Facility: 2001
Closed	Frontier Prison: 1980 North Facility: 2001
Managed by	Wyoming Department of Corrections
Director	Neicole Molden, Warden

The Wyoming State Penitentiary is an American historic and current prison in Rawlins, Carbon County, Wyoming, which has operated from 1901. It moved within Rawlins to a new location in 1981. In 2018, it is a Wyoming Department of Corrections state maximum-security prison for men.

Wyoming State Penitentiary is also the location of Wyoming's death row for men and execution chamber, which is located in the prison's parole board meeting room. No death sentences have been carried out in Wyoming since the 1992 execution of convicted murderer Mark Hopkinson, and, in 2018, there were no inmates on death row.

History

The penitentiary opened in Rawlins in 1901.

Wyoming State Penitentiary District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The 1901 "Wyoming Frontier Prison" at 500 W. Walnut Street
Location	6th and Walnut Sts., Rawlins, Wyoming
Area	30 acres (12 ha)
Built	1894 (1894)
Architectural style	Mission/spanish Revival, Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	83003360
Added to NRHP	May 26, 1983

Wyoming State Penitentiary District, at 6th and Walnut Streets in Rawlins, Wyoming, is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The listing included 14 contributing buildings.

The listing included the original Administration Building, which is a large stone structure designed by Salt Lake City architect Walter E. Ware and built in stages during the 1890s. The design is generally Romanesque in style, including in its type of stonework and features such as a semicircular arch, vermiculated stone sills, short columns with foliated capitals, and cone-shaped roofs on its tower.

It was completed in 1901. The 1901 building is now a museum called the Wyoming Frontier Prison. Visitors can go on guided tours through the old prison. There are exhibits about the old and current prisons and the Wyoming Peace Officers' Museum.

The Ware-designed prison operated for 80 years. Convict Henry Ruhl was executed there in 1945, the only person executed by the U.S. Federal Government in Wyoming. This facility closed as a prison in 1981 when replaced by the current location.

Modern

Its current complex which opened in 1980 at first housed about 500 medium-security prisoners. The original portion of the complex, now called the North Facility, closed in 2001 as the newer South Facility opened. The South Facility boasts the third generation prison layout of 'pods.' A driving factor behind this was the faults with the star, or block, layout of the North Facility. Narrow halls and blind, sharp corners caused dangers to staff. Security issues of the old North Facility came to light when Corporal Wayne Martinez was killed by three inmates. The three inmates gained access to the control center Corporal Martinez was in, beating him with a fire extinguisher and stabbing him over thirty times. Two inmates involved in the attack were given life without the possibility of parole, while the third was sentenced to death. In memory of Corporal Martinez, the Wayne Martinez Training Center was given his name. The North Facility remains standing, but abandoned.

Prior to 1991 the Wyoming Board of Charities and Reform operated the prison. After, the Wyoming Department of Corrections operated it.

Notable inmates

• William L. "Wild Bill" Carlisle - famous train robber, paroled in 1936
• Russell Henderson (later transferred to Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution) - murderer of Matthew Shepard
• Aaron McKinney - murderer of Matthew Shepard
• Diazien Hossencofft - confessed murderer of Girly Chew Hossencofft
• James Wiley - murdered his step-mother, along with his three step-brothers.
• Anderson Lee Aldrich - perpetrator of Colorado Springs nightclub shooting, on November 19-20, 2022, which five people were murdered and injured twenty-five others in the shooting.

Previous Wyoming territorial and state prison

Wyoming's first state prison, built in 1872 near Laramie, Wyoming and decommissioned in 1901, is now the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site. It operated as a federal penitentiary from 1872 to 1890, and as a state prison from 1890 to 1901.

References

1. ^ "Wyoming State Penitentiary". Wyoming Department of Corrections. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
3. Wyoming Recreation Commission Staff (1983). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Wyoming State Penitentiary". National Park Service. Retrieved May 24, 2019. With accompanying 17 photos from c.1900, 1978, and 1982
4. "The Wyoming Frontier Prison". The Wyoming Frontier Prison. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
5. "Convicted murderer's attempt to shorten sentence dismissed".

External links

• Wyoming State Penitentiary
• Wyoming Frontier Prison
• Wyoming Peace Officer's Museum
• Wyoming state Penitentiary at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office

41°45′56″N 107°12′56″W / 41.76566°N 107.21562°W / 41.76566; -107.21562

v t e Wyoming Department of Corrections prisons
State prisons	Wyoming State Penitentiary Wyoming Women's Center Wyoming Honor Farm Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp & Boot Camp Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution

v t e National Register of Historic Places in Carbon County, Wyoming
National Historic Landmark	Ames Monument
Historic districts	Arlington Brush Creek Work Center Como Bluff Downtown Rawlins Historic District Headquarters Park Historic District Medicine Bow Airport Muddy Creek Archeological Complex Parco Historic District Powder Wash Archeological District Rawlins Residential Historic District Ryan Ranch Wyoming State Penitentiary
Historic properties	Garrett Allen Prehistoric Site Jim Baker Cabin Boston Wyoming Smelter Site Bridger Pass Carbon Cemetery DFU Elk Mountain Bridge Divide Sheep Camp DMJ Pick Bridge DML Butler Bridge Duck Lake Station Site Elk Mountain Hotel George Ferris Mansion Ferris-Haggarty Mine Site First State Bank of Baggs Fort Halleck Fort Fred Steele Fossil Cabin France Memorial United Presbyterian Church Hanna Community Hall Hotel Wolf Hugus Hardware Jack Creek Guard Station J. O. Ranch Rural Historic Landscape Medicine Bow Union Pacific Depot Midway Station Site Pine Grove Station Site Platte River Crossing Sage Creek Station Site Saratoga Masonic Hall Stockgrowers Bank Stone Wall Ranch Union Pacific Railroad Depot, Rawlins Virginian Hotel Washakie Station Site
See also: National Register of Historic Places listings in Carbon County, Wyoming and List of National Historic Landmarks in Wyoming

• Prisons in Wyoming
• Buildings and structures in Carbon County, Wyoming
• Capital punishment in Wyoming
• Execution sites in the United States
• Rawlins, Wyoming
• 1901 establishments in Wyoming
• National Register of Historic Places in Carbon County, Wyoming
• Romanesque Revival architecture in Wyoming
• Mission Revival architecture in Wyoming
• Government buildings completed in 1894