Take a Look Inside Huntsville Penitentiary

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - June 19, 2013 - PRLog -- The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Huntsville Penitentiary from local author Theresa Jach, with a foreword by Jim Willett. The book boasts more than 200 vintage images.

The state of Texas, home to one of the largest prison systems in the country, opened its first penitentiary in 1849. The Walls Unit in Huntsville was the genesis of a prison system that became the home of notorious convicts and the focus of much debate about incarceration and the death penalty in the United States.

The Walls Unit housed gunslinger John Wesley Hardin, members of the Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker gang, and infamous drug cartel leader Fred Carrasco. Built using convict labor, the Walls Unit was heralded as a modern approach to incarceration in Texas. The prison dominated the landscape of the town of Huntsville when it was built and remains central to that community today.

Highlights of Huntsville Penitentiary include:
•   The Prison and Convicts
•   Prison Employees, Their Families and Homes
•   Infamous Inmates
•   Convict Work
•   Convict Leisure
•   Prison Rodeo

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.  

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com/.