Council Bluffs, Iowa

From the outside, the museum looks like an average brick building. There is only one peculiarity — bars over the windows.

Built during the 19th century in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the Squirrel Cage Jail housed local criminals in addition to the jailer’s family. Today, the jail is preserved as a museum.

HISTORY AND EXPLANATION OF THE JAIL

In 1884, Cottonwood Jail burned down and the county was forced to house prisoners in a single room in the courthouse basement. The “Squirrel Cage,” as locals know it, is a rotary or “lazy-Susan” style jailhouse, built in 1885.

The rotary design of the jail was chosen for the Pottawattamie County Jail because the facility was designed to hold about 60 prisoners with only one jailer. However, there are accounts of as many as five men being put in each two-man cell. Each cell consisted of two bunks and a small privy, or primitive toilet system, in the inner part of the cell.

The Squirrel Cage structure is in the shape of a cylinder with each level divided up like a pie. The severity of the crime committed would dictate the level on which an inmate would be housed. The first floor housed petty crime criminals, while murderers were held on the third floor.

A giant crank installed on the second floor of the jail rotated the cells and opened up to three cells at one time. On each level, a small door opened to allow the prisoners to exit their cells, one cell at a time. Because the jail only rotated in one direction, if a prisoner on the backside of the facility needed to be let out, every cell in the facility turned until the prisoner needing to be let out had arrived at the small door.

Council Bluffs resident Donna Perdue visited the Squirrel Cage Jail for the first time this summer after having lived in the area her whole life.

“It is the meaning of the word punishment versus what we have today, which just seems like you are going to camp,” Perdue said. “This is punishment. You wouldn’t want to come back.”

When the jail was first built, it operated on a water motor — an innovative idea that failed within three years of the construction of the building. The crank and gears were then installed to turn the jail. As the years wore on, turning the crank became harder and harder.

Museum staffer Ed Ritchie is part of the Pottawattamie County Historical Society, which runs the jail and has worked there for three years.

“I was in marketing all my life, and I kind of relate to the architects who came up with this design,” Ritchie said. “They could have spent a fourth of the money when they built the jail, and these architects came up with ideas and almost gimmicks and talked the town into putting this jail up.”

In addition to the rotating jailhouse structure, the building also contained the jailer’s office and the kitchen used to make every meal. The stove also served as the only source of heat during the jail’s first winter in operation. A small recreation area with a few picnic tables encircled the cells. The area only would have been comfortable for a few inmates at one time.

Additionally, the main floor housed the solitary confinement cell, which is smaller than a full-size refrigerator. Prisoners were only supposed to be kept in this diminutive space for one day, but there are reports of inmates being kept inside for up to three days. They received the standard three meals per day and were given a coffee can for bathroom purposes. The space is so small that prisoners had to stand, and some of the taller prisoners may not have been able to stand tall without hitting their heads.

The second floor was home to female prisoners, as well as the juvenile detention center. Children ages 7 to 17 who had committed petty crimes such as stealing a candy bar were kept there, as well as children left with no place to go while their parents were incarcerated.

Because there are no elevators in the museum, guests cannot venture beyond the second floor. The third floor of the building housed an infirmary. In hopes of receiving better care, prisoners often tried to break their arms and legs by sticking them through the bars while the jailer turned the crank. The room opposite the physician’s on the third floor was that of the trustees. Two trusted inmates with additional responsibilities and added freedom would share a bedroom, rather than a cell, on this floor.

The jailer’s family lived on the fourth floor, which also housed the unit from which the Squirrel Cage structure itself was suspended. Odors from cell toilets traveled upward and gave the fourth floor an especially foul odor.

Angie Couchman and her family visited the Squirrel Cage Jail on a weekend getaway.

“When we were up on the second floor, I thought, ‘Man I’m sweating now — I can’t imagine being up on the third floor, especially when it’s over 100 degrees plus humidity,’” Couchman said. “And to be there all day, stuck in a little pie piece.”

CHANGES TO THE FACILITY

In 1960 the Squirrel Cage Jail underwent renovations ordered by the State Fire Marshall. The primary concern was for a quick and timely exit from the cells. With the cells the way they were, it could take days to get all the prisoners out of their cells in an emergency.

The Fire Marshall insisted that the cells be cut open and the gears cemented in place. This reduced the number of cells in use from 30 to 18. Each of the ten cells on the main level was opened, in addition to five cells on the second level and three on third level.

Electricity was added in 1960. Until this point, prisoners relied on the minimal light provided by the building’s few windows.

In 1969 the building was condemned and prisoners were moved to a facility in Clarinda, Iowa.

JAIL PERSONNEL

The position of jailer was an honor, and the pay was fair. The jailer and his family lived and worked in the jail. One jailer worked day-in and day-out for nine years without a single day off.

The family kept modest quarters on the fourth floor of the building until the 1920s. At this time, the jailer and his family moved their living space to the second floor. When the jailer’s family took over the quarters of the female prisoners, the females moved into the juvenile detention center with the children.

The jailer’s wife was expected to cook each meal for the prisoners. Common meals included beans and pasta because they were inexpensive and easy to prepare in large quantities. The jailer’s wife was given a food allowance and was allowed to keep any unused food money for the family.

One jailer could not carry out every task necessitated by the building and inmates, so he would need to seek out a few trustees. These were trusted prisoners who maintained order on the jail floor, assisted in food preparation and serving, mowed the jailhouse lawn and shopped for groceries for the jailer’s wife.

THE SQUIRREL CAGE TODAY

Inmates were cleared out of the building in 1969. Three years later the jail was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Its rich history was part of what saved it a few years later when the construction for the new courthouse began and some wanted the Squirrel Cage demolished and used for additional parking space. The Pottawattamie County Historical Society owns and operates the museum today.