Lone lightbulb

These images hail from a damp Saturday with Jack and Joe Oliver at the Old Penitentary in Boise. 

When we first arrived we were nearly alone in the stone wall enclosed prison yard. We gingerly stepped over to cell block “A”. I screeched the rust-scabbed door open and Jack and I exchanged skeptical eyes. I beckoned for Jack to go in. He asked me to go first.

This is Idaho and state sponsored tourist sites aren’t very organized. The Old Pen is no exception.

The Old Pen is divided into two catagories: places you can and cannot go. What was off limits? The upper levels of cell blocks and any mysterious doors leading into basements. Everything else wasn’t.

I almost couldn’t even go into the solitary confinement cells stuffed in the back corner of the yard.

If you ever, ever get yourself in Boise Idaho and love anything that posesses maximum rusticness this is your place. Wow.

Warning: it’s spooky.