January 25, 1839 – The Iowa Territorial Legislature in Burlington passes a law establishing the creation of a Territorial prison in Lee County near Fort Madison.
The historic Fort Madison Iowa State Penitentiary served as Iowa’s flagship prison until its closure in 2015. With construction starting seven years before Iowa’s statehood (1846), the Fort Madison prison stood as the longest continually operating prison west of the Mississippi River, and by its completion – near the turn of the century – the prison housed a maximum of 550 inmates.
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