Joliet Officials, Museum Considering Offering Prison Tours

More than a decade after it closed, Joliet officials and the reps from the Joliet Area Historical Museum are hoping to get state approval to operate tours of the shuttered Joliet Correctional Center.

Shuttered by the Illinois Department of Corrections in 2002, the Collins Street facility— known simply as the Joliet Prison — was famously featured in the 1980 classic "The Blues Brothers."

While no one would be allowed inside the old prison itself, the tour would take visitors to a cell from 1853, a solitary confinement building, guard posts and a guard turret, according to the Herald News.

The proposal calls for $40 bus and walking tours that would originate at the museum, 204 N. Ottawa St.

Mike Brick, development director for the museum, said tourists have frequently requested more on the city's prison history.

“They constantly say, ‘We want more on the prisons, we want more on 'The Blues Brothers,'" Brick told the Herald.

Click here to read the full story.

Last July, a fire in one of the buildings at the correctional facility was complicated by the fact that firefighters had a tough time accessing the property.

Firefighters were stymied in their effort to fight the blaze because the gate closest to the warehouse had been welded shut.
Read:

• Overnight Fire Destroys Old Joliet Prison Warehouse
• Time's Running Out to Save the Old Joliet Prison, Officials Say
• 'The Blues Brothers' Shopping Mall Chase Scene As You've Never Seen It Before — in Legos