As a kid i remember visiting my aunt when she was locked up here. It was such a weird feeling walking out from the visit to be hit with the view and sounds of a vibrant downtown. The EL making its noise, cars honking, masses of people on the streets, the lake breeze hitting you ever so slightly between the buildings. It’s almost like the inmates get trolled everyday when they look out their window to realize all the beautiful freedom they were stripped off. The city will forever keep moving while you’re stuck in that mf rotting.
Trenton state prison is like that. Except it's just in the middle of the city. Houses right across the street. And the other side runs along a highway and the train tracks. That's a maximum security prison to. When I was a kid I was at a friend who lived across the street. Felt weird as hell smoking weed at his house. He didn't care. Lol
Theres a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles and it looks like this building kinda, but I agree it's not an actual jail just a giant holding tank in a sense
The views out of the front and back of the trains are great in and around the loop. Thanks to you and all the CTA people who keep public transit rolling in Chicago.
I’ve been going to visitations for about 5 years with the 16th of this month being the most recent time I was there. Renovations were made in parts of the jail. One thing I do like about it is the art created by the inmates displayed throughout the visiting room. Also with programs opening up you can see the drive some of the inmates show trying to correct the wrongs of their past. I’ve had the pleasure to sit in a graduation ceremony for those who passed their GED. Some people do want to change and it’s good to see it first hand.
I was there in 1993 for about 8 months awaiting trial and sentencing, alot of the floors are dormitories not cells, there are bunk beds tucked into every square inch, its filthy and terribly overcrowded
If the criminals would quit doing their thing it wouldn't be crowded at all. I have absolutely no sympathy for the guilty ones which is the vast majority.
Oh, and guess who pays for those prosecutors? Tax payers. Some of the same people are paying for the salary of the person throwing the book at them as they are the public defender they are getting to defend them. Imagine if youre innocent and the state wants to lock you up for 30+ days. You pay for the prosecutor and you pay for the public defender, or your own attorney. Its incredible. And who pays for the jails? Yep. Tax payers. So you pay for the overcrowding too and the more jailed the better.
Brutalist doesn’t mean “brutal” - it comes from “Beton Brut” which is French for “raw concrete”. While some brutalism is indeed brutal, other brutalist structures are quite lovely!
Exactly, I was thinking the same thing. People just say all brutalism is ugly, when that is not the case. Harry Weese has designed some great burtalist buildings, including the DC subway system.
Yeah this isn't the first time he's mis-defined a word. I still think back to when he said that "gangway" was called that because of the gang activities that happened in alleys in Chicago. I was thinking "No, since English is Germanic some words are derived for the German language. One of those is 'Gangway' which in German is just a corridor of sorts." There's such good research in these videos but the etymology just isn't there.
Thankyou...I have been relating this fact for years. I heard a story that beton brut was transmogrified into brutal at London's Architectural Association in the 1990's.
>In the arts, 1953 in reference to a style characterized by deliberate crudity and exposed structure. Semantics. There are probably some very nice exceptions but as a whole it is ugly, obtrusive and the complete opposite of classical beauty. I might be a lay man, but I know ugly when I see it.
This was a good one. I live in Palatine (NW suburb of Chicago about 30 miles from the building) and have all my life, but I've always been curious about this mysterious place. I remember when Ken Conley and that other guy scaled down the building with tied bedsheets. They were WAY high up there. I could have NEVER done that! Of course like all escapees, they failed to plan their post-escape. I watch so many reality prison escape documentaries and it always BLOW my mind that these guys are willing to say crawl through a 12" steam pipe for 80' with cockroaches and rats surrounding them and then once free they have NO CLUE where to go or what to do.... SO they get re-captured. BLOWS MY MIND! great video )
Yea, unfortunately these are the same type of people that would creampie a dumb woman and then get surprised when a judge orders them to pay child support. They never plan ahead of time 😅
The thing is some of these guys have been down for multiple years and the landscape can change in as little as 10 years in todays world. Also, some people are booked in different states or counties from which they lived in. They might genuinely know nothing about the area
When I visited the Sears tower, I noticed the prison. I knew right away what it was. The window style made it obvious. The architecture screams prison. Prisoners were playing sports on top.
Our college dorm was right across the street from this building. We got in trouble for putting signs in our windows trying to communicate with the inmates...
Milwaukee also has a "skyscraper" prison located in downtown Milwaukee called MSDF, Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility which is ran by the Department of Corrections. It's a building within a building, meaning there is an outer shell that makes it look like a normal building with windows, but then if you go about 5 feet deeper there is another shell which is the actual prison structure, the window in the cells, which are fogged so you can't see out, actually look out to the space in between those two shells. They spent ALOT of money trying to make the building look like a normal office building. I did 342 days at MSDF and it sucked. You're stuck in your cell 23hrs a day. My only saving grace from going nuts was getting a job in the kitchen and the only reason i did that was to get out of my cell and for the extra food. The majority of people in Milwaukee don't even know it's a prison, because it doesn't look like one, but plenty of people are actively trying to get it shutdown because it's a hellhole. Most people don't do more than a year there though because it's really only an intake facility for people who have violated their probation, been revoked and are either waiting to see if their probation or parole will be revoked (aka revocation hearing) or waiting to be transferred to an actual prison in Wisconsin after being revoked. Bottomline is everyone who is there would much rather be in an actual prison then at MSDF.
😳 Informative. I just Googled that place up and viewed it on Google Maps. I was born and raised in Milwaukee, lived here virtually all my life, I had no idea that's what that building was. That said... I would call that more of a high rise than a bona fide skyscraper. It looks nowhere near as tall as that Chicago one in this video.
@@NonLegitNation2 I've never been inside, but that building always has an uncanny valley feel, a building pretending to be a building, I'm very sorry you had to spend time in it
That architecture firm designed my high school. No windows opened. We joked that it was a training facility for future inmates, and that was before any of us knew about the MCC.
Since I work construction in Chicago, I’ve been in buildings where we could watch them go to the rec yard while we took break. Always something interesting to watch
My uncle worked 30 years at this prison and was assistant warden at one point, I believe. Dealt with the worst of the worst in those years. I remember when a guy escaped lol
I can't be the only one who looked at that and immediately could tell it was a prison. One look at the windows or lack of them. It looks nothing like a NORMAL Skyscraper
I grew up in the outskirts of chicago and had never heard of the prion skyscraper. It wasn’t until I was in my 20s and actually noticed the building. Yup I instantly knew that HAD to be a prison. Pretty common sense since it’s the ONLY building in the city that looks like that.
First time I saw it I thought it was normal office building however they needed the windows small as they do highly confidential and secretive things in there so they made the windows smaller.
Never been in there but I once had an office in the CBOT that overlooks the MCC and I have a photo of a Peregrine Falcon that nested on the side of the MCC, the bird would eat its prey (pigeons) on a small balcony outside one of the office windows. I posted the photo somewhere and the Peregrine Program at the Field Museum contacted me to learn the particulars about the photo; the bird was banded but they couldn’t get any good photos of the bird due to how high the nest was and how far the MCC is from other tall buildings. But if one of us got to the office early enough we could see the falcon dining on a pigeon.
Well a floor is like 10ft maybe 12 to 14 given it's a prison so probably thick floors (basing that off zero knowledge) but if a bed sheet is at lest 6ft for a bed. Maybe like 36.8333 bed sheet
@@dabkevinhere5422 You also have to consider that you lose a foot or two for the knots. So however many knots multiplied by the length of both sheets used for each knot needs to be added to this number. 🙂
@@bubzilla6137 Are the sheets to be tied on the full end or is it enough to tie opposing corners? If corners can we get longer useful length for each sheet (according to Pythagoras formula). Asking for a friend.
We got an 8 floor, & a 13 floor county jail here in downtown Detroit. They're also building a new skyscraper County jail complex,& courthouse set to open at the end of 2023/start of 2024. Where's the video on these gems?
The county jail in Lexington,KY was like this. A seven story concrete block in downtown Lexington. I had the dubious pleasure of being a guest for ten days or so. Nasty doesn't even begin to describe the place, an effective deterrent for crime.
That’s the ollllddd jail. We have a much nicer one now. I think it was built atleast 20 years ago maybe longer not sure. I’ve been inside there for over a year and it’s not too terrible
It would be impossible for Christopher Nolan’s brother to escape from the 11th floor with a rope made of bedsheets. Some years later bank robbers repelled from the 17th floor with a rope made of bedsheets. Wtf.
You know hearing this stuff makes me think of the game Watch dogs. They actually based a mission in the prison now. Of course, for security reasons they couldn't use the real layout so they use their imaginations now. It was pretty cool to see The game used the building as a point of interest in the game for mission
San Francisco’s county jail 850 is the same way , well not a skyscraper but it is a high building, right next to highway 80. Getting on the bay bridge from SF. Unless you know what it is you would think it’s just a old building
I always found this building interesting while growning up in Chicago, after retiring for working for California State Correctional system and worked in 3 of it's maximum security facilities, it would have been fun to take a tour on one of my visits back to Chicago to visit family and friends.
So does Baltimore & Kansas City as well as the FCI OKLAHOMA (Federal) that is built on the tarmac of the airport so inmates walk into the prison directly from the airplane's cockpit without touching or seeing the ground.
You referring to the "HQ" lockup in KC? Ive been there.. thankfully only a day or so. The other lockup is Jackson County, and I've heard that place was rough. Not that I cared at the time haha. Quite awhile ago now..
I recall a mission in Watch Dogs (the first game), in which there is a mission where Aiden gets himself arrested to find and interrogate an inmate for information. Fun mission but, I had always wondered about that prison building in Chicago. Saw this video and just absolutely had to give it a watch. Great video, good game. :)
Despite the violence that we have here Chicago is an amazing City and like you said when you hear the history of our city it makes you appreciate it so much more
Looks like a prison to me, just taller. Fort Lauderdale and Miami had vertical windows, when I see those windows I can’t be convinced it’s anything but jail.
Same type of building is here in buffalo. The Erie county holding center. More than once Ive been on the roof top yard leaning against the fence on a summer sunset. Watching the rest of the city go about their lives. I'm glad I don't live like that anymore
I remember going to the Sears Tower as a kid and seeing this, expressing disappointment to my dad that he didn't have a basketball court on our roof like these lucky guys!
I remember a level in the original Watchdogs was based on this. A friend of mine who was really into the game was surprised this was real when I sent him a picture of it
The lack of symmetry of those windows was driving me insane throughout this entire video! Why was it done like that? Does it have something to do with confusing the inmates to limit escape attempts?
Pretrial Jail is one of the BIGGEST waste of tax payers resources, not to mention a sometimes life destroying event, and in almost ALL cases it's an unnecessary part of the legal process. I'd say 95% of people arrested would show up to their court date, with or without a bond being paid. 95% of those incarcerated pre-trial due to bond being financially out of reach or no bond being issued would still have showed up without being held in jail. When held in jail you lose everything, including the means to communicate easily or at all with the outside world. Have a car payment due and to one of the last 3 needed to pay it off? Your car will be repoed. Are you re ring an apartment while incarcerated? You will be evicted and all your belongings will be thrown away. Have a good job that you like and they like you? Well if you miss 2 months of work waiting to-see the judge, there's not to many employers that can afford to hold your position, understandably so.
th-cam.com/video/56zlBGdHoZQ/w-d-xo.html So many people are innocent and lose everything that way. Khalif Browder kid from Bronx. Had a bail of like 1500. His family didn’t have it. 2 1/2 yrs in rikers island. Beaten raped stabbed by inmates and staff. Over stealing a book bag. He was innocent they told him plead guilty and leave today. He said he was innocent he wasn’t going to admit guilt. He finally got out of jail. Then killed himself.16yrs old
@@lauracarrolldebolt9233 thanks for the info. Damn I knew there was a US city or state that had done away with Bail/bonds, but I didn't know it was Illinois. Down here in FL we got people who can't afford bond for non-violent charges. So they plead out when they really not guilty, but can't afford to stay locked up for another 3 or 6 or 12 months for a trial date. Now they on 2-3 paper with all these BS classes like anger management or drug/alcohol group plus drug tests and if you live in a county like Port St Lucie, Clay or St Augustine with P.O.'s who take they job WAY too seriously... your chances of violating are almost certain. And if you gotta Judge like former St Johns Felony Judge Wendy Berger, who publicly stated she wants to hand out a million years of time before she retires, you don't get av2nd chance. One violation and it's up the road for the max. And you don't have to get rearrested to violate. I had completed the anger management and was already on the 4th week of drug/alcohol class but didn't have the $30 on the day of a 1on1 counseling session. I showed up to the Friday appointment at noon which was also my payday, but couldn't get my actual paycheck till after 4. Did they let me do the 1on1 and pay later? Nope. I got kicked out of the entire 12 week class for missing the 1on1, which my SOB P.O. violated me for, had a no-bond warrant, and was locked up in county for 364 days. Why 364? Bcuz 365 would have sent me to the much more desirable state prison with more freedoms, better food and better commissary. No I did 364 in the Daddy Daycare of St. John's County. Oh btw my original charge was for a 1/2 of pot that was in 2 separate bags. This was back I 2009 and I have NO idea why I just told u this, but it felt good to vent to a complete stranger on TH-cam sooooo... thanks again
Inmate Tip: do not store your property in/at a public storage facility while doing time! Even prepaid rates go up. Miss a payment or 2 and your stuff goes to auction. Your outside friend or family might drop the ball, miss a notice or 3 and Poof! Your stuff is sold. As a storage manager, I "protected" known inmates units as long as I could, waiving fees, sending more notices than required and to inmate directly, calls, messages - until my bosses said "Sell it!". It was disappointing to do only to have the friend or family show up days or weeks later all pizzed off. Everything is gone.
@@LadyAdakStillStands I'm pretty sure if you worked out a deal because of your situation they would be willing to work with you. Lock your rate in for the entire prison term and pay upfront. That's a shit load of money though.
Didn’t know this was here until I was walking the loop as a teenager took a photo of the building for being neat then a security guard harassed me to delete my photo. I was on public space so honestly I don’t think he could legally make me
I can't believe he omitted disgraced former Democrat Congressman Mel Reynolds from Chicago as one of the most famous inmates at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Tsk, tsk.
The Arapahoe County Jail in Dove Valley, CO. It is across the street from the Denver Broncos training facility. It has similarly shaped windows, but elevated. Broncos players have been incarcerated for drunk driving and spousal/girlfriend abuse in the past in that place. They are placed facing the practice field so they can see their teammates practice while they cooled their heels, tiptoed to see. This was in the past when a color man during a preseason game remarked that the Broncos had the biggest police blotter in the NFL. The NFL since have a "no tolerance" policy on these things. The Aurora theater mass shooter was held there for his trial as the building also houses the courts.
We used to sit on the rooftop of my buddy's trading firm, smoking stogies and drinking, watching the residents of MCC play basketball on the rooftop yard. Two totally different worlds.
Here in Orange County, Ca, we get ignored bc we're between San Diego County (with the same population) & LA (vastly larger than both). However, our Men's Central ALONE holds 1.4k prisoners, with satellite ones adding hundreds more. It was built in 1968 & was and still IS state of the art in tech & innovation. Our Sheriff refused to release our worst offenders during COVlD, despite repeated threats from our governor. He stated his responsibly was to the safety of the citizens of county. WOW.
I worked right across the street from that building for 15 years at the Monadnock Building. I was on the 14th floor and the prison was 27 but It was a trip seeing the prisoners on the very top waving at people in the office buildings. You'd never know what that Building was unless someone told you.
my mother would bring me to that neighborhood often to visit her friend. I was a very young child and I had no illusions about the purpose of that building. It frightened me.
I used to live a couple blocks away my old building can be seen in the city views of this vid and I've heard a lot of crazy stuff about that place. A lot of times I'd even run into panhandlers claiming they were just released from there
I'm from Kentucky and we had a dude disappear. 4 years later i ran into him. He'd gotten arrested with ecstasy and spent four years in this jail as a white dude. It had to be rough because he kidnapped a girl, was chased and finally pulled over and shot himself. Crazy.
The city of El Cajon, California, has one VERY similar to this building as well. The funny part is, is that its also the tallest building in the city as well. So it's impossible to be in the city and not have you're eyes drawn to the prison.
I spent two years of the end of a 15 year sentence here.....Terrible !!! Hard to leave once you're there, I was on the same floor with R kelly when he got there its just a horrible place to do time
I always had a similar experiences whenever viewing the Miami Downtown Jail. Vertical slit windows and bare concrete. Different than anything else in the skyline, you can somewhat tell its purpose just by looking at it.
They found Gerald Scarpelli handcuffed hanging in his cell there, they said he hung himself. Scarpelli's girlfriend cuts my dad's hair & said he would never have killed himself.
When I was a teen shortly after this was built I remember commenting to my dad how I wonder what its like inside this place thinking it was a funky modern office building. He replied he hopes I never get to find out. 😄
This building was built in '75. Which inspired which? I seriously doubt this building was an inspiration, though. Triangle architecture is common with fortress and citadel design.
San Diego has a multi story high-rise skyscraprr with small slits the middle of downtown that is a Federal Prision. My buddy was there. They get their 1 hour of PT on the roof.
No, although I’ve never been I’ve heard stories of this jail considering I’m a resident here. It is extremely filthy, chaotic, overcrowded and not as organized as it looks from the outside.
Boston got one of those. Actually it's in Cambridge across the river. I think only the top floors are used as the county jail and the "yard" was on the roof. Great city views tho
I met and got Piper Kerman s autograph when i was in the joint and was taken back to the city to attend a lecture on her womens prison program at Columbus State where i went to school back in 97 for graphic communications
As many times as I been through Chicago I didn't even know that they had a skyscraper prison. The few people I do know from Chicago or anywhere else in Illinois always talked about doing time in Joliet. Wow I just learned something new.
Milwaukee has one of these too. I grew up in Milwaukee and drove by it every day. It’s called the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. Commonly known as MSDF. Inmates fear it.
I had a friend who got sent to SDF, that's what we call it in Milwaukee, the SDF, he said he'd rather go there than County (Milwaukee Counry Jail) because in SDF he had his own cell and they were giving him vegan trays and shit. Here SDF is a luxury jail compared to HOC, the Milwaukee House of Correction, another buddy of mine was there and he said it's like a giant gymnasium filled with bunks like a homeless shelter and all the people pass the phone off to their friend so if you're not in with whatever gang or clique you're getting screwed for a chance at the phone and shit. Milwaukee jails are fucking awful
"....treating people with basic humanity." I wonder if the criminals (before becoming prisoners) have treated their victims with basic humanity as well?
Probably not, but do you really want to be the same as them? Your supposed to be better than they are by having a sense of mercy and justice, or are you the same as them?
Are you excluding the ones who committed victimless crimes, or assuming everyone in there victimized someone? Just wondering because it’s a detention center not a prison. Could be some bankers or congress people in there that are addicts and got arrested for possession and just being too high. Was in the news.
Chicago highrises have really strict fire safety codes. An unchecked fire would really take a bunch of stuff, think a plane. As for women and the yard, they are given access at different times.
As a kid i remember visiting my aunt when she was locked up here. It was such a weird feeling walking out from the visit to be hit with the view and sounds of a vibrant downtown. The EL making its noise, cars honking, masses of people on the streets, the lake breeze hitting you ever so slightly between the buildings. It’s almost like the inmates get trolled everyday when they look out their window to realize all the beautiful freedom they were stripped off. The city will forever keep moving while you’re stuck in that mf rotting.
you can’t see out the windows in jail
@@j9405 that’s not a jail, and please tell us more about your deep understanding of holding facilities and such.
@@j9405 yes you can 😂 and from the rooftop
Trenton state prison is like that. Except it's just in the middle of the city. Houses right across the street. And the other side runs along a highway and the train tracks. That's a maximum security prison to. When I was a kid I was at a friend who lived across the street. Felt weird as hell smoking weed at his house. He didn't care. Lol
Solitary confinement cells in Alcatraz have AWESOME views of San Francisco
The Metropolitan Correctional Facility is a federal holding facility, not a state prison or county jail.
what the uk would know as remand center or temporarly holding
A lot of inconsistencies in this video
So make a better video about it people 😂😂
Theres a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles and it looks like this building kinda, but I agree it's not an actual jail just a giant holding tank in a sense
Fed holding centers are co jails
I’m Rail Operator for CTA and I always see this building when I operate the train approaching Harold Washington library north bound on the brown line.
Chicago, the CTA and libraries are fictional. Sharing stories about portion of the slave system?
Dope as hell that you're an operator dude! Thank you for your service!
Pretty awesome!!
As a passenger on the L for years 🫡 thank you dude
The views out of the front and back of the trains are great in and around the loop. Thanks to you and all the CTA people who keep public transit rolling in Chicago.
I’ve been going to visitations for about 5 years with the 16th of this month being the most recent time I was there. Renovations were made in parts of the jail. One thing I do like about it is the art created by the inmates displayed throughout the visiting room. Also with programs opening up you can see the drive some of the inmates show trying to correct the wrongs of their past. I’ve had the pleasure to sit in a graduation ceremony for those who passed their GED. Some people do want to change and it’s good to see it first hand.
Jails are fictional. Sharing fiction that can be applied to things outside of the fiction itself?
You need help @@bunk95
I was there in 1993 for about 8 months awaiting trial and sentencing, alot of the floors are dormitories not cells, there are bunk beds tucked into every square inch, its filthy and terribly overcrowded
I can imagine that starts a lot of shit huh
If the criminals would quit doing their thing it wouldn't be crowded at all. I have absolutely no sympathy for the guilty ones which is the vast majority.
Oh, and guess who pays for those prosecutors? Tax payers. Some of the same people are paying for the salary of the person throwing the book at them as they are the public defender they are getting to defend them. Imagine if youre innocent and the state wants to lock you up for 30+ days. You pay for the prosecutor and you pay for the public defender, or your own attorney. Its incredible. And who pays for the jails? Yep. Tax payers. So you pay for the overcrowding too and the more jailed the better.
If you can't do the time don't do the crime
@@philgordon6671 You can't be talking common sense here.
Brutalist doesn’t mean “brutal” - it comes from “Beton Brut” which is French for “raw concrete”. While some brutalism is indeed brutal, other brutalist structures are quite lovely!
Exactly, I was thinking the same thing. People just say all brutalism is ugly, when that is not the case. Harry Weese has designed some great burtalist buildings, including the DC subway system.
Yeah this isn't the first time he's mis-defined a word. I still think back to when he said that "gangway" was called that because of the gang activities that happened in alleys in Chicago. I was thinking "No, since English is Germanic some words are derived for the German language. One of those is 'Gangway' which in German is just a corridor of sorts." There's such good research in these videos but the etymology just isn't there.
Thankyou...I have been relating this fact for years. I heard a story that beton brut was transmogrified into brutal at London's Architectural Association in the 1990's.
Harry Weese and Dan Kiley used concrete elegantly.
>In the arts, 1953 in reference to a style characterized by deliberate crudity and exposed structure.
Semantics. There are probably some very nice exceptions but as a whole it is ugly, obtrusive and the complete opposite of classical beauty. I might be a lay man, but I know ugly when I see it.
This was a good one. I live in Palatine (NW suburb of Chicago about 30 miles from the building) and have all my life, but I've always been curious about this mysterious place. I remember when Ken Conley and that other guy scaled down the building with tied bedsheets. They were WAY high up there. I could have NEVER done that! Of course like all escapees, they failed to plan their post-escape. I watch so many reality prison escape documentaries and it always BLOW my mind that these guys are willing to say crawl through a 12" steam pipe for 80' with cockroaches and rats surrounding them and then once free they have NO CLUE where to go or what to do.... SO they get re-captured. BLOWS MY MIND! great video )
Yea, unfortunately these are the same type of people that would creampie a dumb woman and then get surprised when a judge orders them to pay child support.
They never plan ahead of time 😅
No way me too 😂
They're used to cockroaches and rats 🐀
The thing is some of these guys have been down for multiple years and the landscape can change in as little as 10 years in todays world. Also, some people are booked in different states or counties from which they lived in. They might genuinely know nothing about the area
You qint ever been locked up huh ? If you had you would understand how a person could do what you day blows ur mind
When I visited the Sears tower, I noticed the prison. I knew right away what it was. The window style made it obvious. The architecture screams prison. Prisoners were playing sports on top.
No wonder they are giving people a ticket for a illegal gun 😭😭😭
Been in Sears Tower like 3 times but have never even noticed it. Always was fixated on the various rail yards.
Sports!! Probably playing Shanks!!
Same here!
You called it the Sears Tower, good job 👏
Our college dorm was right across the street from this building. We got in trouble for putting signs in our windows trying to communicate with the inmates...
Columbia woot woot!
Why?
It’s the same in Camden Nj Rutgers is across from the jail that’s almost as high as this one
Was it during covid. I remember seeing videos online of that.
LMFAO that’s funnyn
Milwaukee also has a "skyscraper" prison located in downtown Milwaukee called MSDF, Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility which is ran by the Department of Corrections. It's a building within a building, meaning there is an outer shell that makes it look like a normal building with windows, but then if you go about 5 feet deeper there is another shell which is the actual prison structure, the window in the cells, which are fogged so you can't see out, actually look out to the space in between those two shells. They spent ALOT of money trying to make the building look like a normal office building.
I did 342 days at MSDF and it sucked. You're stuck in your cell 23hrs a day. My only saving grace from going nuts was getting a job in the kitchen and the only reason i did that was to get out of my cell and for the extra food. The majority of people in Milwaukee don't even know it's a prison, because it doesn't look like one, but plenty of people are actively trying to get it shutdown because it's a hellhole. Most people don't do more than a year there though because it's really only an intake facility for people who have violated their probation, been revoked and are either waiting to see if their probation or parole will be revoked (aka revocation hearing) or waiting to be transferred to an actual prison in Wisconsin after being revoked. Bottomline is everyone who is there would much rather be in an actual prison then at MSDF.
Rock on Milwaukee…. But yikes! Lived here my whole life & never knew that 😔 thank u for ur story & info!
😳 Informative. I just Googled that place up and viewed it on Google Maps. I was born and raised in Milwaukee, lived here virtually all my life, I had no idea that's what that building was.
That said... I would call that more of a high rise than a bona fide skyscraper. It looks nowhere near as tall as that Chicago one in this video.
@@NonLegitNation2 ALL FACTS NO CAP 🧢
@@NonLegitNation2 I've never been inside, but that building always has an uncanny valley feel, a building pretending to be a building, I'm very sorry you had to spend time in it
That architecture firm designed my high school. No windows opened. We joked that it was a training facility for future inmates, and that was before any of us knew about the MCC.
that is basically all high schools.. public ones anyways
Since I work construction in Chicago, I’ve been in buildings where we could watch them go to the rec yard while we took break. Always something interesting to watch
just experienced this today lol
@@dusty6867 haven’t seen it in about a year brotha but always interesting to people watch. Especially with them😂
@@bradcool2570 Working at 425 S financial, 36th floor. best view haha
That is so cool I wish I could watch that on break
Miss Kerman is a very kind and intelligent person. She taught classes at the prison I was incarcerated in here in Ohio.
I don't doubt she's a good person and served her time. Still...can't help think what punishment a man would've gotten under the same circumstances
Prisons and Ohio are fictional. Sharing stories that can be applied to things outside of the stories themselves?
My uncle worked 30 years at this prison and was assistant warden at one point, I believe. Dealt with the worst of the worst in those years. I remember when a guy escaped lol
It was me - I escaped!
@@ICYMIINMIY D. B. Cooper? no wonder nobody found you, you changed your first name to a H
@@ICYMIINMIY 🧢🧢😂😂😂
@@Trill4life777 bro what it’s true I’m the prison
THEY are only getting worse
I can't be the only one who looked at that and immediately could tell it was a prison. One look at the windows or lack of them. It looks nothing like a NORMAL Skyscraper
Fr I know a jail or prison when I see one lmao
I grew up in the outskirts of chicago and had never heard of the prion skyscraper. It wasn’t until I was in my 20s and actually noticed the building. Yup I instantly knew that HAD to be a prison. Pretty common sense since it’s the ONLY building in the city that looks like that.
First time I saw it I thought it was normal office building however they needed the windows small as they do highly confidential and secretive things in there so they made the windows smaller.
Their like forts down south so all us southern people never seen a skyscraper jail that's new
It’s a jail not a prison. Two completely different things.
It would have been nice to have actual pictures of the inside, but I guess security concerns prevented this.
You can always spend the night if you like
@@johnbill3417 really? How much do they rent the rooms?
But there has been some docs about this prison 😂 can you like... Use google?
@@chrismunoz7859 BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 😂
Schools and municipal buildings replicate prisons to perfection 🤷🏾
This is interesting, having walked by this multiple times on my way to school every day this answers quite a few of my questions and stuff
Never been in there but I once had an office in the CBOT that overlooks the MCC and I have a photo of a Peregrine Falcon that nested on the side of the MCC, the bird would eat its prey (pigeons) on a small balcony outside one of the office windows. I posted the photo somewhere and the Peregrine Program at the Field Museum contacted me to learn the particulars about the photo; the bird was banded but they couldn’t get any good photos of the bird due to how high the nest was and how far the MCC is from other tall buildings. But if one of us got to the office early enough we could see the falcon dining on a pigeon.
Now that would be an amazing thing to see.
Still poor feral pigeon.
But I'm glad peregrines have found a way to live amongst our artificial cliffs.
@@Nirrrina At least he's not a stool pigeon!
A rope made from bedsheets down from the 17th floor? That's a lot of bedsheets.
One of the guys was probably on laundry duty lol
Probably about 30 of them, unless you need to double them up to prevent tearing.
Well a floor is like 10ft maybe 12 to 14 given it's a prison so probably thick floors (basing that off zero knowledge) but if a bed sheet is at lest 6ft for a bed. Maybe like 36.8333 bed sheet
@@dabkevinhere5422 You also have to consider that you lose a foot or two for the knots. So however many knots multiplied by the length of both sheets used for each knot needs to be added to this number. 🙂
@@bubzilla6137 Are the sheets to be tied on the full end or is it enough to tie opposing corners? If corners can we get longer useful length for each sheet (according to Pythagoras formula).
Asking for a friend.
I live in Chicago
I have no idea about it until now.
Thanks for sharing this information.
Me either tbh
yall really ain’t from chicago then 😂
🤯 How does a Chicago native not know about this?
@@michellenainkristinabusch1221 isn’t Chicago native and a person just living in Chicago two different things? Not trying to be rude
We got an 8 floor, & a 13 floor county jail here in downtown Detroit. They're also building a new skyscraper County jail complex,& courthouse set to open at the end of 2023/start of 2024. Where's the video on these gems?
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses
Great rap bars, now sing "Sweet Home Chicago".
@@JordanLittlejohn-jl4lj that's not rap that's blues homie
A full tank of gas, a pound of weed, a bird named Pinky... To the East, driver to the East.
Time to get more cigarettes
We're on a mission from God.
The county jail in Lexington,KY was like this. A seven story concrete block in downtown Lexington. I had the dubious pleasure of being a guest for ten days or so. Nasty doesn't even begin to describe the place, an effective deterrent for crime.
That’s the ollllddd jail. We have a much nicer one now. I think it was built atleast 20 years ago maybe longer not sure. I’ve been inside there for over a year and it’s not too terrible
Lexington FMC shipped from Chicago MCC .. nice weather
Or make harden criminals
It would be impossible for Christopher Nolan’s brother to escape from the 11th floor with a rope made of bedsheets. Some years later bank robbers repelled from the 17th floor with a rope made of bedsheets. Wtf.
They climbed down the bed sheet rope to the parking garage next to it.
Great observation, bitcoin! 👍👍
It would have been impossible WITH THE SUPPLIES HE HAD. He didn't have enough sheets in his room to make a long-enough rope.
It's true though I personally went to school with one of them
You know hearing this stuff makes me think of the game Watch dogs. They actually based a mission in the prison now. Of course, for security reasons they couldn't use the real layout so they use their imaginations now. It was pretty cool to see The game used the building as a point of interest in the game for mission
I learned a lot about Chicago history with watch dogs points of interest it’s a crazy historical city
Thank you for the video! This building always gave me the creeps deep down. Glad I don't have to go anywhere near that place anymore!
Big facts! 🎉
San Francisco’s county jail 850 is the same way , well not a skyscraper but it is a high building, right next to highway 80. Getting on the bay bridge from SF. Unless you know what it is you would think it’s just a old building
🤣🤣🤣🤣
That's modern looking, Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose is taller and older looking.
I always found this building interesting while growning up in Chicago, after retiring for working for California State Correctional system and worked in 3 of it's maximum security facilities, it would have been fun to take a tour on one of my visits back to Chicago to visit family and friends.
I’m from St. Louis, and did a year in here. It’s also a federal holdover
1:32 in 1932 when Chicago was newly founded 😂😂😂
Yeah, this channel has really been half assing it.
Lmao soon as I heard that your comment roles by and I had to back up 10 seconds
So does Baltimore & Kansas City as well as the FCI OKLAHOMA (Federal) that is built on the tarmac of the airport so inmates walk into the prison directly from the airplane's cockpit without touching or seeing the ground.
What a nice touch.
You referring to the "HQ" lockup in KC? Ive been there.. thankfully only a day or so. The other lockup is Jackson County, and I've heard that place was rough. Not that I cared at the time haha. Quite awhile ago now..
I recall a mission in Watch Dogs (the first game), in which there is a mission where Aiden gets himself arrested to find and interrogate an inmate for information. Fun mission but, I had always wondered about that prison building in Chicago. Saw this video and just absolutely had to give it a watch. Great video, good game. :)
always impressive research done for your videos. i see chicago with a new light after hearing so much of you narrating about it's history. thank you!
😂😂 relax. It's a jungle here.... brandon lightfoot FTL
Despite the violence that we have here Chicago is an amazing City and like you said when you hear the history of our city it makes you appreciate it so much more
Lol, what research? That’s not the Cook County Jail. It’s run by USDoJ for federal inmates.
Love how informative this channel is..
Looks like a prison to me, just taller. Fort Lauderdale and Miami had vertical windows, when I see those windows I can’t be convinced it’s anything but jail.
An so it would be in one way or another.
I remember playing Watch Dog and having to infiltrate this building, thought it wasn't real until now.
Same type of building is here in buffalo. The Erie county holding center. More than once Ive been on the roof top yard leaning against the fence on a summer sunset. Watching the rest of the city go about their lives. I'm glad I don't live like that anymore
I was wondering if someone would mention it. I usually eat my lunch around the corner by the bail bonds guy haha.
I remember going to the Sears Tower as a kid and seeing this, expressing disappointment to my dad that he didn't have a basketball court on our roof like these lucky guys!
0:06 look around most major cities - Harry Weese, the Cranbrook trained architect designed this type of jail / prison every where.
@@4OHz riverside california spent a bid it was hell
Looks like it belongs in the 5th element movie. Lol
LA has 2 separate sky scraper prisons. 3 if you count one location with 2 side by side.
I remember a level in the original Watchdogs was based on this. A friend of mine who was really into the game was surprised this was real when I sent him a picture of it
The lack of symmetry of those windows was driving me insane throughout this entire video! Why was it done like that? Does it have something to do with confusing the inmates to limit escape attempts?
It keeps the blacks guessing their whereabouts
@@joeyanthony7831 Jeeeezus man, dial it back
@@standoughope 🤣🤣 sorry. Basketball Americans*
Quite honestly the building still looks and feels like a prison.
You can feel imprisoned anywhere.
Pretrial Jail is one of the BIGGEST waste of tax payers resources, not to mention a sometimes life destroying event, and in almost ALL cases it's an unnecessary part of the legal process. I'd say 95% of people arrested would show up to their court date, with or without a bond being paid. 95% of those incarcerated pre-trial due to bond being financially out of reach or no bond being issued would still have showed up without being held in jail. When held in jail you lose everything, including the means to communicate easily or at all with the outside world. Have a car payment due and to one of the last 3 needed to pay it off? Your car will be repoed. Are you re ring an apartment while incarcerated? You will be evicted and all your belongings will be thrown away. Have a good job that you like and they like you? Well if you miss 2 months of work waiting to-see the judge, there's not to many employers that can afford to hold your position, understandably so.
th-cam.com/video/56zlBGdHoZQ/w-d-xo.html
So many people are innocent and lose everything that way. Khalif Browder kid from Bronx. Had a bail of like 1500. His family didn’t have it. 2 1/2 yrs in rikers island. Beaten raped stabbed by inmates and staff. Over stealing a book bag. He was innocent they told him plead guilty and leave today. He said he was innocent he wasn’t going to admit guilt. He finally got out of jail. Then killed himself.16yrs old
Illinois eliminated cash bail as of 1/1/23. The MCC is a federal detention facility so it’s not really affected.
@@lauracarrolldebolt9233 thanks for the info. Damn I knew there was a US city or state that had done away with Bail/bonds, but I didn't know it was Illinois. Down here in FL we got people who can't afford bond for non-violent charges. So they plead out when they really not guilty, but can't afford to stay locked up for another 3 or 6 or 12 months for a trial date. Now they on 2-3 paper with all these BS classes like anger management or drug/alcohol group plus drug tests and if you live in a county like Port St Lucie, Clay or St Augustine with P.O.'s who take they job WAY too seriously... your chances of violating are almost certain. And if you gotta Judge like former St Johns Felony Judge Wendy Berger, who publicly stated she wants to hand out a million years of time before she retires, you don't get av2nd chance. One violation and it's up the road for the max. And you don't have to get rearrested to violate. I had completed the anger management and was already on the 4th week of drug/alcohol class but didn't have the $30 on the day of a 1on1 counseling session. I showed up to the Friday appointment at noon which was also my payday, but couldn't get my actual paycheck till after 4. Did they let me do the 1on1 and pay later? Nope. I got kicked out of the entire 12 week class for missing the 1on1, which my SOB P.O. violated me for, had a no-bond warrant, and was locked up in county for 364 days. Why 364? Bcuz 365 would have sent me to the much more desirable state prison with more freedoms, better food and better commissary. No I did 364 in the Daddy Daycare of St. John's County. Oh btw my original charge was for a 1/2 of pot that was in 2 separate bags. This was back I 2009 and I have NO idea why I just told u this, but it felt good to vent to a complete stranger on TH-cam sooooo... thanks again
Inmate Tip: do not store your property in/at a public storage facility while doing time! Even prepaid rates go up. Miss a payment or 2 and your stuff goes to auction. Your outside friend or family might drop the ball, miss a notice or 3 and Poof! Your stuff is sold. As a storage manager, I "protected" known inmates units as long as I could, waiving fees, sending more notices than required and to inmate directly, calls, messages - until my bosses said "Sell it!". It was disappointing to do only to have the friend or family show up days or weeks later all pizzed off. Everything is gone.
@@LadyAdakStillStands I'm pretty sure if you worked out a deal because of your situation they would be willing to work with you. Lock your rate in for the entire prison term and pay upfront. That's a shit load of money though.
Skyscrapers are the essence & beauty of downtown chicago and the MCC with its unusual design is the perfect compliment
@7:58 There is a song that begins in the background. What is the name of the song? I couldn't find it listed in the description.
Love how you included the mini stories
Worked in downtown Chicago and did not know about this facility. WOW! TFS! ❤
Absolutely fascinating and informative! Subscribed now of course 😊
I've been here during one of the many architecture tours, after waving repeatedly I finally got one of the inmates on the rec floor to wave back.
We got one like this in NYC named the tombs the yard is on the roof
You can see this prison from the lasalle/van buren train platform. It's right in front of it.
Do people really think it doesn't look like a prison? I mean, it absolutely looks like a prison...
San Diego's central county jail is a sky scraper as well. . . I do NOT miss that place at all.
Didn’t know this was here until I was walking the loop as a teenager took a photo of the building for being neat then a security guard harassed me to delete my photo. I was on public space so honestly I don’t think he could legally make me
This is no where near the loop
@@williamcarney2633 It's just to the south of the Loop, near Harold Washington Library.
Thought this was very well done~thank you for the research & video👍🏻
I can't believe he omitted disgraced former Democrat Congressman Mel Reynolds from Chicago as one of the most famous inmates at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Tsk, tsk.
The Arapahoe County Jail in Dove Valley, CO. It is across the street from the Denver Broncos training facility. It has similarly shaped windows, but elevated. Broncos players have been incarcerated for drunk driving and spousal/girlfriend abuse in the past in that place. They are placed facing the practice field so they can see their teammates practice while they cooled their heels, tiptoed to see. This was in the past when a color man during a preseason game remarked that the Broncos had the biggest police blotter in the NFL. The NFL since have a "no tolerance" policy on these things. The Aurora theater mass shooter was held there for his trial as the building also houses the courts.
I don't know what to tell You, Pal...
Wow, a jail with Coors on tap!
We used to sit on the rooftop of my buddy's trading firm, smoking stogies and drinking, watching the residents of MCC play basketball on the rooftop yard. Two totally different worlds.
Here in Orange County, Ca, we get ignored bc we're between San Diego County (with the same population) & LA (vastly larger than both). However, our Men's Central ALONE holds 1.4k prisoners, with satellite ones adding hundreds more. It was built in 1968 & was and still IS state of the art in tech & innovation. Our Sheriff refused to release our worst offenders during COVlD, despite repeated threats from our governor. He stated his responsibly was to the safety of the citizens of county. WOW.
? Only a person never jailed praises them
Didn’t that state just let everyone run wild without any consequences? Sure seems like it…
I worked right across the street from that building for 15 years at the Monadnock Building. I was on the 14th floor and the prison was 27 but It was a trip seeing the prisoners on the very top waving at people in the office buildings. You'd never know what that Building was unless someone told you.
"dr chaos", sounds like a marvel character lol
The most underated channel on TH-cam.
They need to build another one for the ninjas running wild in Chicago today
I've heard this story. New sub! I really enjoy your style of videos.
Christopher Nolan's brother seems to be the kind of guy Batman is going to chase down.
my mother would bring me to that neighborhood often to visit her friend. I was a very young child and I had no illusions about the purpose of that building. It frightened me.
Very interesting. Prison hiding in plain sight!
It's for the blacks
I actually used to live very close to this building when I was in college and had a dorm there.
I used to live a couple blocks away my old building can be seen in the city views of this vid and I've heard a lot of crazy stuff about that place. A lot of times I'd even run into panhandlers claiming they were just released from there
I remember that 2012 case when those 2 escaped.
I'm from Kentucky and we had a dude disappear. 4 years later i ran into him. He'd gotten arrested with ecstasy and spent four years in this jail as a white dude. It had to be rough because he kidnapped a girl, was chased and finally pulled over and shot himself. Crazy.
What?
@@combatbattalion6 exactly what the hell is he talking about? Lol
Dafuqusay?!
@@joshward3090 yeah, freaking crazy.
The city of El Cajon, California, has one VERY similar to this building as well. The funny part is, is that its also the tallest building in the city as well. So it's impossible to be in the city and not have you're eyes drawn to the prison.
“So in 1932 when Chicago was newly founded….” You need a copy editor. Contact me.
I was like nah Chicago was founded in 1837 lol
in Pittsburgh you have a tall building as a jail as well, and also Rykers in NY
Rikers Island doesn’t have any skyscrapers.
I spent two years of the end of a 15 year sentence here.....Terrible !!! Hard to leave once you're there, I was on the same floor with R kelly when he got there its just a horrible place to do time
🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱😴😴
I always had a similar experiences whenever viewing the Miami Downtown Jail. Vertical slit windows and bare concrete. Different than anything else in the skyline, you can somewhat tell its purpose just by looking at it.
They found Gerald Scarpelli handcuffed hanging in his cell there, they said he hung himself. Scarpelli's girlfriend cuts my dad's hair & said he would never have killed himself.
My dad actually works in the building directly across! He can sometimes see inmates playing in the rooftop yard from the office!
Have you done a Miami DADE federal prison? in downtown miami
When I was a teen shortly after this was built I remember commenting to my dad how I wonder what its like inside this place thinking it was a funky modern office building. He replied he hopes I never get to find out. 😄
Wow they actually made Azkaban irl
😮they did😮
@@SnarkNSass I hear you have an uncle there? Want to go rescue him?🤣
This building was built in '75. Which inspired which? I seriously doubt this building was an inspiration, though. Triangle architecture is common with fortress and citadel design.
I looks like Asakzaban all is missing is the Dementors.
The triangular design just seems cooler to read is all.
San Diego has a multi story high-rise skyscraprr with small slits the middle of downtown that is a Federal Prision. My buddy was there. They get their 1 hour of PT on the roof.
All prisons should be sky scrappers with a police station on the first floor, the courthouse above it, and then the prisoners above that.
No, although I’ve never been I’ve heard stories of this jail considering I’m a resident here. It is extremely filthy, chaotic, overcrowded and not as organized as it looks from the outside.
Boston got one of those. Actually it's in Cambridge across the river. I think only the top floors are used as the county jail and the "yard" was on the roof. Great city views tho
Isn't that a federal prison?
No, It's a PRE TRIAL DETENTION FACILITY!
I used to live at Clark and Polk, I could almost wave to them on the roof!
Unlikely. They could barely be seen from Harrison. 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Wait isn't this prison that was in game watch dogs?
Yes bro I was gonna be like "I been there in Watch Dogs"
I met and got Piper Kerman s autograph when i was in the joint and was taken back to the city to attend a lecture on her womens prison program at Columbus State where i went to school back in 97 for graphic communications
3 hots and a cot, 24 hour security AND your mail is delivered to your door.
All this rent free....
And people still complaining..
As many times as I been through Chicago I didn't even know that they had a skyscraper prison. The few people I do know from Chicago or anywhere else in Illinois always talked about doing time in Joliet. Wow I just learned something new.
It’s not a prison…. It’s county jail
It’s a federal holding facilty now it’s funny sometimes girls be flashing the prisoners 😂
It is a federal prison and holding facility. I was there for four months in 2014.
@@delimac59 it’s not a federal prison just a holding facility for federal inmates which many county jails are
Milwaukee has one of these too. I grew up in Milwaukee and drove by it every day. It’s called the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. Commonly known as MSDF. Inmates fear it.
Even us that are in the northern part of WI fear MSDF I almost got sent there for violating probation up here.
I had a friend who got sent to SDF, that's what we call it in Milwaukee, the SDF, he said he'd rather go there than County (Milwaukee Counry Jail) because in SDF he had his own cell and they were giving him vegan trays and shit. Here SDF is a luxury jail compared to HOC, the Milwaukee House of Correction, another buddy of mine was there and he said it's like a giant gymnasium filled with bunks like a homeless shelter and all the people pass the phone off to their friend so if you're not in with whatever gang or clique you're getting screwed for a chance at the phone and shit. Milwaukee jails are fucking awful
Real life Gotham
Not a single picture or video from inside the facility in the whole documentary.... 👎
There actually not really a lot of footage out there of it's inside. Trust me I've looked
There is a shot from another creator of the top floor
@@FurthermoreJack were talking about the interior
Cells. Common areas.
I'd be curious to see those.
Oml someone actually called themselves Dr. Chaos? Butters would be proud
"....treating people with basic humanity."
I wonder if the criminals (before becoming prisoners) have treated their victims with basic humanity as well?
Probably not, but do you really want to be the same as them? Your supposed to be better than they are by having a sense of mercy and justice, or are you the same as them?
Are you excluding the ones who committed victimless crimes, or assuming everyone in there victimized someone? Just wondering because it’s a detention center not a prison. Could be some bankers or congress people in there that are addicts and got arrested for possession and just being too high. Was in the news.
Probably not but the majority of American prisoners have no victims so.
That's the difference between civil society and those we deem unworthy to live in it.
I lived in Chicago for a few years, and always thought that building was interesting, never realized it was a prison
And what happens to staff and inmates if fire sweeps through the building unchecked? Also, do the women have their own exercise yard?
Taxpayers save money.
I would think that if it is all concrete even on the inside it would be less Likly to catch fire.
In case of fire, the inmates die, saving the taxpayers millions.
Chicago highrises have really strict fire safety codes. An unchecked fire would really take a bunch of stuff, think a plane.
As for women and the yard, they are given access at different times.
Sacramento has one too. It’s just a few blocks next to our midtown and Sacramento Kings Arena