After sitting vacant for several years the old Joliet prison will begin offering walking tours in August.

ABC7 shares that "in August the Joliet Area Historical Museum will begin hosting $20-a-head walking tours of the Old Joliet Prison."

This idea of revamping the prison for tourism began back in  December "when the city signed a five-year lease with the state. It wasn't long before a work crew of volunteers lined up to begin the dirty work: turning the stone and iron beast into the beauty it once was." (WGN)

Then this past "Tuesday night the city of Joliet set aside $50,000 in seed money for the prison tour effort."

It's kind of funny to think that a hard prison known for locking up the toughest of criminals for over 144 years is now going to be a place of tourism.

Sort of creepy, cool yet weird at the same time.

You'll be able to walk "where prisoners in striped garb once walked in lock-step, where some were placed in isolation. That cell house, today, has a painted message on the floor, thinned by time: "It's never too late - to mend."

That kind of gives me the chills. Just to think what people endured or saw when being imprisoned here.

Honestly, though I would take a tour of this. Wouldn't you?

 

 

 

More From Rockford's New Country Q98.5