The Yuma Territorial Prison was significant to Yuma and the Southwest Region because the prison created a larger population for the town and it put Yuma on the map. The prison brought along many job opportunities such as being a prison guard which was the highest paying job there could be. Opening on July 1, 1876 , and on the same day it was already locking up it’s first seven prisoners in the cells that they had built themselves. It had only been in operation for 33 years and due to being overcrowded it had to be relocated. Every convict came along to it’s relocation in Florence , Arizona. After being relocated , the prison was on the verge of completely closing down in Yuma due to lack of money. That was until the town was able to fund 70 …show more content…
In 1878 was when the prison had their first female convict and her name was Lizzie Gallagher. Another famous female convict was Pearl Heart. Pearl Heart became famous for stealing the last stage coach with her boyfriend. She became so famous for what she did that she even had news reporters going to Yuma to take her picture and put her on the newspaper.Meaning it wasn’t at all segregated by gender. Today females and males are kept separate. It had three thousand prisoners from young to old , with the youngest being 14 and the oldest being 88. The biggest age group was ranging 21-30. There were different rooms located all around the prison such as the lunch room, the nursing room, the library , the dark cell , the court yard. The library within the prison was the first library in Yuma. It was all thanks to Madora Angles . With her help and her great idea to raise money for books to have a library . She was very kind to the prisoners , possibly the kindset, Madora helped prisoners to read and write. The prisoners also taught each other different languages since there were inmates from around the world. Many prisons at the same era didn’t happen to have nursery rooms to take care of the inmates like this one did. Prisoners had the benefit of having a nursery room and a doctor for