Yima Territorial Prison Essay

The Yuma Territorial Prison has been around since 1875. Many criminals were moving West which meant the prison had to be built. The Prison is significant to Yuma and the Southwest region of the United States because it helped build an economy in the city of Yuma. There was many different things that led up to the better economy, one of the many things was job opportunities being created because of the prison. Jobs included things from being a prison guard to even bounty hunters. After the prison was closed it was not being put to any good use. As time passed the prison hospital was turned into what is now known as “Yuma High School”. The students in the high school were not the only people learning at the prison. There was prisoners that

Being a prison guard was one of the most well paying jobs there was in the city. Another job that was very well paying was the person that took care of the fairy business. This business took care of the people that wanted to get across the colorado river. There was no other way to cross without having to swim which was very dangerous since there was a risk of drowning. Since thousands of people were trying to get across the the river, this meant that the fairy business was making thousands of dollar since each person individually was paying to get to the other side.1 The people that were not criminals weren’t the only people that wanted to make money. The prisoners were trying to make money as well. There wasn’t many job opportunities for them but when there was it was not just money getting handed to them, they had to work for it. An example of this was a that was a contest on building various parts of the prison that had a reward of one hundred and fifty dollars. The owners of the prison decided to do this competition because it would be a cheaper way of building the prison since no professional architects would need to be hired.1 Because of all of the job opportunities being created in the city of Yuma more people started to move