Competing with the likes of Detroit and Ann Arbor, Jackson won the battle to build Michigan s first state prison in 1838. During the era of the Big House and industrial growth, the penitentiary s on-site factories and cheap inmate labor helped Jackson become a thriving manufacturing city. In contrast to Jacktown s beautiful Greco-Roman exterior, medieval punishments, a strict code of silence, no heat, no electricity and a lack of plumbing defined life on the inside. Author Judy Gail Krasnow shares the incredible stories of life at Jacktown, replete with sadistic wardens, crafty escapees, Prohibition s Purple Gang, a chaplain who ran a brothel and influential reformers."