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Tagged: msp

Business
12:03 pm
Fri May 25, 2012

Hear a former inmate's story from MSP

Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
The administration building is one of the oldest on the prison site. Its decaying façade sits opposite a recently-opened federal courthouse across the street.
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By Samantha Sunne

One man’s historic building is another’s nightmarish living conditions. Listen to the audio to hear former MSP inmate Joshua Kezer talks about what it was like to be incarcerated for 10 years in one of the oldest prisons in the U.S.

Business
12:00 pm
Thu May 24, 2012

Films, events, donations fund other aging prisons

Credit Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc
Eastern State Penitentiary
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By Samantha Sunne

The Missouri State Penitentiary is one of the oldest prisons in the country, but there are even older ones that survived both centuries of inmates and decades of decay. The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield and the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia are now fully operating tourist sites.

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Business Beat
5:48 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

"Neglect" at MSP could be trouble in Jefferson City

Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
The entrance to the prison’s female department is slowly crumbling. This wing of the administration building is one stop on the popular MSP ghost tours.
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An update on the EEZ in Columbia. Plus, some say the situation at the old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City is getting desperate.

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Business
5:20 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

"Neglect" a threat for Missouri State Penitentiary

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Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
Water damage threatens the stability of Housing Unit 3, which once housed Martin Luther King Jr’s killer, James Earl Ray. MSP officials worry roof leaks will eventually cause the historical buildings to crumble.
Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
Plaster hangs from the ceiling of a cell in Housing Unit 4, which housed inmates for 136 years. Resident Joshua Kezer says the building was in horrible shape even before it was shut down in 2004
Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
The administration building is one of the oldest on the prison site. Its decaying façade sits opposite a recently-opened federal courthouse across the street.
Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
Tour guide and MSP historian Mark Schreiber entertains a tour group with stories from his days as an MSP corrections officer. Many of the guides for the history and ghost tours used to work in the prison.
Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
Tom Hahn poses for his mom’s camera in the prison’s 74-year-old gas chamber. He’s part of one of the year’s first tours at MSP. The Convention and Visitors Bureau hopes the upswing in tours will eventually turn into profit for MSP.
Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
The entrance to the prison’s female department is slowly crumbling. This wing of the administration building is one stop on the popular MSP ghost tours.
Credit Samantha Sunne / KBIA
Jayma Sutton, left, and her husband Jeff Sutton sit down to a meal at Prison Brews after their tour. They traveled from Lake of the Ozarks to see the prison, and visited other tourist spots while in the city.
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By Samantha Sunne

The Missouri State Penitentiary closed in 2004 due to deteriorating conditions at the 150-year-old facility. KBIA’s Samantha Sunne explains how this deterioration has continued into the prison’s life as a Jefferson City tourist destination and historic landmark.

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