Kilby Correctional Facility

Kilby Correctional Facility

History

Escapes and Riots

On November 22nd 1951, inmates confined to the segregation unit at what was then called Kilby State Prison incited a riot that lasted two hours in the prison's "Little Alcatraz" section. A gaurd who had gone into the segregation unit to administer medication to a prisoner was overpowered and robbed of his keys. The rioters freed 120 men from their cells and took 2 gaurds as hostages. Since Governer Persons, a man with a "soft" orientation to reforming criminals, took control of the institution in the 1940s, rioting had been common: there were cotton-mill fires, female prison breaks, kidnappings, and one case of a band of armed fugitives who escaped into Montgomery to engage in a gun-battle with authorities (NYTimes 1951 Nov 22).

The fourth escape attempt in Alabama's history occured on Nov 5, 1936, when ten convicts escaped and siezed control of the prison's power plant facility, shutting down all power for over 40 minutes. One convict had stolen the night engineer's pistol, threatened to injure him, and then forced him to shut off the power switches in the basement. The escapees then fled into the woods, bloodhounds in pursuit, severing power cables as they went (NYT 1936 Nov 5).

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