Barbara, I had an ancestor who was incarcerated at the Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP). Initially I called the Department of Corrections (319-626-2391) but a woman there explained that they did not have any records older than the 1980s. In September of 2002, I called and then sent a letter to Sheila in the Records Department at the ISP (Phone: 319-372-5432). All I had was basic information. I knew that my g-grandfather was in prison because he was enumerated there in the 1900 census. The census information is the only information that I provided Sheila. Sheila at ISP told me that genealogy lookups are done at the prison's convenience and that there would be no charge. (Since I did this nearly 4 years ago, you might want to call them and see if things are still the same.) In January of 2003 I received a letter from Sheila stating that there was no detailed information or file remaining on my g-grandfather, but she was able to provide me with his crime and the period of imprisonment which allowed me to do newspaper research. There was another woman I spoke to at the prison and she and Sheila were very helpful. I also sent Sheila a thank you note for her efforts. I was extremely grateful to her. I had no idea why my g-grandfather was in prison and she gave me enough information to do more searching. Hope this helps! Corrinne P.S. I believe the prison was operating in 1875. From this website below there are some other details you can read, but it says that the prison was initially opened in 1839. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_State_Penitentiary There's also this site which came up when I did a google on Iowa State Penitentiary history. http://www.geocities.com/isprison/ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:32:01 -0500 From: Barbara Hug <[email protected]> Subject: [IOWA] Penitentiary Records To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Does anyone know how to get ahold of the Iowa Penitentiary records or it's history. Was it open in 1875-85? Barbara Lane Hug, Coordinator of the Jasper Co. IAGenWeb site at http://iagenweb.org/jasper State Coordinator of IAGenWeb at http://iagenweb.org/ [email protected] ____________________________________________________________________________________ TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/