theconcretemama:

The Kentucky State Penitentiary (KSP) is a maximum and supermax prison for men, located in Eddyville, Kentucky. Known as “The castle on the Cumberland”, the prison sits beside Lake Barkley, on the Cumberland river. It is the oldest operating prison in Kentucky, and is the site of Kentucky’s death row. Maximum security inmates who are not on death row are typically sent to KSP due to violent behavior while incarcerated at lower security facilities within the state. The existing Kentucky State Prison is the second incarnation of the state’s maximum security facility, the first being Kentucky State Prison at Frankfort. In 1875, conditions for inmates at Frankfort were tremendously awful. Approximately 20% of inmates were found to have pneumonia, and 75% had scurvy. An investigator reported witnessing “slime covered walls, open sewage and graveyard coughs” (i.e. death rattle, pneumonia, tuberculosis and bronchitis). 7% of inmates died of treatable infectious diseases in 1875 alone. The state began construction of an updated facility with proper sewage treatment, but the new facility did not receive inmates until 1880. By 1889, the new KSP was already overcrowded, and severely understaffed. Inmates were allowed to work outside of the walls, often times unsupervised, due to a lack of guards. Part of the reasoning for allowing inmates outside the walls was to address the severe overcrowding by rotating inmates in sleeping bunks in shifts. About half of inmates who worked outside the walls escaped from custody, and by the 1890’s the practice was outlawed. During this time, high profile or especially violent inmates were shackled to a “ball and chain”, which was an iron ball that weighed about 18-20 lbs, and was attached to an iron link chain attached to an inmate’s ankle. This practice was abolished in 1940 due to the medical consequences of irritated skin leading to blood contact with unsanitary iron.
Today, the inmate population at KSP is about 850. There are currently about 30 inmates sitting on Kentucky’s death row, but only three executions have been carried out since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the most recent of which took place in 2008. Inmates are issued different dress uniforms based on their custody levels. General population wears khaki, protective custody wears light green, death row is scarlet red, and minimum security wears dark green. Inmates in minimum security are allowed a number of privileges outside prison grounds, including fishing in Lake Barkley.