Straight to Jail Trivia Quiz

Originally known as Ossining Correctional Facility, Sing Sing is located north of New York City on the edge of the Hudson River. Opening in the 1820s it wouldn't only become one of the highest-security prisons in the state, but it would be the site of New York's state-ordered executions until the late 1970s, generally by the electric chair. Notably, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death in this chair. Former inmates of this noteworthy institution include serial killer Albert Fish and con man George C. Parker, who sold the Brooklyn Bridge.

Joliet Correctional Center, found in Illinois, closed its doors to inmates in 2002 having stood as an in-use correctional facility since the 1850s. You may have seen it before in several movies and films-- it was the first prison encountered by the Burrows and Scofield in the TV show "Prison Break". Found on Route 66, it's now a tourist site.

Past inmates kept here included, at times, the serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Richard Speck, and James Earl Ray, who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr.

San Quentin State Prison, found in Marin County north of San Francisco, opened in the early 1850s as one of California's oldest prisons and it quickly became notable for holding some of the nation's most dangerous criminals (and this resulted in it having one of the largest death row intakes in the country).

The prison for all executions in California, it's used everything from the gas chamber to lethal injections. It's housed famous faces including the men from Charles Manson's 'family' (including Manson himself, for a time), singer Merle Haggard, and actor Danny Trejo, who was there for just over two years.

Located north of Sacramento, California, Folsom is, like San Quentin, one of the state's oldest prison institutions though it is about thirty years newer (though that's not saying much when its doors opened in 1880). Although popularized by Johnny Cash's albums, Folsom was still a critical spot for criminals, housing well beyond its capacity over time. Both Suge Knight and Rick James spent time in Folsom, as did serial killer Ed Kemper, the Co-Ed Killer.

Referred to as 'The Rock', Alcatraz sits atop an island in San Francisco Bay, and while it was at one time the most recognizable prison in the United States (and perhaps the world), it closed in 1963, eventually becoming a major tourist destination and museum. Home to Al Capone for five years and Machine Gun Kelly for seventeen, the easiest figure to remember from its attendance list is likely 'The Birdman of Alcatraz', Robert Franklin Stroud, who was there for most of the 1940s and 1950s.

United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, found in Kansas, may only be medium-security, but it comes after a century of being one of the more esteemed federal maximum security prisons in the U.S.; it was actually the largest such prison in the country for that period. Past inmates have included everything from gangsters to members of the Duquesne Spy Ring to sports figures indicted for drug trafficking.

Also known as the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies' due to its status as a hyper-secure Supermax facility, ADX Florence opened in 1995 a hundred miles outside of Denver, Colorado on the edge of the mountains. The extra security is integral as this site was created to house the U.S.' most violent and dangerous offenders-- everything from terrorists to spies to gangs and crime family leaders, generally on life sentences or waiting for their executions.

Inmates have included both the Boston Marathon Bomber and Al-Qaeda operatives affiliated with the 9/11 attacks.

Found in Philadelphia, Eastern State Penitentiary is no longer an active prison, having shut down in 1971 after more than one hundred fifty years of operation. Build in several wings spread out from a central hub, the prison was built to separate its inmates and, building on that, specialized in solitary confinement for its more dangerous criminals...at least until it filled up too much. People like Al Capone (who stayed there for eight months) were placed into the building which, created to emulate a European Gothic penitentiary, was built to scare people out of committing crimes in the first place.

Attica Correctional Facility, found in Attica, New York, is found quite the distance west of New York City in a much more rural part of the state. A maximum security prison constructed in the early 1930s it would become the home facility for David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) and Mark David Chapman (who killed John Lennon).

In 1971, the facility was the location of a prison riot that resulted in forty-three deaths - a third of whom were hostages.

A prison of many names (like 'Alcatraz of the South', the Angola Plantation, and Louisiana State Penitentiary), Angola became the largest maximum security prison in the U.S. when it was constructed in the nineteenth century on an old plantation property Mississippi border north of Baton Rouge. Unsurprisingly, it continued to be used for cotton farming into the twentieth century, putting its inmates to work in the fields on the edge of the Mississippi River with the aim to rehabilitate its most dangerous prisoners.

It didn't quite work; it took on the reputation of being the bloodiest prison in the country.