original 19th century american industrial oversized nickel-plated wrought bronze joliet prison cell door lever lock skeleton key. the exact fabricator is not known. the term "skeleton" was applied because of the resemblance to a skeletal figure, with the circle at top circumscribing the triangle at one-third the vertical length, resembling a stylized skull. the cell door key exhibits a nicely aged surface patina left untouched. the joliet correctional center, which was a completely separate prison from stateville correctional center, crest hill, illinois, opened in 1858. the prison was built with convict labor leased by the state to contractor lorenzo p. sanger and warden samuel k. casey. the limestone used to build the prison was quarried on the site. the first 33 inmates arrived from alton in may 1858 to begin construction; the last prisoners were transferred in july 1860. both criminals and prisoners of war were confined there during the civil war. the first corrections officer to be killed there was joseph clark in 1865. by 1872 the population had reached 1,239, a record number for a single prison. from the 1870's the prison had work contracts with local businesses. the prison was slow to modernize. there was no running water or toilets in the cells in 1910. the construction of the nearby stateville correctional center begun in 1917 and opened in march 1925 was meant to lead to the swift closure of joliet. this did not happen, and both prisons operated simultaneously for the rest of the 20th century. a women's prison was added across the road from the main structures in 1896 but closed in 1932 when the female prison in dwight, illinois was opened. it then became an annex for the male prison and later the male reception unit for northern illinois. in 1924, nathan leopold and richard loeb were given life sentences to be served at joliet (after their successful defense -- from the death penalty -- by clarence darrow). their case was known as "the crime of the century" at the time after kidnapping and murdering robert franks. from at least the early 1960s, the prison included a reception and classification center for northern illinois, holding new prisoners for less than a month before their final assignments and processing over 20,000 a year. in addition to the prisoners temporarily held in the r&c unit, joliet maintained a large population of permanent inmates. joliet correctional center closed as a holding prison in 2002. budget cuts and the obsolete and dangerous nature of the buildings were the cited reasons. all inmates and most staff were transferred to stateville correctional center.