The Atlas Obscura Podcast · Saturday, September 26, 2026
Following its initial closure in 1860, the Alton penitentiary was reopened during the Civil War to manage an influx of prisoners of war. This reopening led to severe overcrowding and worsened conditions, culminating in a smallpox epidemic that caused hundreds of deaths among the inmates.
“So the prison was reopened. And then things got really, really bad because it was so overcrowded, um, conditions no better than they were before. And then a smallpox epidemic broke out the following summer after they reopened.”
“Hundreds of prisoners died of smallpox. Many more died of infections and other diseases and ailments.”