What's next for Indiana Women's Prison site? What we know so far
As the city of Indianapolis takes steps to redevelop the long-vacant Indiana Women's Prison property, a Near Eastside group has started a separate project to tell former inmates' stories.
The Metropolitan Development Commission Wednesday approved $10,000 of city money for a two-day planning session about the old prison's future with city planners, community groups and economic development organizations. The Urban Land Institute, an economic development nonprofit, will use the sessions to create a report about how much a developer would have to pay to make needed repairs and what uses would fit best into the Willard Park neighborhood.
Founded in 1873, the 401 N. Randolph St. property was the nation's first women's prison and housed inmates until 2009. After the prison moved to its current Girls School Road location, the site served as the Indianapolis Re-Entry Educational Facility until 2017. Since then, neighbors have lamented a lack of transparency about what's going on at the 15-acre eyesore in their neighborhood.
After a land swap with the state gave Indianapolis control of the site last year, the city will engage ULI to help find the "highest and best use" that retains the property's historical significance. The city will likely put out a request for developers' proposals later this year.
Any plans should preserve historic elements like the prison chapel, the prayer labyrinth and the original wrought iron fence, said Joey Newsom, president of the Willard Park Neighborhood Association and a vocal advocate for the site's reuse. He wants to see market-rate housing with lower-income units set aside, he told IndyStar.
"This is in the middle of a neighborhood, so it needs to make sense with the neighborhood, which probably means housing," Newsom said. "It'd be really nice to get a grocery store in this food desert, but I don't see that happening."
In the meantime, the city will hire a security company and may install temporary lighting to ward off trespassers, according to city planner Piers Kirby. This spring, crews will mow lawns, scrub off graffiti and board up windows to protect the remaining buildings.
Environmental testing will show whether underground storage tanks or old dry-cleaning facilities could restrict potential uses, Kirby said.
Retro Indy: How the oldest women's prison in the country came to be
Aside from the city's efforts, a Near Eastside organization will produce a podcast series and a research archive that tell the stories of formerly incarcerated women.
In a project led by social impact studio City Rising, former inmates and community members will take part in oral histories, creative writing workshops and public forums to document their experiences at the prison. To be released over the course of the next year, "Beyond These Gates" will center the voices of women who spent decades imprisoned at the site.
The original Indiana Women's Prison had two distinct departments. The reformatory housed girls under 15 who were imprisoned because of 'incorrigible or vicious conduct," while the penal section held women and older girls who had been convicted of criminal offenses. Over the years, the prison witnessed escapes, suicides, arson, fires and an 1879 typhoid epidemic that hospitalized 35 and claimed the life of one inmate.
"The redevelopment of the former prison site should not erase the people who once called it home, even temporarily," City Rising founder Mark Latta wrote in a blog post announcing an Indiana Humanities Council grant paying for the remembrance project. "Instead, it should serve as a space of reflection, education, and community dialogue."
Email IndyStar Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What's next for Indianapolis women's prison site on near eastside
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