The Río Piedras State Penitentiary, also known as Puerto Rico Island Penitentiary or Oso Blanco (or ''White Bear'' in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
), was a
correctional facility
In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and su ...
located in
Río Piedras
Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil.
Rio or Río may also refer to:
Geography Brazil
* Rio de Janeiro
* Rio do Sul, a ...
,
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
.
History
The institution opened in 1933 under the government of
James R. Beverley
James Rumsey Beverley (June 15, 1894 – June 17, 1967) was a United States lawyer and politician, appointed as attorney general of Puerto Rico, serving 1927 to 1932. During this period, he was appointed as acting governor of Puerto Rico in 1929 ...
, and came to substitute the Puerto Rico Prison established by
Spaniards
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance peoples, Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of National and regional identity in Spain, national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex Hist ...
in the 19th century.
On April 17, 1991, a spectacular escape occurred which involved landing a helicopter in the prison, and some inmates escaped. Authorities blamed the infamous Papo Cachete as the mastermind behind the escape.
In 2004, the
Government of Puerto Rico
The government of Puerto Rico is a republican form of government with separation of powers, subject to the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States. The building was demolished in 2015.
Building
In 1926, the Federal Government hired the
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, Francisco Roldán, to design the structure. In a new approach to rehabilitation policies, Roldán added a softer design in contrast to the harsh structures that used to be the prisons of the era.
The construction began officially in 1927 with the overview of a professional contracting agency and the use of prisoner workforce. The total cost of the project was $779,822. The prisoners were also used to cultivate the surrounding grounds in an effort to promote their contribution in the economy of the island.
The building bears a
neo-moorish
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centur ...
architectural style with touches of
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
accentuated by the main entrance to the complex. There, two female statues guard it from both sides, with a detailed arch that reads above a quote from the known
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
Concepción Arenal
Concepción Arenal Ponte ( Ferrol, 31 January 1820 – Vigo, 4 February 1893) was a graduate in law, thinker, journalist, poet and Galician dramatic author within the literary Realism and pioneer in Spanish feminism.
Born in Ferrol, Galicia, sh ...
that reads "Hate the crime and pity the criminal".
The complex featured 332
cells
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
Cell may also refer to:
Locations
* Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...
and 12
pavilions
In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings:
* It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
, a clinic, a psychiatric hall, a library, classrooms, workshops, a
mess hall
The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...
with capacity for 500 inmates, a kitchen and restrooms, all organized around an interior patio.
The structure also features guerites in the outer facade with bland-colored tiles to contrast its look with its austere appearance.
It was listed on the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...