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What's up, Chicago? I'm Erin Allen, and this is Curious City.

Happy Halloween.

So last episode, we got into a question from a curiousity listener, Chris Kittle.

He wanted to know if the old Joliet prison is haunted.

I love true crime and disaster stuff.

It's just, it fascinates me. There's so much of it, you learn about it, you're like, how it connects together and weaves together.

Chris and all the other true crime lovers come out the woodwork this time of year.

And if you live in the Chicago area, you've probably seen billboards and ads for the old Joliet haunted prison. But here's the thing.

That quote-unquote haunted prison was once an actual prison. It was the women's unit of the Joliet

penitentiary right across the street. Now, whether you believe in ghosts or not, questions about the

paranormal can serve as a sort of entry into the historical context of a place.

And that's what we uncovered at Old Joliet.

Feel free to go back to the last episode and check out what we found.

One interesting thread we pulled from that story was this concept of a prison as entertainment.

Or prison tourism.

Prison tourism is basically using either former or current prison sites to drawn visitors for entertainment and to, as a form of a family fun in some cases. This is Hope Corrigan. Right now, she's an editor with The Washington Post.

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