Yuma Territorial Prison
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The Yuma Territorial Prison was a prison in the Arizona Territory in the United States. It accepted its first inmate on July 1, 1876. For the next 33 years 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, served sentences there for crimes ranging from murder to polygamy. The prison was under continuous construction with labor provided by the prisoners. In 1909, the last prisoner left the Territorial Prison for the newly constructed prison located in Florence, Arizona. It is now operated as a historical museum by Arizona State Parks as Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, a state park of Arizona.
Despite an infamous reputation, written records indicate the prison was humanely administered, and was a model institution for its time.
From 1910 to 1914 the Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings. When the school's football team played a game against Phoenix, with Phoenix favored to win, the Phoenix team branded the Yuma team "criminals" when Yuma unexpectedly won; the school adopted the mascot with pride, sometimes shortened as the "Crims"; the school mascot image is the face of a hardened criminal, and the student merchandise shop is known as the Cell Block.
"When the prison was no longer fit to house convicted murderers, we sent our high schoolers there." — A Yuma Union High School Principal, circa 1968.
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