 Home / U.S. State Travel Guides / U.S. Vacations / U.S. National Parks / U.S. State Highpoints / U.S. Road Trip Planning  TOP 15 PRISON & JAIL MUSEUMS IN THE USAs prisons and jails close or are otherwise retired, they are often turned into museums instead of being destroyed. There are already dozens of prison & jail museums in the United States, and none is more famous than Alcatraz. Alcatraz isn't the only prison worth visiting though - there are scores of other excellent prison & jail museums across America that offer guided and self-guided tours. To help you make the most of your time, we have put together a highly-opinionated list of what we believe to be the top 15 jail and prison museums in the US. This top 15 list is sorted alphabetically by state (and not by quality or rank). Please send us an email at gparsons66@hotmail.com if you believe we have missed any of the very best prison museums in the United States. 
TOP 5 PRISON MUSEUMSHere are the five best prison museums in the United States:Alcatraz, San Francisco, California Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, Yuma, Arizona Old Idaho Penitentiary, Boise, Idaho Ohio State Reformatory, Mansfield, Ohio  prison cells within Alcatraz, San Francisco, California |