Those names are often "visitor" and "newcomer."
Many lifelong Jacksonians behave as if they are perplexed that anyone pays attention, or draws attention, to the prison heritage.
My impression is that attitude is changing, thanks largely to Florida transplant Judy Gail Krasnow. She created a tourist attraction called Jackson Historic Prison Tours.
Locals turned out Wednesday in good numbers at the Michigan Theatre to see her first public presentation of "Jacktown," the opening part of the revamped prison tour.
"Jacktown" is difficult to classify. It is not a movie, although film clips are used. It also features story-telling and historical narration. Many old photos are displayed on the big screen.
Whatever you call it, the presentation is loaded with interesting facts largely unknown to modern-day Jackson residents. Here are 10 nuggets.
1. The same architect who designed Michigan's Capitol and capitol buildings in Texas and Colorado designed the prison administration building in Jackson. That's how prestigious it was to be a prison town.
2. Canaries were kept in cellblocks and prison offices as a biological warning system for methane. Dangerous methane levels were possible because each cell had a bucket used as a toilet. That stench, thankfully, is impossible to imagine today.
3. The prison began in 1837 but had no warden until 1880. Top bosses were at first called "agents."
4. Female prisoners, locked in a segregated cellblock, usually spent their days as domestic servants for families of prison big shots.
5. One woman imprisoned for poisoning her three children in Kalamazoo was a babysitter for the warden.
6. Cheap inmate labor not only built Jackson as an industrial city, it turned a nice profit for the prison. Factory owners paid about 33.5 cents per day for inmate work in the early years, but prisoners received 5.5 cents.
7. During the Civil War and World War I, less-dangerous convicts were released if they joined the Army.
8. To break his spirit, each new prisoner in one era spent his first two weeks in solitary confinement on bread and water.
9. A prison tailor shop built such a good reputation that Jackson families had inmates sew wedding gowns for their daughters.
10. Michigan State Prison was basically Jackson's first park. Townspeople picnicked on prison grounds, where an inmate band played music in summer.
Much more could be listed, but space does not allow an exhaustive review of 186 years.
It would be a shame if only visitors appreciated all that unique history.
-- Contact Brad Flory at email@example.com