The Cuyahoga County jail is housed in a foreboding brutalist structure known as the Justice Center. Built in 1976, the complex is made of concrete and includes the Cleveland Police headquarters and the Cuyahoga County and Cleveland Municipal Courts tower.
When it first opened, the Justice Center was heralded as a new era for humane conditions for the incarcerated. It replaced the “leaky old jail” — compared in the press to a “crumbling coffin” — where, in the span of six months, 16 prisoners escaped through the windows. The Justice Center was expanded in 1995 and renovated four years later to add more beds
Today, “Jail 1,” the original highrise built in 1976, doesn’t have a single window in the north section of the tower. The 1996 expansion does have windows—thin slits that don’t let in much light. As a result, the people incarcerated there — and the jail’s employees — do not have access to fresh air or sunlight for most of their stay…