USHUAIA PRISON MUSEUM

On January 1896 the first group of 14 convicts arrived on board the naval ship "1° de Mayo". In this way the "reincidents jail" got under way housed temporarily in wooden and tin hunts.
The idea was to colonize with convicts and they immediately sent 11 more men and 9 women volunteers. All were ex-convicts who had fallen again.

MILITARY PRISON
The Military Prison on The Isla de los Estados, First functioned in San Juan de Salvamento an later in Puerto Cook. In December 1902 was moved for humanitarian reason to Ushuaia. The place chosen was Puerto Golondrina to the west of the city. There was notion to build a penal colony also this not prosper.
In 1911 the president of the Nation signed a decree that fused the Military Prison and the jail of Ushuaia.

THE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
I In 1902 construction started in the National Prison. The site selected was the same where temporary constructions were, east of the little town of Ushuaia which consisted of little more than 40 houses. Until 1920 the constructions continued on the jail which was done by the convicts.
The originated idea was to build a Penal Colony for 580 convicts at Lapataia, for which 2500 acres of land were reserved on the border with Chile.
In 1920 the jail had 5 pavilions with 79 exterior facing cells each. The 380 cells were single but the jail housed more than 600 convicts at one time.
Between the N° 1 and 5 a bakery. To the front of the bay an administration building was erected. The workshops were housed in separate buildings. Only in 1943 a modern hospital was inaugurated which later became the hospital for the Naval Base and for a long time the only hospital in the zone.
The Main Hall was used as a conference hall, cinema and auditorium for any occasion.

WORK AND DISCIPLINE
As time went by, convicts guilty of serious crimes, many for lifetime or long sentences were sent there.
The system used was based on work for lifetime with a little salary. They also had primary school education and sever discipline.
The jail had 30 different work areas, some being outside the limits of the jail.
The workshops tended the jails needs and rendered services to all the town of Ushuaia. These were the first press, telephone, electricity, fire station, etc.
Outside the jail the convicts were used for building streets, bridges, buildings and also all the timberland.
In this way thanks to the convicts a railway was built in the year 1910. This became the southernmost railway in the world. Was 25 km long and ran alongside Maipu street to Monte Susana and split in two sections towards what is today the National Park.
The jail had various ships among which the "Godoy" was the most known. In 1947 the President of the Nation disposed the closure of the jail and installations were transferred to the Navy and Naval Base was installed there in 1950.

DAY 1 - Arrival to Ushuaia Airport and transfer to hotel. 03 nts of accommodation with breakfast

DAY 2 - Excursion to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Return to the city and take a Beagle Channel Navigation to see Isla de los Pàjaros, Isla de los Lobos and Faro Les Eclareirs.

DAY 3 - Excursion to Fagnano and Escondido Lakes

DAY 4 - Transfer to airport

This is a basic program to visit Ushuaia Area. Please visit our tour list to see more tours combining this area and others place in Argentina and Chile

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Ushuaia Area: Bahía Lapataia (Tierra del Fuego NP)	Ushuaia Area: Glaciar Martial location map	Ushuaia Area: Estancia Tunel location map
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General Information about Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego Province	Ushuaia Photo Gallery

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