Philly Prisons Training Academy (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) | movie / film / TV location, closed

 prison, movie / film / TV location, closed

Former Holmesburg Prison, it was part of Philadelphia Prisons System until it was closed in 1995. Built in 1896 and in continuous use until 1995, the facility was the site of a controversial decades-long dermatological, pharmaceutical, and biochemical weapons research projects involving testing on inmates.

Holmesburg Prison is also notable for several major riots in the early 1970s as well as a report released in 1968 of the results of an extensive two-year investigation by the Offices of the Philadelphia Police Commissioner and the District Attorney of Philadelphia documenting hundreds of cases of the rape of inmates

Three movies were filmed here "Up Close and Personal" starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer, and "Animal Factory" starring Willem Dafoe, Mickey Rourke and Law Abiding Citizenstarring Gerard Butler. There is also a book "Acres of Skin" that talks of medical experiments carried out at the prison.

The prisonbriefly reopened from 2007 to 2015 to ease overcrowing in other facilities.

www.abandonedamerica.us/holmesburg-prison