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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Charlie Jones

Inside eery child prison abandoned for 20 years where kids as young as 12 were jailed

Eerie pictures show the inside of a massive multi-million pound juvenile detention centre that has been abandoned for longer than it was ever open.

Images reveal the crumbling detention centre with grass growing on mattresses in the cells and debris all over the floor in the common room where a clock is frozen at 9.45.

These pictures were captured by urban explorer Leland Kent known online as Abandoned Southeast.

The detention centre in Florida, US, relied on funding; a daily rate of $75 to $120 was negotiated with neighbouring counties for bed space.

It was a lack of funding that led to the close of the detention centre in the early 2000s.

Plants are growing inside due to leaks (mediadrumimages/Leland Kent)

“After several years of planning and construction, this juvenile detention centre opened in the 1990s,” said Leland on his blog.

“In addition to being one of the most modern facilities of its kind in the country, it was designed with security in mind.

“The multi-million-dollar detention centre has no cell blocks and plenty of space for the nearly three dozen individual and isolation cells.

Children used to be detained here (mediadrumimages/Leland Kent)

“By order of the courts, juveniles between the ages of 12 and 17 were brought here for charges ranging from truancy to burglary or theft.

“To fund the detention centre, a daily rate of $75 to $120 was negotiated with neighbouring counties for bed space."

In one room there is even an American flag hanging in the office beginning to sprout.

Leland continues: “Young offenders were maintained in individual holding rooms within a larger room where supervisors had a good view from an upper floor.

Each cell has just a small window (mediadrumimages/Leland Kent)

“Anyone sent to the detention centre was required to keep up with their schoolwork, and teachers were available daily to help them with their studies.

“The juvenile detention centre closed in the 2000s due to a lack of funding.

“As of today, the building has been abandoned for a longer period than it was in use.”

Find out more on Lelands Blog.

One of the more well preserved cells (mediadrumimages/Leland Kent)

Another of his adventures captured images from Memphis, Tennessee show the grandeur of a deserted temple including gold detailing on the ceiling and windows. There is also a large organ dominating the stage.

Other snaps show the seating area available in the hall reported to be one of the largest in Tennessee with room for 1,200 worshippers.

These images were captured by urban explorer Leland Kent also known as Abandoned Southeast.

“In 1916, Tennessee’s oldest and largest Jewish congregation dedicated this magnificent Byzantine-inspired synagogue,” wrote Leland on his blog.

The once blue stairs are nearly completely rusted (mediadrumimages/Leland Kent)

“The temple was built to replace an outdated 19th-century Moorish-style temple located a few miles away.

“Designed by local architects, the building is an excellent example of an early American domed synagogue, with a large central dome and two smaller flanking domes – a type that would become widespread by the 1920s."

The pictures show light flooding through the tall narrow windows onto the creepily empty space.

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