Detroit House of Corrections - DEHOCO

[blick]

Who remembers DEHOCO? Anyone with interesting memorabilia from there? I am a collector of vintage police & prison memorabilia. Seeking to purchase old DEHOCO badges, patches, uniforms, license plates, signs, anything old and DEHOCO related. Thanks and happy hunting!

[blick]

Vintage DEHOCO license plate.

[EastsideAl]

My maternal grandfather was a corrections officer at DEHOCO way back in the early 1920s, when he came to Detroit from San Francisco after his WWI era Army service. Somewhere in the family back flies we still have his badge and ID card. We also have a box full of letters that he and my grandmother wrote back and forth to one another when they were courtin'. He was out at DEHOCO [[the guards lived there in those days) and grandma was living in Delray and working as a domestic/nanny for a family that lived on Chandler just east of Woodward.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

My maternal grandfather was a corrections officer at DEHOCO way back in the early 1920s, when he came to Detroit from San Francisco after his WWI era Army service. Somewhere in the family back flies we still have his badge and ID card. We also have a box full of letters that he and my grandmother wrote back and forth to one another when they were courtin'. He was out at DEHOCO [[the guards lived there in those days) and grandma was living in Delray and working as a domestic/nanny for a family that lived on Chandler just east of Woodward.

Cool story. Hope you can locate his badge and ID. Would love to see what it looked like.

[EastsideAl]

Cool story. Hope you can locate his badge and ID. Would love to see what it looked like.

DEHOCO was brand new then [[I believe it opened in 1920, after being moved from the Eastern Market area) and was an experimental program in which prisoners farmed and lived outdoors in tents while they built their own buildings. The county did much of the staffing of the place back then, and my grandfather was officially a Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy. The big main building at DEHOCO was completed in 1930, but by then my grandpa had moved on to working on his own farm out by Belleville and working for Ford, sometimes at the very similar Ford-sponsored Willow Run Farm.

[EastsideAl]

Time for some mid-week classic DEHOCO soul:

[kathy2trips]

Fun Fact: Wild West icon Belle Starr was incarcerated at DeHoCo in 1886. She was arrested for horse theft and was, by all accounts, a model prisoner. This was when it was near the Eastern Market, BTW. The property in Northville was purchased in 1919, and was open for business quickly after, as EastsideAl had mentioned.

I'd be happy to share some of my research and vintage photos I've saved while researching the novel I'm working on. One of my characters is falsely accused and thrown into the clink awaiting trial.

Prisoners at DeHoCo - 1953


DeHoCo Interior


DeHoCo Interior 2

[Hamtragedy]

I may have a school desk or chair left that was made at DEHOCO. I know I have a few Detroit Board of Ed elementary school wooden desks and chairs from the 30s that were made by "Michigan State Industies"

[Ray1936]

Back when there were still Detroit police officers walking beats, they carried a wooden nightstick. They were all made at DeHoCo. Still have mine hanging in the garage.

[Woodsyh]

Vintage DEHOCO license plate.

I've actually got a blue plate with yellow letters. Acquired it in 1981 or 1982. Guessing it's from the mid 60's.

[CassTechGrad]

Newly discovered home movie footage from 1928. Includes:

• Baseball players practicing on a baseball diamond. Some of the players wear Detroit Tigers uniforms, while at least one wears a DeHoCo
• A boxing match in the Detroit House of Corrections yard.
• Footage of University of Michigan Wolverines football game,
• Detroit's riverfront

https://detroithistorical.pastperfec...B-898763816780

[Henry Whalley]

Curtis Sliwa spent time there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Sliwa

[CassTechGrad]

From Wikipedia: In 1883 Belle Starr was found guilty of horse theft and served nine months at the Detroit House of Corrections in Detroit, Michigan. Belle proved to be a model prisoner, and during her time in jail.

[Jimaz]

Is that a backup pistol hidden in her bustle?

[Zacha341]

Hah-two fisted indeed! We're on our way back to these times for law-abiding citizens if the mobs and criminals have their way!