A Weekend at the USA Archery Nationals
Photo By Emma Schaefer
Archers score in groups of four and score on tablets and on paper to make sure scores are accurately recorded. Once three whistles blast, archers can proceed to the targets and score their arrows. Targets are scored from ten to one, the very center being the highest score on the target. Archers must mark the arrow holes every end in case any arrows bounce out so they can be called.
Photo By Emma Schaefer
As COVID-19 restrictions are easing, local sporting events are starting to happen again. From Feb. 6-8, the Illinois Target Archery Association held their state championship in combination with USA Archery’s national tournament. Each archer brought their own equipment and had it approved by a judge before they could compete. The Hoyt Invicta pictured above is a top of the line compound target bow.
![When I chose to take a tour of the Old Joliet Prison in Joliet, IL, I had no idea what I was walking into. I’ve heard of multiple paranormal events happening here, but I was more interested in how a prisoner lived. I wanted to feel their hopelessness and wanted to understand what it must have been like to sit in an empty cell and yearn for sunlight.
The Old Joliet Prison is a daunting structure that appears, seemingly, out of nowhere. When driving to the prison, it isn’t until someone is a few feet away that they see the large walls and barbed wire. Just driving past it, they can feel a change in the atmosphere.
When a prisoner is being driven there, they don’t know how close they are. They are driving through a suburban neighborhood before they reach a small unassuming bridge. Yet, as soon as they go under the bridge and back into the sunlight, they finally see the prison and know that as soon as they go in, they will never come out.
“In 1878, the Prison was filled well over capacity with nearly 2,000 inmates,” according to jolietprison.org, a website that tells the history of the prison and allows for you to sign up for tours. “[There were] reports of unsanitary and dangerous conditions emerged.”
Throughout the state, people knew the allegations that staff was abusing the prisoners as well as killing them. Once a prisoner was told that they were going to Old Joliet Prison, they knew that it was a death sentence](https://kanelandkrier.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/prison1.jpg)
