Toluca Prison

From Silent Hill Wiki

Toluca Prison is a defunct prison that was used to house Civil War POWs (previously known as Toluca Prison Camp). Toluca Prison Camp was later converted into Toluca Prison in 1866.

The exact location is not stated in the games, however, it appears to be located beneath the Silent Hill Historical Society building. It is possible that the Historical Society was built over the site of Toluca Prison, as James Sunderland enters the prison through tunnels extending to the museum. James exits the prison and enters the Labyrinth by descending further underground, and although connection of these locations may have been caused by James' delusions, it is possible that the Prison is based near the area where James exits the Labyrinth.

Though James meets Eddie Dombrowski upon his entrance in the prison cafeteria, he is left alone for the remainder of the area and must find a way to exit back to the surface.

Design

The Prison consists of three main sections, separated by two long corridors. The leftmost section was used as the civilian side of the prison, and includes the visiting rooms, offices and main entrance. The central section of the prison are mainly cells and the showers and other inmate essentials. The cells are arranged in four rows, two on the north end and two on the south. Each row has ten cells, though only some of the cells can be entered. The rightmost section is the prison courtyard. Under the effects of the Otherworld, the courtyard is devoid of scenery, save the gallows in the center used to solve a puzzle.

The Prison is in a state of dilapidation upon James' entrance, and most of the prison grounds have been damaged. The prison appears to be underground and much of its structure appears to have eroded and retained water damage. There are no signs of life, except for monsters, during James' stay although notes and memos of its past inhabitants have remained.

Trivia

• In the cafeteria, there is a painting of the cafeteria room in its exact state (which includes the decaying walls, the dead body of a man lying against the table, and the same painting located at the back of the room). The fact that such a painting exists doesn't make any logical sense.

• It is possible that the prison was used as a sort of execution site. The gallows in the prison would be used hang the prisoners and their bodies would then be thrown into the small hole that James eventually jumps through. The room that James jumps through also has a staircase, allowing the executioners at the prison to take the bodies and put them into the nearby morgue. The bodies in the morgue would then be thrown into another hole, as James states, "This corpse... into this hole?".