Exploring the Abandoned Lincoln Heights Jail in Los Angeles
- K Enagonio
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
Welcome to No Tracers! Join me on an exploration into the abandoned Lincoln Heights Jail in Los Angeles. We had to escape the cops at this spot, because they were camped out, waiting for us!
THE EXPLORATION VIDEO
AN URBEX PODCAST
If you like hearing crazy stories from abandoned places and the people who explore them, listen to my urban exploration podcast, No Tracers on Spotify, Itunes, or YouTube.
Getting In
To get into this abandoned jail we had to squeeze through a hole that someone had previously made in a board of wood on the basement level of the property. Our first mistake, however, was parking next to a food truck that was parked out front. PSA: DON'T PARK OUT FRONT OF A BANDO, obviously! We will come back to this at the end, however, so read on!
Pop Culture
I don't typically name the locations in my posts, but this being in LA, it has been used in several films and TV shows, including The 1984 movie Nightmare on Elm Street, who used the boiler room, Chained Heat, American History X, parts of which were filmed on the roof, and the Ivan Vanko prison break scene in Iron Man 2.
Additionally, Blink-182 filmed parts of "Feeling This" in the jail, Lady Gaga used it for "Telephone," and 5 Seconds of Summer filmed parts of "Good Girls" at the jail.
THE INSIDE
After walking through the dark basement level we found a stairwell that was covered in graffiti. It led up to the main floor of the facility where we discovered some crazy things, including a rec room with gym equipment, a theater style room with seating, and a boxing ring!
While we were exploring, one of the explorers took a look out of one of the windows that overlooked the street we had parked on and noticed a cop car pulling up. The officer parked his patrol car right up against the side of the building, mere feet from the hole we had entered from. We knew that if we left out that way that we would definitely be tresspassed and fined. This threw a bit of a wrench in our gears during this exploration.
THE SPOILS
This section of the blog is where I share my favorite parts of the building with you. Check out the solitary confinement cells!
I am an avid believer that solitary confinement is a form of torture and is extremely inhumane. I went into one of the solitary confinement cells and shut the door behind me to get a glimpse of what it might feel like to be locked in one of these cells. It was the only section of the jail where the cells themselves weren't covered in graffiti. I made a light painting that says "inhumane" to convey my thoughts about solitary.
THE EXIT
Our escape was definitely one for the books! Because the cop car was parked right next to the hole that we had entered from, we had to figure out another way out, but all of the doors had been welded shut by the city, so we had to get creative. One of the explorers on our crew found a bundle of rope on the floor and we discovered that some of the windows on an upper floor didn't have bars on them, but there was a path for the corrections officers to walk the cell block, behind a set of bars. We decided to tie the rope to those bars and go with a Tom Clancy style escape, by repelling down the side of the jail, out the back. The lot out back was full of decomissioned cop cars that actually came in handy, as hiding places, when an LAPD helicopter flew over us and we had to hide.
Once we were out of the building we had to climb up the back wall, scale a ten-foot high fence that had one metal post sticking just above the razor wire, and climb, carefully, over the razor wire, and then dropped down onto the train tracks.
I truly believe that our skateboards kept us from getting tresspassed that day, because once we rounded the corner on our boards and road back to the cars, I assume the cop that was camped out thought we were just skaters. If we had walked back I think he would've at least questioned us.
This was definitely one for the history books!
*Disclaimer: I do not give out addresses to locations.
Thank you for checking out the blog! If you liked it, leave a comment below and share it with your friends!
Click here to see my urban exploration gear recommendations.
#urbex #urbanexploration #urbanex #abandonedbuilding #abandonedworld #america #abandonedindiana #abandonedlife #abandonedworldabandonment #bando #urbexlosangeles #urbexpeople #urbexyoutube #urbexnearme #urbexphotography #urbexvideo #urbexlocations #urbexgonewrong #urbexgear #urbexcity #urbexers #urbexwalkthrough #urbexphotos #urbexart #urbexequipment #urbandecay #photographyclass #photographywebsites #photographytips #photographytipsandtricks #photography101 #abandoned #abandonedplaces #abandonedhouse
Comments