It's not every day that you see a prison right in the middle of a city. They're usually in rural areas on the outskirts of town, but as YNN's Erin Clarke tells us in this week's edition of Your Hometown, the Central New York City of Auburn actually grew around the Auburn Prison and its history is strongly connected to the penitentiary.

AUBURN, N.Y. -- It's home to about 1800 people, employs about another 830, has a unique system of manufacturing goods and an impressive history. Some might say the Auburn Prison is a city of its own within a city. But in fact, the story of Auburn and the prison that bears its name are deeply intertwined and make the city what it is today.

The maximum security Auburn prison opened in 1817 on the very grounds it stands on today - 135 State Street. Back then it was a one of a kind.

"Before Auburn, prisoners were kept in giant rooms, men, women and children," said Cayuga Museum of History Executive Director, Eileen McHugh.

The New York State Prison housed its inmates in individual cells, forty cells in a row, stacked back to back on top of each other, five levels high. It was something unheard of in the 19th century, but proved to be efficient.

"Which made the prison easier to build, less expensive to build and made it easier to control the inmates," said McHugh.

Controlling the inmates was something the Auburn Prison had a novel approach to as well.

"Inmates were never allowed to speak to each other; in fact no one spoke to them. The keepers, the men who were in charge of the inmates never spoke to them as well. The goal was to keep the inmates from corrupting each other. They thought that by isolating them from each other, but forcing them to work would teach them the value of hard work, redeem them and they would be able to make a living when they come out," said McHugh.

And indeed the skills learned inside the prison were desirable. Every New York State license plate was and still is made behind the walls of the Auburn Prison, but that's not all that was made there.

"Giant factories grew up inside the prison where outside manufacturers would rent the labor of the inmates. They would bring the goods to the prison, the inmates would work on them, take the finished goods away and sell them," said McHugh.

"Somebody opened up a shop, an outsider opened up a shop in the machine shop, another one in the Cooper shop, another one in the shoe shop and made goods," said Cayuga County Historian, Sheila Tucker.

It didn't take long though for manufacturers outside of the prison to grow frustrated with the competition.

"If you can make something with cheap labor, you're beating the price of somebody on the outside who doesn't have that ability," said Tucker.

So the state made prisoners produce something that the U.S. imported.

"They had the farmers of the outside area growing mulberries and the cocoons and once they got ripe or whatever you would call them, mature, they would bring them to the prison and they were producing silk," said Tucker.

But by the late 1800s that changed. The prison moved to the state use system, in which inmates only make goods for the state. Furniture used at other prisons, state offices and universities are made here, but what happened to the industries that grew out of forced labor?

Silk production at the prison lasted a short while, but led to the Auburn Logan Silk Mills. Dunough McCarthy Shoe Factory, Barber Carpet Company, Auburn Tool Manufacturers and the Auburn Clock Company also developed into successful businesses outside of the prison.

"The prison looked like it was the beginning of these industries," said Tucker.

Today all that's left of some of those businesses is abandoned lots, but, a residential neighborhood has grown around the correctional facility that was originally built on the outskirts of town.

Auburn Prison remains a model in the penal system and a central part of the city, drawing attention because of its history, which we've only brushed the surface of.

The Auburn Prison is also well known for being the first correctional facility to use the electric chair. Notorious criminals, such as the man who assassinated President William McKinley met their death there.

The Cayuga Museum's Executive Director recently released a book about the prison where you can learn much more about its rich history.

For more information, check out www.cayuganet.org/cayugamuseum.