They streamed by the segregation unit on the last day of the Maine State Prison. There were mothers and fathers, little children staring with innocent eyes at the reality that was prison life, where two men were kept in 6-by-8-foot cells for years at a time.

On the way out, some talked about how small the cells were. “It is nothing like on television. I was appalled,” said Mary Nicholas of Augusta, after the weekend tour. “It is hard to imagine how they kept two men in one of those cells,” her friend Carol Michaud of Augusta said.

When the prison was built in 1823, the Legislature decreed that the new structure should be “a dark and comfortless abode of guilt and wretchedness.” The designers did their job.

On Sunday, the families peered into Cell 2 on the first floor of the West Block segregation unit. They could never imagine the horror that took place in the tiny, airless cell. It looked just like all the others.

“That’s where it happened,” said Warden Jeff Merrill.

Prison life is tough on anyone. For a child molester, or “skinner” in prison terminology, it is a living hell. Larry Richardson was a convicted child molester who was sent to Cell 2 in March 1990 for his own protection.

It was his death sentence.

When the other inmates on the “seg unit” found out that Richardson was a child molester, they conducted their own riotous kangaroo court under the noses of the guards. For three nights running, they demanded that Richardson’s cellmate, Roger L. Smith, punch and kick Richardson.

“Hang yourself, Larry, hang yourself,” the inmates on the corridor would sing every night in what they called their “skinner song.”

After several days of beatings, Richardson was treated by the prison nurse, then sent back to Cell 2 and the waiting inmates. Richardson was made to reveal details of his child perversion acts, then forced to consume urine and feces, inmates later testified.

Finally, on the morning of March 6, 1990, Richardson was found hanging from a knotted bedsheet in his cell. The autopsy revealed a swollen and discolored scrotum area, a ruptured testicle and a missing tooth.

Smith was charged with murder in Richardson’s death. At the trial, he testified that guards did nothing to save Richardson. One guard came by and asked if Richardson was dead yet.

“What kinds of guards are these? I’ve never seen guards do this before,” Smith told state police investigators on a tape played at his trial. Other inmates testified that the guards knew all about the kangaroo court and thought it was funny.

State prison employees testified that documents detailing the actions of guards and the victim had “disappeared” from files. “Two critical documents are missing because some of those people didn’t want them to be seen,” defense attorney Joseph Steinberger told the jury.

“No guard did anything about it. No guard said anything about it,” Steinberger said.

Despite the charges made at the murder trial, no prison guard was ever disciplined or fired as a result of the murder. Smith was convicted of Richardson’s murder.

After the Richardson death, double-celling was eliminated temporarily. But once the inmate count went over 600, double-celling was reinstituted. Even at the new prison in Warren will have double-celling on medium security inmates.

“We could never afford single cells for all inmates,” Warden Merrill said.

The heat and water were turned off in the ancient prison on Monday. State officials are now preparing to level the structure. Cell 2 in the segregation unit will crumble with the rest of the “dark and comfortless abode of guilt and wretchedness” and be used to fill in the limestone quarry in the prison yard.

Send complaints and compliments to Emmet Meara at emmetmeara@msn.com.