National Museum of Crime and Punishment (Washington, DC)

The National Museum of Crime and Punishment is conveniently located near the Chinatown Metro in Washington, DC. We all know how big of a fan I am of free or very inexpensive museums I am, but this isn't one of them. The decor is post modern which reflects the old fashioned nature of the building and much of the items in it.
The museum starts with items of medieval torture on display. Some are actual relics while others are reproductions that you can touch. It turns to more colonial with stocks and examples of punishable crimes of the day. Next are some exhibits about pirates, the wild, wild west, then Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie and Clyde has a car that was used in a movie which truly brings the whole exhibit together.
Following Bonnie and Clyde, the historical chronology of the museum is abandoned but they still manage to keep it together. The age of mobsters and speakeasys are well displayed, with a lot of mobsters' hats on display, then a section united by a practice safe (which may imply bank robbing) but it's mostly about very famous people and their crimes (mostly misdemeanors), but really ended up being a little less united but cool nonetheless. The next room is about mass killers. There is a touch of confusion, as at first I thought it was about people on death row and methods of execution, but some notorious killers never got the shot to be arraigned. Still, it gave museum goers the opportunity to, just for a second, enter the minds of mass murderers.
The museum theme changes, and goes to a "live the crime" type section. It starts with the walls becoming faux brick lined, then you get sent to booking. After taking a finger print, you get issued a card with your crime on it (I was charged with prostitution). There are famous mug shots of people lining the hall between the "booking" and the line up. The lineup is behind a legitimate one way glass with cutouts of people on either side, making for some great photo opportunities. Then there was a polygraph (a cool effort, but just speaking through off my blood pressure). The next section had a holding cell (complete with toilet), with an "escape hatch"--if you dare-- to the prison portion.
The prison portion is a history and a sociological study of prison life. While there is Al Capone's cell, inmate drawings and other historical nuggets, but there are also a lot of prison life things. There was an extensive collection of tattoos and their prison meaning. The innocent butterfly tattoo...not that innocent.
Again, there was a small section on execution, and the history of law enforcement on different levels. For the more morbidly intrigued, there are an electric chair and a gas chamber that was actually used. I thought it was cool. My travel companion du jour did not really agree. Wrapping up the true part to the museum is a "CSI" lab, interactive with an "actual" crime that took place in the first bit of that section. There was an autopsy table complete with a tall man on it with fatal wounds, examples of dental identification records. At the end of the exhibits, you could choose to go up or down, if you go down, you'll be on the real set of America's Most Wanted. No John Walsh though. I guess you can't win them all.
The museum is a great option though maybe not for kids of all ages. It was a lot of money but it was worth it. The way it was broken down made perfect sense to me, and I appreciated how they didn't try to cram everything about the history of crime and punishment into the galleries. In my opinion, a museum should leave you wanting more, but not have you leave completely uneducated. The National Museum of Crime and Punishment does this perfectly.