Most of us try to avoid incarceration. We’re funny that way. But suddenly, spending the night in prison looks pretty posh. At least now that Boston’s most notorious jail has been transformed into a luxury hotel.

Once known as the Charles Street Jail, the new Liberty Hotel successfully merges the building’s admittedly dark, 150-plus year-old history with modern notions of “the good life.” Iron bars now form elegant balconies. The original brick walls hold high-definition televisions. A high-end restaurant named Clink serves octopus cassoulet, which, one assumes, such former “guests” of the prison as “Catch Me If You Can” subject Frank Abagnale, Jr., did not feast upon.  

Most people celebrate the re-imagining of the property and the clever juxtaposition of old with new, despondent with indulgent. Others criticize such lighthearted decisions as putting a bar called Alibi in the space that once served as Boston’s main “drunk tank” as disrespectful to the history of the jail and its inmates. I, for one, like the idea. What do you think?

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