Eastern+State+Penitentiary--Abandonment+of+Quaker+Ideals

Throughout history, many different ideals have been hypothesized, tested, and either accepted as true or rejected. One such case is that of Eastern State Penitentiary. After the [|American Revolution], the country wanted to revolutionize its public institutions, including prisons. Eastern State Penitentiary of Philadelphia was constructed in 1821, after many different planners submitted possible designs. The design chosen demonstrates the ideals of the time, those of [|Quakers]. The Quakers believed in prisoner reform, and called for total prisoner isolation. This was not intended to punish prisoners, but to push the criminals to reflect on their actions, change their ways, and become genuinely penitent. The building soon became a well-known landmark, and crowds flocked from all areas of the world to observe and study the design. Over 300 other prisons world-wide were soon based on the design of Eastern State Penitentiary, and the prison benefited enormously by expanding to more than double its original size. However, many who came to see the prison thought the tactics of total isolation and the Quaker ideals of reform were cruel and outdated. The prison eventually closed in 1970. I hypothesize that although Eastern State Penitentiary failed, the construction of this magnificent building was necessary in order to move away from the Quaker ideals of prison reform and towards prison as a center of punishment.

Content: 1 Before Eastern State Penitentiary 2 Eastern State Penitentiary Opens 3 Downfall 4 Aftermath

__**Before Eastern State Penitentiary**__ = = The idea of prison reform dates back to 1682 when [|William Penn] instituted a Quaker penal code which declared the reform of the offender to be more important than his punishment.¹ After his death, Penn’s code was repealed, but the humanitarian thought lived on to make Philadelphia a center of prison reform. Shortly after the American Revolution, a group of Quakers formed a group called the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisoners. As one can tell from the name, the group worked relentlessly for prison reform. The Quakers came up with the concept of a penitentiary where prisoners could reflect and repent on the crime they had committed. Through this system, they believed inmates would give up crime and leave prison rehabilitated. The [|Walnut Street Prison] was the first effort in the Quakers prison reform. ² Although the prison already existed as a city jail, an addition called the “Penitentiary House” was built in 1790 to hold individual prisoners. Inmates were not allowed to communicate with each other, windows were high up to avoid looking onto the street, and labor was not allowed because it was believed it would preoccupy the inmates and keep them from reflecting on the crimes they had committed. The Walnut Street Prison would become in part the model of what became known as the “Pennsylvania System” of prison design and philosophy. In 1821, after many years of lobbying from the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, the Pennsylvania Legislature approved funding to build Eastern State Penitentiary. Four architects submitted designs for the new prison, but ultimately a man named [|John Haviland] won the commission. Haviland chose a radial layout for the prison, consisting of a central hub with seven wings branching out. This would allow proper surveillance of prisoners by guards. The layout had been seen before in Europe, but never in use in prisons. ³ Construction on Eastern State Penitentiary began in 1822. Legislation was passed that allows for solitary confinement at labor. ⁴ However, labor is only to be used as a reward for good behavior, not as a daily routine. Plans are finalized to prohibit all contact between prisoners. Masks are produced to prevent inmates from communicating or seeing where they are, and exercise yards are put in place to prevent contact between inmates but still keep them in good health. The prisoner had only a window at the top of his cell or “the Eye of God” and Bibles were placed in each room as reading material. As for the Walnut Street Jail, the practical matter of housing prisoners became more pressing than the good intentions to rehabilitate the inmates. The prison closed in 1835.

__**Eastern State Penitentiary Opens**__ In 1829, Eastern State Penitentiary opened and received its first inmates. The first years were a huge success. Construction of the original prison ended in 1836 and was a state-of-the-art architectural marvel. Governments from around the world flocked to Philadelphia to see the amazing radial design, and 300 prisons world-wide were soon modeled after Eastern State Penitentiary. Meanwhile, another prison philosophy was emerging known as the “[|Auburn System]”. It also relied on individual cellblock architecture, but only at night. Otherwise, the system required inmates to work in silence in order to give them a sense of purpose, discipline, and order. ⁵ However, the great influx of visitors to Eastern State led to the questioning of the effectiveness of solitary confinement and the debate began.

__**Downfall**__ There are always two sides to an argument. Of course the Quakers are satisfied and ultimately believe that they are helping to reform the prisoner. Many others also agree that the system is working and solitary confinement is the ideal prison environment. For example, officials from the French government exclaimed: //Thrown into solitude... [the prisoner] reflects. Placed alone, in view of his crime, he learns to hate it; and if his soul be not yet surfeited with crime, and thus have lost all taste for anything better, it is in solitude, where remorse will come to assail him.... Can there be a combination more powerful for reformation than that of a prison which hands over the prisoner to all the trials of solitude, leads him through reflection to remorse, through religion to hope; makes him industrious by the burden of idleness..? ⁶ // The fact that so many other governments around the world copied the design of Eastern State Penitentiary for their prisons shows that it had a huge support system. One of the main supporters was Roberts Vaux, who in his letter addressed to William Roscoe, an English man who condemned the Pennsylvania system, defends and makes excellent points about the benefits of separate confinement. Some of the points Vaux makes are as follows: As one can see, there do appear to be great advantages to solitary confinement according to the Pennsylvania System. Even some prisoners agreed. One prisoner, a pharmacist, states, "For a well educated man, it is better to live in absolute solitude than to be thrown together with wretches of all kinds. For all, isolation favours reflection, and is conducive to reformation" .⁸ However, it is also necessary to delve into the psychological effects that this might have on the average prisoner, and thus the opposing argument.
 * “…every prisoner is placed beyond the possibility of being made more corrupt by his imprisonment…[due to] least association of convicts”
 * “…the prisoners will not know who are undergoing punishment at the same time with themselves…because plans of villainy are often formed in jail which the authors carry into operation when at large”
 * “…it is especially intended to furnish the criminal with every opportunity which Christian duty enjoins, for promoting his restoration to the path of virtue, because seclusion is believed to be an essential ingredient in moral treatment”
 * “…advantages of an economical nature will result…great reduction of the terms of imprisonment” ⁷

Many people, visitors and prisoners, find the Pennsylvania System at Eastern State Penitentiary to be cruel and disgusting. Solitary confinement with no outlet is believed to lead to insanity. One of the most famous and outspoken visitors to Eastern State Penitentiary, [|Charles Dickens], recalls: //In its intention I am well convinced that it is kind, humane, and meant for reformation; but I am persuaded that those who designed this system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent gentleman who carry it into execution, do not know what it is that they are doing....I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye,...and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore I the more denounce it, as a secret punishment in which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay. ⁹ // While the Quakers preach of reform, they never mention the effect on the brain that this system might have. Legal interviews with the prisoners started coming to light. For example, one inmate told the interviewer that he was often “visited by strange visions. During several nights in succession, I saw, among other things, an eagle perching at the foot of my bed.” Another inmate exclaimed that his soul was “sick”, and many others were so disturbed that they could not speak coherently. ¹⁰ However, the warden would tell any doubters that the prisoners arrived at the prison in the same state, or that their mental illness could be blamed on masturbation, widely believed at the time to drive men insane. Warden Cassidy, in an interview, also explained that some prisoners faked their insanity: // I knew of one man who was here, who it was admitted by everybody in the place, had lost his teeth, and could not talk, and that he had a suicidal mania. But he always managed to hang himself just before the overseer was coming along to serve the dinner, shut the door, or do something, when the man would be pretty sure to be discovered before he would choke. ¹¹ //Whether or not the prisoners actually faked their insanities is up to the reader to decide. Nonetheless, more and more prisoners were still being admitted to Eastern State Penitentiary.

From 1877 to 1894, four new cellblocks were constructed to reduce overcrowding, although the new cells did not include the exercise yards that the previous cells had. Thus, for the first time, the prisoners would exercise together, although in silence and wearing hoods with eye-holes, similar to the Auburn system previously mentioned. This is the first of many steps that would lead to the abandonment of solitary confinement. The Pennsylvania System did not collapse but simply eroded away over the decades. It was believed that lack of funding meant prisoners must be put into cells together. Some historians have theorized that the rise in foreign immigrants among the prison population decreased public sympathy for prisoners and made expensive penal reform less politically popular after the [|Civil War]. In 1905, a congregate workshop was added to the complex, and by 1909 an inmate newspaper ran a monthly roster of the inter-Penitentiary baseball league scores. Yet, even more cell blocks were constructed to hold the increasing amount of prisoners. In 1913, the Pennsylvania system was officially abandoned. Solitary confinement still existed at Eastern State Penitentiary, but only as a punishment rather than a standard. Eastern State Penitentiary had become what would be considered a normal prison.

In 1924, inmates ate for the first time in group dining halls. In 1926, construction began on yet another cellblock, Cellblock 14. The Penitentiary at this point held 1700, while it was originally designed for 250. Over the next decade or so, inmates began to riot over insufficient recreational facilities, overcrowding and idleness. A facility in [|Graterford] was built and prepared to be the replacement for Eastern State Penitentiary. In 1945, Pennsylvania Legislature recommended abandoning Eastern State Penitentiary. Plans were then put into place to keep the prison alive, but never came to pass due to apathy of the prison’s inevitable closing. The prison was in need of costly repairs but was not receiving enough funding, due to newer prisons being built. Finally in 1961, another large riot fueled the discussions to close the prison: //A task force appointed by the legislature made a three-year study. Noting that Pennsylvania's "contribution to the science of corrective penology in modern times has been negligible," they recommended more psychiatric and psychological services, along with sweeping reforms of the county prison system. The legislature acted on the proposals, which included measures for replacing Eastern with a five-part complex combining a facility for reception and guidance; a medical center; a correctional treatment center; a personnel training institute; and a correctional research facility. ¹² // Again, none of these plans came to pass. In 1970, after being designated a [|National Historic Landmark] ¹³, Eastern State Penitentiary closed.

__**Aftermath**__ After Eastern State Penitentiary closed, it was essentially abandoned until the [|City of Philadelphia] bought it in 1980. The city wanted to use the building for commercial use, but all plans were rejected. Finally in 1991, the first Halloween fundraiser took place in order to raise money for a daytime tour program. The Halloween program today is nationally ranked as one of the scariest in the nation. Eastern State Penitentiary is also open daily for tours, and different areas of the former prison are currently being restored to their original beauty.

Around the time that Eastern State Penitentiary was bought, the United States began focusing on building more prisons. “More than half of all US prisons in use today were built in the past 25 years, to house a prison population that has risen almost 500 percent over roughly the same period.” ¹⁴ Because of all of the urban riots in the late 1960s, conservative politicians began winning elections and called for a return to “law and order”. These “tough on crime” politicians built more prisons and limited programs aimed at rehabilitation. Today, prisons are no longer centers of rehabilitation, but of punishment. If the prisoner wants to reform, he will do it on his own. The only prisons still using the system of solitary confinement are modern “[|supermax]” prisons, which hold only the worst offenders. However, without the social experiment performed with Eastern State Penitentiary, humanitarian leaders might still be calling for reform of the prisoner instead of punishment for the prisoner.

¹ http://www.docheritage.state.pa.us/documents/greatlawtrans.asp ² http://law.jrank.org/pages/11192/Walnut-Street-Prison.html ³ Johnston, Norman B. "John Haviland."  __Pioneers in Criminology __.  ⁴ GWS: The law states: “SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That every person who shall be convicted in any court in the western district, of any of the crimes hereafter mentioned, committed after the first day of July next, shall, instead of the Penitentiary punishments heretofore prescribed, be sentence by the proper court to suffer punishment by separate or solitary confinement at labor, in the manner and for the times hereinafter prescribed, in the State Penitentiary for the western district, in the county of Allegheny, and for that purpose to be removed to the State Penitentiary at the expense of the State.” ⁵ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auburn_System ⁶ __History of Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia __. 21 Jan. 2009 ⁷  Vaux, Roberts. // Letter on the penitentiary system of Pennsylvania : addressed to William Roscoe, Esquire, of Toxteth Park, near Liverpool. //   Philadelphia, 1827. // The Making of Modern Law //. Gale. 2009. Gale, Cengage Learning. 21 January 2009 ⁸ Beaumont and Tocqueville, pp. 196-97. //Population Records: Descriptive Registers, 1829-57// ⁹ Dickens, Charles. //American Notes for General Circulation.// “Philadelphia and its Solitary Prison.” Ch. 7. ¹⁰ http://www.legalaffairs.org/printerfriendly.msp?id=331 ¹¹  Cassidy, Michael J. (Michael John). // Warden Cassidy on prisons and convicts : remarks from observation and experience gained during thirty-seven years continuous service in the administration of the Eastern State Penitentiary, Pennsylvania. //   Philadelphia, c1897. // The Making of Modern Law //. ¹² http://www.easternstate.org/history/download/history-vol1.pdf ¹³ United States of America. Department of the Interior National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places. 21 Jan. 2009. ¹⁴ http://www.legalaffairs.org/printerfriendly.msp?id=331