[Music] Pennsylvania operated Eastern State Penitentiary from its opening in 1829 until the year before its abandonment in 1971 by the time time Eastern closed prisons had become the standard response to crime in American society but in the first Decades of the 19th century prisons were still experimental and Eastern's system of separate confinement represented one of the most controversial and expensive social experiments of its day Eastern's distinctive system initially set it apart from other prisons nevertheless its story is a tale of the nation's changing ideas about crime and punishment contempor orary debates about the prison system Echo with the hopes and frustrations that punctuated Eastern's [Music] history before the introduction of Prisons colonists equated crime with sin sinful impulses were an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of man's Fallen nature crime might be deterred through fear fear of God's Wrath or man's but whether deterred or not crime had to be punished in addition to the widespread use of fines punishments included public humiliation in the stocks or Piller flogging branding and banishment for many offenses including repeated convictions for stealing the penalty was death on The [Music] Gallows local jails were found throughout the colonies but time in jail was not seen as a punishment in itself no one expected that time in jail would either deter or reform criminals jails held people awaiting trial or sentencing or they held dors until they could make good on their debts inmates were usually indiscriminately mixed often crowded together male female young old felon deor the colonial system of punishments depended upon social and Geographic stability personal ties a family church and Community enforced standards of conduct formal and informal sanctions promoted sober obedient God-fearing behavior and punish deviance and [Music] depravity the idea of using imprisonment as a form of punishment grew out of a new conception of the world formed in 18th century Europe by the political philosophers of the Enlightenment their utilitarian in theory saw humans as free and autonomous beings governed by reason the problem of crime came not from the evil nature of man from original sin but from the cruel use of Power by the state the Italian criminologist chazer beia captured this thinking in his influential treaties on crimes and punishments many Enlightenment thinkers believed that a properly conceived rational and Humane criminal code could deter crime as champions of individual rights and Liberties those thinkers argued that any punishment exceeding the minimum penalty necessary to preserve order was abuse and not Justice American Civic leaders in the 1790s saw their new Republic as a land where ideas could be tried a new social order crafted committees in various States called for legislative reforms that could enact the utilitarian principles and Humane practices discussed in Europe as early as 1787 an organization that was to become the Pennsylvania prison Society began to Advocate the Humane treatment and reform of convicts influenced by the writings of the English prison reformer John Howard their efforts led to major changes in Philadelphia's Walnut Street jail eventually the nation's first state prison those changes included the separation of debtors from felons the introduction of new rules governing the conduct of inmates and and the construction of cells for the solitary imprisonment of serious criminals in the next few years most States abolished the death penalty for all but the most serious crimes built new prisons or converted former facilities and began sentencing felons to terms of [Music] incarceration despite the optimism that inspired those reforms early prisons which were little more than holding pins quickly became crowded with repeat offenders it was not unusual we are told for 16 convicts to be locked up together by themselves in one cell for the night with lights cards musical instruments and a supply of intoxicating Liquors in these committee rooms of Satan the violent schemes of propac were devised and the grossest acts of depravity perpetrated while confederacies and combinations were formed by the practice veteran with the novice in crime Frederick Adolphus Packard nowhere was this system of imprisonment crowned with the Hope For Success every year the legislature of each state voted considerable funds toward the support of the penitentiaries and the continued Return of the same individuals into the prisons proved the inefficiency of the system however instead of accusing the theory itself its execution was attacked it was believed that the whole evil resulted from a lack of cells and the crowding of prisoners Alexis tovil 1833 problems of crime and disorder alarmed many in the new Republic political and economic changes were disrupting previous social Arrangements weakening the relationships that had defined and maintained an orderly Society growing numbers of landless unskilled and unapproved the countryside and congregated in newly emerging cities between 1790 and 1830 the population of Pennsylvania tripled Civic leaders became increasingly concerned about the undisciplined immoral and illegal conduct of these lower classes establishing social order among the poor was a prevailing concern our newspapers team with relations of crimes of every die our cities Villages and factories are frequently in Flames felonies that affect the stability of our moneyed institutions are becoming common a government which fails to repress such a course of criminality fails also in its highest Duty that of protection Samuel Hopkins 1822 reformers sought to apply the newly adopted rational principles to the design and management of penitentiaries themselves and to build other institutions asylums hospitals and orphanages to instill the values of hard work regimentation humility and sobriety the very architecture and routines of prison life were employed to discipline as well as punish convicts World attention would focus on two competing plans for imprisonment devised in the 1820s New York's silent system and Pennsylvania's separate system of prison [Music] discipline New York State authorized the construction of Auburn prison in 1816 Auburn introduced a congregate form of prison discipline that through the use of brutal floggings prohibited all communication between convict even as it required them to work side by side throughout the day that system became known as the silent system at Auburn we have a more beautiful example of what may be done by proper discipline in a prison well constructed the whole establishment from the gate to the Sewer is a specimen of neatness the unremitted industry the entire subordination and subdued feeling of the convicts has no parallel in their solitary cells they spend the night with no other book but the Bible and at Sunrise they proceed in military order under the eye of the turnkeys in solid columns with the lock march to their workshops then in the same order at the hour of breakfast to the common Hall where they partake of their wholesome and Frugal meal in silence not even a whisper is heard the Bold staring of the prisoners which indicates an unsubdued and audacious spirit in the culprits this is never seen at Auburn the Boston prison discipline Society 1826 the silent system imposed an impressive discipline among convicts but at a cost Auburn's administrators and admirers abandoned the humanitarian ideals that had played such an important role in the introduction of prisons and they abandoned hope and responsibility for reforming criminals the Pennsylvania prison Society in Philadelphia an organization strongly influenced by its Quaker members was not willing to give up on either of those ideals the prison Society explicitly rejected the brutality needed to maintain the Auburn system and advocated in its place a system of confinement that would lead to the Reformation of criminals at the prison society's urging Pennsylvania allocated funds for the construction of Eastern State Penitentiary in 1821 and the prison opened in 1829 the design of Eastern State embodied Quaker ideas about the nature of man and the Redemptive powers of solitary reflection and penitence the founders of Eastern selected a plan that enabled convicts to work in the isolation of their selves complete isolation relieved by the discipline of work would allow convicts to seek the light of God which Quaker saw as the path to Reformation absolute Solitude for years without labor or moral or religious instruction probably does bear too severely upon a social being like man but this mode of punishment weighing as it does upon the hardened and impenitent felon is eminently calculated to break down his obate Spirit when that important object of penitentiary discipline has been gained he learns and he feels that moral and religious reflection relieved by industrious occupation at his trade comfort and support his mental and physical Powers divest his solitary cell of all its Horrors and his punishment of much of its severity Charles S Cox 1830 the philosophy guiding Eastern presented many challenges for the architect the building had to prevent communication between inmates in order to maintain total isolation and silence each cell had to accommodate both the prisoner and his or her work equipment in addition each cell had to be equipped with water rudimentary plumbing and heat prevailing Theory held that prisons needed adequate ventilation to prevent jail fever which had plagued earlier institutions and the planners wanted an imposing building that would Inspire fear and respect among the cenry let the avenue to this house be rendered difficult and gloomy by mountains or morasses let its doors be of iron let the grading occasioned by the opening and shutting of them be increased by an echo that shall deeply pierce the soul Benjamin Rush in attempting to unite convenience strength and economy with other desired objects in this prison I have maturely studied various geometrical figures but could not find any so advantageous for the accomplishment of those properties as the one I've adopted it appears to me to be a form best calculated for watching convenience economy and ventilation John havin John Haven's original plan called for 250 cells each with its own exercise yard arranged in seven single story Wings the centrally placed gard and the design accommodating surveillance reveal the influence of the ideas of the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham benam had extended utilitarian principles to the design of a model prison which he called the panopticon in his plan prisoners never knew when they were being watched guards hidden from the prisoners View could see into any cell from the central Observatory hain's plan for Eastern also emphasized watching but it was the empty spaces between cells that guards could see from the retunda to overhear and stop forbidden communication between convicts guards patrolled the corridors with stockings covering their shoes prisoners occupied the first cell block of Eastern State in 1829 even as construction was still underway population pressures were heavy from the start before the work Crews had finished blocks 2 and three prison officials realized that the original plan would not house a sufficient number of convicts havlin had to redesign the remaining four blocks as two-story structures the new plans accommodated 450 prisoners in separate cells another major design change made during construction involved the addition of interior cell doors the first three cell blocks allowed entrance to each cell only through its exercise yard inside walls lacked doors and had only small feeding Windows to permit guards to pass convicts their meals but that design proved inconvenient and inefficient for both the guards taking convicts to and from their cells and the prison chaplain making rounds to offer religious instruction havin cell blocks were built on 10 acres of a former Cherry Orchard outside Philadelphia and many people referred to it as the Cherry Hill prison an imposing 30ft stone wall enclosed the entire site since the design called for all prisoners to remain within their cells for the whole of their terms the wall with its Corner towers and gothic style was intended as much to intimidate citizens as to contain the inmates both men and women served time at Eastern though the number of female convicts rarely exceeded 8 or 10% of the prison to total population in the early years a typical sentence was for 2 or 3 years few inmates served terms of more than 14 years though the sentences were longer in the latter part of the prison's [Music] history at citt a convict was interviewed given prison clothes and taken to his or her cell for that Passage through the prison a hood was placed over the prisoner's head to keep any but the guards and Keepers from knowing the convict's identity there in a space of 12x 7 and 1/2 ft under a vaulted ceiling designed to Echo even the sest sounds the convict would stay for the whole of his or her sentence alone except for the occasional visit from a guard the chaplain a member of the prison Society or perhaps a dignitary touring the prison inmates at Eastern State were permitted no contact with family or friends no news of events outside the prison and each was allowed a mere hour a day of solitary outdoor exercise a period frequently shortened in practice prisoners were required to remain silent and suffered additional punishment if anger Disobedience or Insanity compelled them to communicate with neighboring prisoners or to rant to themselves or the Devils of their imaginations their work involved crafts such as shoe making or weaving or if a prisoner had experience in the Building Trades he was employed alongside paid laborers in the construction of the remaining cell blocks of the prison problems with the heating and ventilation meant the cells were often unhealthily damp and cold or stifling hot the design of the plumbing system which called for twice weekly flushing often left waste in the pipes forcing prisoners to breathe tainted air and yet for all its faults eastern state was an architectural Marvel of its day it was the most expensive public building yet constructed in the United States and it was the first building to attempt such elaborate large-scale Heating and Plumbing Systems the penitentiary attracted many visitors who toured the institution investigating the design of its cells and the engineering of its systems at first only a 100 or so came each year but the numbers of curious grew in 1836 more than 2,000 people toured Eastern's corridors and grounds 4,000 in 1839 10,000 in 1858 among those signing the visitors book were dignitary from around the nation and around the world Statesmen noblemen Scholars they came to see a novel experiment and criminal justice an architectural embodiment of Enlightenment philosophy reconciled to Quaker [Music] theology the majority of visitors applauded the prison and its radial design became the model for new prisons around the world but Eastern 's separate system was not without its critics the humanitarian ideals of the separate system were difficult to implement in practice problems with discipline and abuses of power corrupted the system from its start proponents of New York's More militaristic Auburn system pointed to the unprecedented expense of Eastern's construction and charged that its system of solitary labor was unproductive and unprofitable they argued that inmates learned no discipline alone in their cells where they did not faced the hardship of working silently alongside other convicts under the supervision of guards despite its claims of conducting a noble experiment unsullied by base concerns from money and Humane in its treatment of inmates just 5 years after its opening the state had to investigate charges of abuse of prisoners misuse and embezzlement of funds and immoral practices of officers and agents of the prison testimony revealed that prisoners were allowed out of their C to wait on the administrative staff or to do work that earned money for officers lack enforcement of rules for silence and isolation continued throughout the 1840s and 50s and included the practice of pairing prisoners to work together to learn a craft or trade the 1834 investigators also uncovered the use of severe and abusive punishments against prisoners one boy Charles Warick sentenced at age 16 to 5 years for arson was severely punished for cutting shoe leather he was kept in the dark punishment cell for 42 days on the evening of that day one of the keepers was attracted to the cell of this miserable wretch by repeated knockings on looking in at the cell the convict exhibited every symptom of delirium produced by starvation he was on his knees his eyes rolling in frenzy and his frame reduced to a skeleton another boy cica plimley who entered the prison at age 19 for horse stealing was subjected to a water bath which involved pouring buckets of cold water over a prisoner from a great height the investigation found that the weather was extremely cold he was in a state of nudity and icicles formed on his hair and his person was encrusted with ice most notorious was the use of the iron gag used to punish prisoners caught talking to others this was a rough iron instrument resembling the stiff bit of a blind Bridal with chains at each end to pass around the neck and fastened behind this instrument was placed in the prisoner's mouth the chains brought round the Jaws to the back of the neck drawn tight to the fourth link and fastened with a lock his hands were then forced into leather gloves and crossed behind his back the straps were drawn tight the hands forced up toward the head creating pressure on the jaws and jugular vein producing excruciating pain and a hazardous diffusion of Blood to the Head the melway report 1835 on June 27th 1833 Matthew mccumsey died while fastened in that device the investigation of 1834 also offered the first evidence that the prisoners found ways to communicate with each other through notes and wrapping on the pipes and that the officers permitted prisoners to leave their cells unmasked to work on tasks within the prison while some critics focused on the laxness of rules at Eastern others pointed to the dangers associated with with strict adherence to those rules in the outskirts of Philadelphia stands a great prison called the Eastern Penitentiary conducted on a plan peculiar to the state of Pennsylvania the system here is rigid strict and hopeless solitary confinement I believe it in its effects to be cruel and wrong in its intentions I am well convinced that it is kind Humane and meant for reformation but I am persuaded that those who devised the system of prison discipline and those benevolent gentlemen who carry it into execution do not know what it is they are doing I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and Agony which this Dreadful punishment prolonged for years inflicts upon the sufferers standing at the central point and looking down these dreary passages the dull Repose and quiet that prevails is awful occasionally there is a drowsy sound from some lone Weaver's shuttle or shoemaker's last but it is stifled by the thick walls and heavy dungeon doors and only serves to make the general Stillness more profound The Prisoner is a man buried alive to be dug out in the slow round of years Charles Dickens 1842 Eastern survived investigations and criticisms of its practices continually defending its philosophy even though the convicts it released showed no more signs of reformation than those held in other prisons however the 1840s were the beginning of the Industrial Age in America and the changes that came with industrialization eventually made it impractical for the separate system to continue the majority of men and women who served time at Easton were sentenced for property crimes and came from the lower economic classes most were convicted for Larsen followed by burglary horse stealing forgery and robbery as the debates of the early 19th century made clear the invention of penitentiaries represented both optimism about the possibilities of social engineering and profound anxiety about the emerging lower classes that anxiety about the poor proved an enduring motivation for the reform and expansion of the prison system from the start fear of the poor was mixed with the contempt for people of color a contempt That Grew as the number of dislocated blacks increased but it must be remembered in the 19th century Irish Italians Jews and Chinese were all considered to be separate races threatening to pollute the white race then as is often the case now native born whites portrayed crime as a problem brought to America by Outsiders had the native population of our country been left to the Natural and potent influence of these conditions we should have an unprecedented minimum of crime indeed no one familiar with our criminal returns can fail to see how large a percentage of convicts are of foreign birth or extraction it is very obvious that such a mass of corrupt and corrupting elements cast Into the Heart of our population will rapidly diffuse itself throughout the community like a foul turbid stream emptying into a comparatively pure lake it's course can be traced a little way but is soon indistinguishable from the surrounding Waters which in time it assimilates to its own dark Hue the Pennsylvania Journal of prison discipline 1852 not only does immigration bring Among Us the predatory criminals of all Nations but foreign anarchists openly Advocate murder and arson in our slums Theodore Bingham Police Commissioner of New York City 1908 the first half of the 19th century was a period of escalating tensions over slavery Philadelphia had a large free black population but its proximity to the Mason Dixon line and its social and economic ties to the South as well as its status as a major stop on the Underground Railroad made race relations far more tense than one would suspect from its charitable Quaker Heritage The Peculiar situation of Pennsylvania as a frontier State between the slave and free states and hence the recipient of a worthless class of colored persons is the cause of our having so large a portion of colored prisoners if we add to these the depraved and abandoned persons who infest this large city it is Manifest that we have the most worthless ignorant and least profitable inmates of any prison in the union Warden wood 1840 during the 19th century between 20 and 50% of Eastern's American Born inmates were black a percentage far greater than their proportion in the general population Eastern's first inmate Charles Williams and the first four female inmates were black masses of immigrants began to compete for their jobs in a rapidly changing labor market a large number of Irish and German immigrants fleeing political and economic problems in their own own countries arrived in Philadelphia and settled in the outskirts of the city during the 1840s and 50s American industrialists actively recruited these populations their cheap labor fueled the nation's economic expansion American Born craftsmen who were losing their livelihoods to industrialization found immigrants and blacks easier to blame for their problems than the structural changes occurring in the American economy all the major Urban centers saw nativist riots directed against the Germans Irish Catholics or blacks during this time rioting occurred in the Southward Kensington and man young sections of Philadelphia all areas of early industrialization and poor ethnic ghettos the Riots of 1844 were perhaps the most serious with at least 30 people killed in two Catholic churches and a Convent burned another wave of immigration occurred between 1880 and 1920 this time the immigrants came mainly from Central Southern in Eastern Europe Jews settled in two sections of Philadelphia many finding employment in the Garment industry for their activities and unions Jews were labeled terrorists and socialists or for their success in business viewed as scheming and controlling Italian immigrants settled in South Philadelphia because Italian cultural Traditions favored strong extended families and a system of patronage Italians were assumed to be members of organized crime syndicates like the mafia while immigrants were often unfairly stereotyped as criminals some did choose illegal activity as a path to economic advancement the segregation dense population low wages and substandard housing of ethnic and racial ghettos made those areas breeding grounds for Crime their inhabitants served as easy scapegoats for all the problems accompanying rapid urbanization and [Music] industrialization after the 1840s virtually all US prisons adopted Auburn's congregate model of confinement allowing the state to organize prison labor on an industrial model prison officials use convicts for productive and profitable labor that subsidized the cost of the institution between the 1840s and the 1860s most prisons employed their inmates and shops and factories constructed on the prison grounds private contractors leased the convicts labor supplying the materials and supervision for production in the prison shops for the next several decades the officials at Eastern continued to defend the merits of solitary labor unfortunately for Eastern the market for handmade shoes or woven products had disappeared by the 1870s the industries formerly pursued have been practically abandoned first because the concentrated efforts of Labor organizations have caused the legislature to pass laws which make the handling of prison-made goods unprofitable second because automatic Machinery has been so perfected that the labor of hands is almost dispensed with Warden Cassidy 1898 the prison introduced chair caning hoser and cigar making in the 1880s and along with the new Enterprises and acceptance at least in practice of prisoners working together by the end of the last century more convicts at Eastern State were idle than employed and prison officials had to look to other activities to keep their charges occupied Eastern faed serious overcrowding as did every prison in America officials could not maintain the most fundamental element of its system separate confinement of prisoners the situation worsened in the next decade prompting a major construction project of four new cell blocks between 1877 and 1894 yet by the turn of the century the number of prisoners increased to 1,400 forcing some cells to hold as many as four or even five inmates concerns about crime and disorder in the lower classes continued to grow during the last Decades of the 19th century prison leaders from other states openly recognized the failure of both the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems to deal with the problem with a rapidly increasing po population and the disposition of people to congregate in large cities we have an alarming increase in crime and legislation is obliged to be ever devising new remedies and imposing fresh penalties for the protection of society but prison discipline and the Reformation of the convict are still an unsolved problem it is not enough that we erect great prison houses Grand in conception beautiful in architectural design and finish and liberal in their appointments these are monuments of the prosperity of the state and evidences of the determination of society to protect itself against evildoers but the granite walls and iron bars although they deprive the criminal of his Liberty and inflict a just physical punishment do not work that Reformation in the soul of the man that will restore him to society regenerated and reformed until this is in some measure accomplished our system of pron discipline is imperfect and ineffectual major a goshorn chairman of the First National Congress own Penitentiary and Reformatory discipline 1870 new ideas about prisoners and prisons circulated Across the Nation this era of reformers called for changes in policy that would have a positive impact on Prisoners the primary inspiration for changing American prisons came from the Irish system a aggressive confinement in which prisoners could work their way through various stages of less restrictive imprisonment eventually achieving a conditional release or parole according to these new ideas prisoners were not as Enlightenment thinkers had believed free moral agents needing only rational deterrence and opportunities for reflection they were flawed individuals the products of inadequate families and immoral Urban influences they needed not punishment and penitence but active Reformation Guided by the new Sciences of human behavior although Eastern's Warden scoffed at the new ideas Eastern State Incorporated many of the liberal practices associated with the Reformatory movement as early as 1854 Eastern employed a full-time teacher who visited inmates in their cells offering tutorials in elementary education bookkeeping German and Spanish in 1880 policy changes allowed family members to exchange exchange letters with prisoners and to visit at 2 or 3 month intervals the prison also made an extensive collection of library books available to inmates in their cells after Warden Cassidy a staunch defender of the Pennsylvania plan died in 1900 Eastern State Penitentiary adopted more of the Reformatory practices inspired by the Irish system those changes were facilitated by the introduction of a parole system system in 1909 which leading Scholars viewed as essential to the implementation of scientific criminology extensive construction projects created a physical plant better suited to the era's new ideas about inmate reform in the first 8 years of the new century using inmate labor the prison added an industrial building a shop building and an emergency hospital for contagious diseases existing facilities were improved and repaired between 19 9 in 1911 the construction of another new cell block added 120 cells for firsttime offenders Eastern set up a literacy program and trade schools finally in 1914 inmates were permitted to congregate for religious Services School classes and labor solitary confinement was now used as a form of punishment or a means of isolating prisoners considered too dangerous or disruptive to be in the general population 1918 saw the introduction of powered Machinery into the shops only the radial design of the original cell blocks retained any imprint of Pennsylvania's separate system that design hampered the prison's transformation new buildings filled the open spaces between the cell blocks crowding the 10 acres enclosed by Eastern's high stone walls but a growing residential Community outside the prison prohibited expansion the early 1920s witnessed serious problems with discipline and security at the prison due in part to the challenges of supervising a facility poorly suited to congregate activities Idol prisoners overcrowded and deteriorating buildings grew restive and increasingly violent prison authorities tried to divert inmates with organized team sports and other recreational activities but problems mounted leading to troubles that prompted a major investigation by the grand jury and following that the dismissal of the warden Robert mckeny the Grand jury's report told of widespread drug use serious breaches in order and an inmate culture shaped by brutality and extortion prison officials had lost control over inmate Behavior after Eastern's Board of inspectors approved a program of inmate self-government a plan inspired by the goals of the Reformatory movement and implemented successfully elsewhere at Eastern the results were disastrous according to the Grand jury's report the self-appointed inmate committee known as the four Horsemen lost no time in taking control the committee of four roamed the prison until all hours of the night others were out of their cells many hours after the evening lockup venial tubercular Psychopaths and sodomist were released from the quarantine or solitary confinement into which they had been placed holdups occurred and certain of the guards were in fear of their lives supplemental report of the April grand jury Philadelphia County May 1923 the investigation concluded that between two and 400 prisoners were addicted to drugs principally heroin which was supplied by visitors or corrupt guards and distributed by a network of inmates they also uncovered eight whiskey Stills organized high stakes gambling and prostitution the carnival of lawlessness was finally quelled in April 1923 when 50 inmates considered to be at the Forefront of the uprising were transferred to other prisons as was true at prisons around the country women at Eastern had to fear not just abuse by other convicts but also rape and violence from the guards employed to watch them in October 1922 a female inmate at Eastern State swore out a complaint one of the keepers came into my cell I told him to go out but he said every woman that came in would do what they wanted her to do so the next day there was a colored woman and a white woman in the jail who told me that the women would do what the keepers asked them to do and if you tell on one keeper everybody would be down on you so he came in again and I yelled and he grabbed me and shook me and told me to turn over and then unfastened his pants I told him no then he tried to stick his private in my mouth having put his hand in back of my head he stayed there and told me he wanted to use me and I was afraid and I consented he then had sexual intercourse with me one or two nights after this I saw him have intercourse with Annie in her cell next to mine I talked the matter over with Evelyn the colored woman and Annie the white woman and they told me that I should not say anything about it that he carried the mail out for us and brought candies and stockings in from the outside in all inside of 2 weeks time I had intercourse with him three times I wrote a note complaining of this treatment and gave it to a maid named Margaret to hand to the matron the matron did not come on the 30th day of July 1922 I was taken sick on a Sunday morning the maid came with the matron and I said I'm sick and this woman you put in with me yesterday jumped over on me and the warden who was standing around the corner before the matron could give me an answer said this is no sanitarium it is a jail and I am not the cause of you being here then they all left me that night my baby came about dark it was dead I picked it up and put it in the next cell which was the Wash House I stayed in bed about 1 week I didn't see a doctor nor the matron during that time about 2 Weeks Later the matron came to see me I then sent for my lawyers to explain this to them but they did not come I wrote letters to my half sister about 2 months later my lawyers came to see me and I told them everything and they said if the baby was dead just let it go and don't say anything about the 14th or 15th the prison board came to see me at the cell Ethel Johnson October 1922 a few years later women prisoners were relocated to a separate facility the state industrial home for women at [Music] Muny State officials had been calling for the close of Eastern and its replacement with a modern facility since at least 1915 controversy over where to locate the new prison delayed building for more than a decade when great aord prison for men finally opened in 1929 35 Mi north of Philadelphia it took 800 of Eastern's inmates with more following in the succeeding years but Eastern did not close instead the less Troublesome prisoners who promised a greater chance for reform went to the prison at Great efford and the now outdated facilities at Eastern supplemented by yet another new cell block became a Maximum Security Prison intended for hardcore repeat offenders the transfers to greatford eased over crowding only temporarily something must be done at once at the rate the prisoners are coming in here now we have no place to put them unless we hang them on hooks Warden Smith 1933 overcrowding was only part of the problem the wardens from the 20s and 30s were known as strict disciplinarians the first Warden groom replaced many of the guards with military veterans he built Sentry boxes on the corner of the towers arming them with Craig repeating rifles and Thompson submachine guns he had iron gates placed at the ends of cell block corridors moved the warden's office and the visitors room to the front building and added an iron gate to the front portal for punishment he threw prisoners into the Klondike a dark and damp unfurnished cell where men were left unclothed and fed bread and water his successor Warden Smith followed similar policies yet repeated Escape attempts violent out breaks hunger strikes and riots plagued both regimes the punitive measures of the guards angered convicts and contributed to the violence not all the prisoners complaints in the 20s and 30s concerned violence they also charged the warden with favoring certain prisoners Chicago gangster Al Capone was imprisoned at Eastern in 1929 on a weapons charge when I was serving my time at Cherry Hill in 1929 the main thing I was sore about was why wasn't I a big shot while I was at it here I was doing eight years for $197 stickup and catching all the hell conget and here was Scarface Al Capone in the same pen living like a king former prisoner 1933 Escape attempts took several forms the most dramatic involved digging tunnels officials replaced wood planking on Cell floors with poured concrete following the discovery of tunnels in the mid 1920s excavation for a new Central Heating system revealed many more abandoned efforts Warden Smith estimated that 30 tunnels were dug in the late 1930s the most notorious tunnel Escape came in April 1945 involving 22 men led by Clarence cleance and including Willie Sutton 10 men never made it out of the prison several were recaptured that same day the remainder within 2 months of the break the scarcity of employment during the Great Depression Limited role opportunities increasing crowding in the prison and though formal policy identified Rehabilitation as the institution's primary goal Warden Smith betrayed his disdain for such Ambitions calling them a joke and saying we can't even maintain discipline satisfactorily in his opinion onethird of the inmates were insane defectives or degenerate economic troubles in the 30s followed by the production boom of World War II attracted many rural Southern blacks to Industrial centers in Pennsylvania blacks continued to get arrested and convicted at higher rates than whites in part because of racist law enforcement practices before the war less than onethird of Eastern's population was black that percentage Rose to more than half in 1948 within the prison blacks and whites were segregated until 1960 with the majority of black inmates housed in cells near the kitchen where they worked serving other convicts Pennsylvania's Governor Edward Martin called Eastern State Penitentiary not fit for human habitation in 1944 but the prison remained open and repairs on the dilapidated buildings postpone the inevitable in 1954 Eastern State Penitentiary was given a new name the State Correctional Institution at Philadelphia reflecting the state's commitment to rehabilitative programs in keeping with the turn towards social and psychological counseling favored by professional criminologists a death row was added in 19 1956 though prisoners were not executed at Eastern in 1970 the Eastern State penitent in Philadelphia finally closed its remaining prisoners transferred to [Music] greatford for a year the city used the facility to relieve overcrowding at a local jail then the site was abandoned left to decay [Music] h developers propos turning Easton into a shopping mall or a gated community finally after much debate the city permitted the Pennsylvania prison Society to take over the ruin and manage it as a historic [Music] site [Music] m [Music] when the state transferred Eastern's last prisoners to Great efford prison officials and Scholars still spoke of inmate Rehabilitation and reform prisoners inspired by the advances other groups had made in the 1960s in early 1970s pressed for and gained recognition of their own civil rights for a brief time interest in Humane conditions for convicts reemerged as a social issue however the dislocations that followed the de-industrialization of the US economy which began in the mid 1970s worsened the conditions of the nation's poor creating by the late 1980s an underclass of people excluded from the mainstream economy and isolated in deteriorating inner cities the programs that had been implemented in the name of Rehabilitation and Corrections had proved no more successful than had earlier efforts prisons still showed little evidence that they either deterred or reformed convicts nor did they make the streets safer fear of crime especially crime and urban ghettos continued to rise anti-black and anti-immigrant sentiments grew the public called for longer and harsher sentences for criminals especially for drug rated offenses that many Saw as the cause of other forms of Street crime in 1970 when Eastern closed 200,000 inmates were doing time in US state and federal prisons by 1997 the prison population had grown to almost 1.2 million today the US is second only to Russia in the percentage of its population it confines in prison five to eight times higher than every other industrialized Nation the incarceration rate for American blacks has grown to six times that of whites Americans have never acknowledged the failure of Prisons to live up to the humanitarian ideals that inspired their construction nor have they accepted that prisons do little to control crime instead Americans have expanded the prison system confining an ever increasing number of their fellow citizens and institutions that do little more than exact revenge on criminals not much different than the colonial lash or scaffold Alexis dville observations of 1833 are still true to day new or recycled justifications for prisons and designs for prison discipline will ensure a steady supply of ever more modern replacements for Eastern nowhere was this system of imprisonment crowned with the Hope For Success every year the legislature of each state voted considerable funds toward the support of the penitentiaries and the continued Return of the same individuals into the prisons proved the inefficiency of the system however instead of instead of accusing the theory itself its execution was attacked it was believed that the whole evil resulted from a lack of cells and the crowding of prisoners Alexis tovil [Music] [Music] 1833 [Music] for [Music] h [Music] h