Eastern State Penitentiary

It has been a little whitle since I last posted a blog, in fact I stopped right where our Philly trip got interesting. Being criminologists (and nerds) and being that corrections is my area of interest, we HAD to go see Eastern State Penitentiary. What is sooo cool about this prison is that it is the oldest in America (built in 1821) and housed inmates until 1971. The prison was built about 3 miles out side of Philly, but since the city has grown, it is now in the heart of Philly. As you walk down the streets, you see all these rowhouses or brownstones and then you turn the corner and there is the prison. It would be really cool to live across the street from it, I think.   Here is a picture of the street right before you get to the prison.  Here is the prison. It was originally built to resemble a castle as that is what scared prisoners the most, since they had come from Europe where they were accostomed to the harsh realities of living under a monarchy. The appearance of the prison was to resemble a castle so that the inmates would realize that they wanted to stay in America and thus, better shape up.

Here is a picture of the front of the prison. Notice the gargoyales, which in Europe were often on the outside of churches to scare off 'evil' so they had those also on the outside of the prison. Notice how the gargoyles have shackles on their feet like the prisoners would have. This, I believe, was to make it more real that the inamtes could choose between good and evil.

Gargoyle up close.

Here is where the prison starts getting cool. So, it was built a long, long time ago and in order to help not spread disease they actually had 'flushing' toilets (basically a hole with a water faucet over it. They would go to the bathroom and then turn the water on. There was a sewage system below that would take the waste and shuttle it out of the prison.  They also had heating in their cells (it consisted of four pipes, all connected that they would pump hot water through in order to heat the cells). Perhpas though one of the neatest things is that each cell and hallway had skylights. This was so they would not have to spend money on lanterns and candles (which are also a fire hazard). This allowed the inmates to work by sunlight during the day (in their cells) and then at night, all would get dark and that was when the inmates were supposed to commune with God in order to be rehabilitated. They were to be penatent (hence where the word penitentiary comes from).

All of the hallways were rounded, with very high ceilings, very reminiscent of a European church. You will notice above that this wing was newer (hence the lighting) and then benches were put in for tourists. However, you can get a sense of the long hallways lined with cells. Notice the bars are flat instead of round (in America the round bars were invented in the 1930s). The flat bars could be sawed through in a matter of a few days - all they needed was a nail file.

I was able to snap a picture of Theron behind a cell door.

Below is a cell door. They were made of wood and stood only about 3 1/2 feet tall. They were shorter back then, it was pretty clear.

This was solitary confinement. There were no skylights here as that is where they were supposed to get closer to God. Overall, a very cool place to visit!!