Eastern State Penitentiary
Construction 1822 - 1836
Following the experimentation with solitary confinement at Walnut Street Prison, the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons successfully lobbied for a larger scale prison upholding the method of solitary penance. With the funds granted, construction of Eastern State Penitentiary started in 1822 under the supervision of architect John Halivand. In 1829, Eastern officially opened and accepted its first prisoner. Construction continued on the original one-story cellblocks until 1831 when Cellblock Three was completed and the focus shifted to Cellblocks Four-Seven, all of which have two stories to accommodate the growing number of prisoners. All of these cell blocks radiate from a central point in the prison in order for the warden to effectively monitor prisoners at all times, making use of the idea of the panopticon. Work on the original plans for Eastern ended in 1836 with a fully functioning sewage system and central heating for 450 cells.
As more prisoners were admitted, the original site was added to. In 1877, four more cell blocks were constructed in between existing wings that still diverged from the center of the prison. Over the years, the staid policy of solitary was eventually dropped, which was reflected in future construction. Cellblock 12, for example, was built with lighter colored concrete and implemented windows for the three floors of 40 cells that the new wing housed. In 1926, Cellblock 14 was finished, which marked the completion of the prison. At this point, there was hardly any room in between cellblocks and the prison had the potential to hold 1,700 people as opposed to the originally intended 250. Inmates at Eastern were quickly accumulating due to the growing population and crime rates of Philadelphia. To help mitigate this, female prisoners were moved to SCI Muncy in 1923, and even more inmates were transported to Graterford upon its opening. Ultimately, Eastern succumbed to the same fate as Walnut Street Prison did and closed in 1970 due to the facility being overcrowded and outdated.
Philosophy
Eastern was heavily influenced by the Quaker ideology, which was especially popular among Pennsylvanian elites in the 18th century into the 19th. The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons was created on the heels of the Enlightenment and calls for prison reform, of which the majority of the members were Quakers. Inspired by prison reformer, John Howard, the members set out to eliminate vice and generally unwanted behavior to rescue, rehabilitate, and, ultimately, spiritually redeem criminals. The use of capital punishment was banned except for high crimes of treason and murder, and the views on punishment shifted to focus on the private improvement of oneself. In order to facilitate this, the incarcerated would be separated from other criminals who could interrupt any progress they might make or would corrupt them further.
Solitary Confinement
This source is a newspaper article written by staff writer Samantha Melamed at the Philadelphia Inquirer. This article titled Incarceration Inventing Solitary outlines the history of solitary confinement as an incarceration method and its intimate relationship with Philadelphia. The article's purpose is to convey the effects of solitary confinement on the people incarcerated and the larger community. Melamed does this through her chronology and personal anecdotes of those condemned to solitary confinement. The primary audience of this source is the citizens of Philadelphia. Specifically, citizens who have lived hand and hand with the prison system of the city. However, the audience can also be broadened to be people who have an interest in the systematic racism of the United States.
Philadelphia has a rich history of incarceration in the United States, meaning this article being written by the Philadelphia Inquire is important. Locally, citizens have direct experience with the prison system and its development. Nationally, citizens have direct experience with the basis that Philadelphia set for prisons around the country. This article is part of a series created by the Philadelphia Inquirer called “A More Perfect Union.” The series focuses on exploring systematic racism and its establishment in the United States. The article offers examples of those imprisoned and the direct experience of being imprisoned in Philadelphia. Emphasizing how at the base of the creation and development of incarceration was a long-standing racial tension.
Melamed’s report closely ties into Kali Gross’ work, Colored Amazons, in which part of her examination of incarceration outlines the history of solitary confinement and the racial motivations behind it. Gross retells many experiences of being imprisoned at Eastern, one of the most notorious prisons for its methodology of treatment. Eastern’s reliance on solitary practices were based on Quaker beliefs and European popularity that was meant for prisoners to pay penance and expunge their sins (129-130). This, however, did not happen. It was instead weaponized primarily against blacks that would allow for “socially engineering moral and legal obedience” through traumatization and immense harm to those swept up by the arm of incarceration (130).
This is important because there are still many individuals in solitary confinement. Today, about 55,000 in the U.S. in restricted housing units according to Melamed with black people being overrepresented accounting for 58% of the population. This has a notable effect on the mental health of prisoners. Caine Pelzer, a consultant for Melamed’s article, has been confined in solitary for 13 years at the time of drafting the article and has reported “signs of serious mental illness all around him in the IMU” (Melamed). He himself has noted his mental decline and is now being treated for anxiety and depression (Melamed). Yassin Mohammed, another victim of solitary confinement for years, relays that he has started to hear voices (Melamed). Hassan Tucker, another person in solitary, “learned to not voice suicidal thoughts” because the last time he had attempted suicide, he was placed in a stun vest that made him “defecate, urinate, and chip my [his] molars” (Melamed). This is still incredibly relevant today. The cases of solitary confinement from Eastern are not entirely gone. Not only are there mental effects, but people also serving time in solitary, black people especially, are branded with this notion of criminality in the form of the habitual crime class that unjustly impacts many individuals (133). The works bring to question whether there are better methods of reform, of incarceration, and what can be done to positively impact incarcerated people and those close to them.