Eastern Prison

by Marcia Lee Jones

Title

Eastern Prison

Artist

Marcia Lee Jones

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

I only went to Easton Prison once but I found it so fascinating, I always wanted to go back but never did. The history of the place is very interesting and in the case of prisons and mental institution that hold people against their will there is always sad energy that remains. This hallway and other pictures I took now reflect the sadness that permeates these walls.

Designed by John Haviland and opened on October 25, 1829, Eastern State is considered to be the world's first true penitentiary, despite the fact that the Walnut Street Jail, which opened in 1776, was called a "penitentiary" as early as 1790 . The word "penitentiary" derives from the word "penitence." Eastern State's revolutionary system of incarceration, dubbed the "Pennsylvania System" or Separate system, encouraged separate confinement (the warden was legally required to visit every inmate every day, and the overseers were mandated to see each inmate three times a day) as a form of rehabilitation.
The Pennsylvania System was opposed contemporaneously by the Auburn System (also known as the New York System), which held that prisoners should be forced to work together in silence, and could be subjected to physical punishment (Sing Sing prison was an example of the Auburn system). Although the Auburn system was favored in the United States, Eastern State's radial floor plan and system of solitary confinement was the model for over 300 prisons worldwide.

Uploaded

September 25th, 2013

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