Today we traveled to the Eastern State Penitentiary to learn about the “Quaker experiment” in criminal reformation.
We studied the architecture of the building and its several expansions. Originally, reformation of the prisoners was to be accomplished by social isolation – no talking, no social interaction, no seeing other humans for the entire time of incarceration. For example, the plumbing was arranged so that prisoners could not communicate by tapping on the pipes.
With overcrowding, more rooms were added and the separatism favored by Quakers was replaced by communal practices – prisoners ate together, worked together and exercised together. Two famous prisoners were mentioned – Al Capone and Pep, the incarcerated dog who murdered the pet cat of the Governor of PA.
