The penal system in the Early American Republic was in a state of transition. As a legacy from the colonial past, the thirteen new United States had inherited a hotchpotch of laws and a system of often draconian corporal punishments. Influenced by the thinking of the Enlightenment, and inspired by Quaker belief in the perfectibility of man, leaders in Philadelphia devised the Pennsylvania System, a reform idea that would lead to the creation of a prison, the largest and most costly of its time. That prison would become a model for the rest of the world, and, depending on one's point of view, either an inspiring model of forward-thinking social engineering, or a horrible example of human cruelty disguised as kindness. In the 142 years of Eastern State Penitentiary's history as a prison, untold numbers of inmates would be immured in silence, cut off completely from the rest of humanity and tortured into insanity by isolation, in the name of reform and rehabilitation.

Before its final decommissioning in 1971, Eastern State would inspire Alexis de Tocqueville, horrify Charles Dickens, play host to the likes of Al Capone and Willie Sutton, and supply fodder for numerous Philadelphia ghost stories. In its post-penal phase, it would experience a second career as tourist attraction, performance-art venue, and Bastille Day re-enactment site.

Origin of an Idea: The Panopticon

The story really begins with the English philosopher and eccentric Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832), the father of Utilitarianism. Bentham's book, Panopticon (1791), proposed a system of prison reform based on the idea of surveillance.

Bentham's idea was to build a prison which isolated prisoners from one another, but allowed them to be observed from a central tower, thus making it impossible for them to tell whether they were being watched or not. Although Bentham tried hard for years to persuade the British government to fund his project, even offering to be the jailer himself for free, his plan was not implemented in his lifetime. Pentonville Prison in London was completed ten years after his death.

However, the concept of isolation and surveillance was also put into practice by reformers of a quite different persuasion.

Eastern State Penitentiary: the Pennsylvania System

The Pennsylvania System of incarceration laid great stress on the necessity for reforming the moral character of criminals, hence the words 'penitentiary' and 'reformatory'. The idea was that by being isolated from society and each other, prisoners would be forced into introspection, and turn to God and repent. For this reason, prisoners were to be allowed to see and speak to nobody, except the governor and 'Moral Instructor', have no exercise except in seclusion, and no book to read except the Bible.

This bold new concept in penology would require the construction of a large new facility for housing prisoners. Accordingly, in 1821 John Haviland, a leading Philadelphia architect, was commissioned to design what was to become at that time the largest building in the United States, and, at a cost of around $780,000, the most expensive.

Haviland originally designed the facility to house 250 prisoners, but by the time of completion, in 1836, it contained 450 cells. The design itself incorporated something of the idea of the Panopticon; from a central rotunda, seven cell blocks radiated, like spokes from a wheel. Each eight-by-twelve-foot cell, separated from the outside by walls thirty feet high and twelve feet thick, was equipped with running water, flush toilet, and central heating. Each had its own tiny exercise yard, where prisoners were allowed for two thirty-minute periods each day. There were no windows, except for a skylight, called 'the Eye of God'.

Construction began in 1822, and Eastern State Penitentiary 'welcomed' its first prisoner in 1829. Charles Williams, 18, a Pennsylvania farmer sentenced to imprisonment for burglary, was given the number one, by which number, and not his name, he would be addressed for the next two years.

Daily Life in Hell

From the time Charles Williams entered the forbidding gates of Eastern State until the Pennsylvania System was officially abandoned in 1913, the life of a prisoner there was one of unrelenting solitary confinement. Each prisoner was taken to his cell with a black hood over his face, so that he could not tell where he was going, and so that he could not be recognised by the other prisoners.

The prisoner spent all but one hour of each day in his (or her) cell - one hour was composed of two thirty-minute exercise periods in the enclosed yard outside the cell. The prisoner was given work to do, such as weaving or shoemaking, and was allowed a Bible.

The rule of the prison was silence, and the guards were required to cover their shoes with heavy socks to muffle their tread. Prisoners were forbidden to talk, sing or whistle. The only sound that could be heard was the voice of a preacher, walking the halls and reading Scripture. The prisoner also received visits from the Moral Instructor, who kept detailed records of the inmate's spiritual progress.

There are no statistics on how many inmates simply went mad from this treatment; records of insanity among the prisoners routinely attribute the cause to either genetic predisposition or excessive masturbation.

A Model for the World

In its early years, Eastern State Penitentiary became a mecca for reformers, distinguished visitors, and upper-class sightseers in general. The Marquis de Lafayette came to see it under construction; Alexis de Tocqueville was enthusiastic about its methods, and went home to France to spread the gospel. But another visitor was less favourably impressed.

Charles Dickens visited Philadelphia during his tour of the United States in 1842. He was appalled. He devoted several pages of his book American Notes to a description of his tour of the place and the people he met. He concluded that, although he believed the creators of the prison to be well-intentioned, the consequences were terrible. He wrote:

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; and in guessing at it myself, and in reasoning from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that there is a depth of terrible endurance in it which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict upon his fellow-creature.' (American Notes)

Dickens, of course, did not see all that went on, although he thought he did. Guards, too, were affected by the atmosphere at Eastern State, and were regularly drunk. There were periodic investigations into abuses and deviations from the Pennsylvania System. Some of these involved the punishments meted out to the prisoners.

According to the rules of the Pennsylvania System, prisoners who violated the rules, by refusing to obey orders or attempting to communicate with other prisoners, were to have 'privileges' revoked, such as blankets or meals. But guards had been known to impose other, unauthorised sanctions, such as the straitjacket, the Mad Chair, or forced showers outdoors in the winter. The most feared torture was the Iron Gag, a device placed over the tongue and attached to the wrists, which were bound behind the back; the slightest movement of the hands caused excruciating pain. At least one inmate died from being subjected to the Iron Gag.

Those with a more positive view of human nature might prefer to think that the evidence of suffering caused the authors of the Pennsylvania System to rethink their methods, but the fact is that the system broke down because of overcrowding. By 1913, it was no longer possible to keep prisoners in isolation.

The 20th Century: Gangsters and Ghosts

The most notorious inmate of Eastern State Penitentiary was probably also the most comfortable. When Al Capone spent a year there between 1929 and 1930, he did it in style. With exquisite furnishings, rugs, oil paintings, and his own radio, Capone essentially continued to run his business from his new headquarters.

After all, Capone was only imprisoned in Pennsylvania on a weapons charge, while in Illinois, there was the question of the Valentine's Day Massacre. But that was to have consequences for Capone in Eastern State, as well.

Given the prison's already long history of cruelty, suffering, and madness, it is no surprise that there would be reports of ghost sightings. But the first reported ghost was never an inmate at Eastern State; it was there that Al Capone first began to be haunted by the spirit of Jimmy Clark, one of the victims of the Valentine's Day Massacre, whose spectre continued to dog Capone to his dying day.

In 1945, another infamous prisoner, the bank robber Willie Sutton, escaped with eleven other inmates through a tunnel equipped with fans and lights. The tunnel took a year to build, but the prisoners were all captured within a short time.

Tunnelling was apparently a 20th Century inmate pastime; renovation work in the 1930s uncovered around 30 partially-dug tunnels.

By 1971, when the prison was closed, the edifice had been declared a National Historic Landmark, and Eastern State Penitentiary entered into its next incarnation, as an arts venue.

Arts Grants, the Film Industry, and Madame Guillotine

Since the 1990s, Eastern State Penitentiary has hosted tours (hard hats required), arts exhibitions, theatre performances, and haunted-house events at Halloween. The prison itself, now a crumbling ruin, has been well and artistically photographed by amateur and professional alike.

The site is also popular as a film location, especially for horror and science-fiction films. The madhouse scenes in Twelve Monkeys, for instance, were shot at Eastern State.

The most fascinating use of the building, however, originated in the minds of local French restaurateurs, who annually sponsor a Bastille Day celebration at Eastern State.

The 're-enactment' of the Storming of the Bastille begins with the appearance of Marie Antoinette and her court on the battlements. Volunteer peasants taunt her; the court responds by pelting the crowd with local junk-food pastries (in plastic wrap). Soldiers (re-enactors from nearby Fort Mifflin) arrive and fire muskets at the crowd, then change their minds and arrest the court. Marie is made to stand trial, whereupon a watermelon is 'beheaded' on a functional guillotine. A wine-and-cheese party follows.

What earlier generations would have thought of this development in the history of Eastern State Penitentiary can only be guessed at. Nonetheless, the ruined fortress remains, too expensive to tear down, a monument to human cruelty, folly, and good intentions gone terribly wrong.

If You Go...

Eastern State Penitentiary is located at 22nd and Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, five blocks from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Tours are available Wednesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm, from April to November. Discounts on tickets are available for students, senior citizens, children and groups.

For information on special events, visit the website at Eastern State Penitentiary.