Thrown in the Clink

Dave decided to start his spring break a little early and took last Friday off and we headed into the city to see the Eastern State Penitentiary. We were late though and missed the first tour, so we had some time to kill. We spent half that time looking for a parking spot (gotta love parking in Philly), the other half seeing the portrait hall in the 2nd National Bank, Carpenter's Hall and some big old mansion in the middle of the city.

Now the main event, The Eastern State Penitentiary. It opened in 1829 as part of a controversial Quaker inspired movement to change the behavior of inmates through "confinement in solitude with labor". Prisoners were given indivdual cell blocks, each with a private excercise yard. They saw no one, they talked to no one. They were given one book, the bible. The idea was to give them time (and a lot of it) to reflect on the mistakes they had made and become truly penitent, hence the name penitentiary. If for some reason they had to leave their cell, they had to wear masks so they could have no interaction with others. When it was built, it was the most expensive building in America with vaulted, sky-lit cells and a castle like facade, complete with a 30 foot high, 10 foot deep outer wall. At the time, it stood on a hill outside the city. After 142 years of use, Eastern State Penitentiary was completely abandoned in 1971, and now stands, a lost world of crumbling cell blocks and empty guard towers.




The cell blocks were meant to look like the inside of a church, with vaulted ceilings.
You can see the door at the back of the cell that would lead out to the private exercise yard.

The prisoners were let outside in 2 half hour blocks each day, but it was stagered so that you were never outside at the same time as your neighbors.


Each door weighs 300 lbs.
The system of solitary confinement was abandoned in 1913. Many people thought it was cruel and unusual punishment, given the fact that many prisoners (men, women and children) were going insane! A community exercise yard and dining halls were added.
The outside wall has rounded corners, making it harder to escape. The only successful escapee did scale the wall though, with a ladder made of 5 peices that snapped together. In the 142 years of operation, there were about 100 attempted escapes, but only one person was never recaptured.
This is the first winter they have ever given tours of the Pen. It's called the Winter Adventure Tour, but as our guide said "the adventure part is that it's so cold!" The tour comes complete with a cup of hot chocolate!As the prison became more crowded, two and three story cell blocks were added. This is what many of the cells look like after almost 40 years of no upkeep.
The most famous inmate was Al Capone. His cell looks normal from the outside...
...but someone was getting special treatment.
Anyway, it was an interesting tour! Afterwards we went to lunch at an AWESOME Mexican place that is actually in the Italian Market downtown.
Doesn't that look GOOD!?!