Criminal InJustice: Eastern State Penitentiary, Cautionary Tales

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† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Kay Whitlock, co-author of Queer (In)Justice, is contributing editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm CST

 

Eastern State Penitentiary, Cautionary Tales
by nancy a heitzeg

The ethics of prison tours is a subject broached here before — whether it be tours of prisons currently in operation such as LSP Angola or Central California Facility for Women, (where prisoners are encountered and sometimes displayed) or the prison as museums/tourist attractions as Alcatraz is. And so too Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP), the first true prison in the U.S. and the architectural model for many institutions around the world.

The questions that always arise are these: What are we expected to learn here? Are there social justice lessons that can outweigh the costs of participation?

Eastern State Penitentiary is a story of the pitfalls of reform gone awry. Founded in an era where institutions were believed to be a panacea for social ills, ESP was meant to rehabilitate through solitary reflect and penance. It was meant to be better than the Bedlam that was once the Walnut Street Jail, but in the end, it was not. Buried alive in catacomb like cells, the endless solitary confinement produced its’ own sort of madness. Charles Dickens visited the prison in 1842, and wrote:
esp jpg

“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 which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict upon his fellow creature. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh; because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore the more I denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay.”

Eastern State Penitentiary is also a story of repetitious history. The solitary design of ESP exactly foreshadows  — in stone rather than steel – the design and horrors of Pelican Bay, of Florence ADX, of any Super Max. Nearly 200 years ago it was known that 23 hour a day lock down and extreme social isolation would drive prisoners mad — and yet the practice persists, by default or design.

In the end, perhaps what we learn on all prison tours is this: No good can ever come of it.

As the President visits prison too,  as campaign talk of “reform” swirls, Remember.

And Resist.

12 Monkeys, filmed at Eastern State Penitentiary, 1995

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  • McKenzieDaul

    I, too think it is an interesting question to ask regarding prison tours. As part of a course that I took with Nancy, called Dismantling Racism, we toured the Women’s Prison in Chowchilla, California. From the time I received the news that we would be touring this facility I questioned whether or not I wanted to participate in this. It seemed as though we would be going into a space, where we would be viewing human beings like animals in a zoo. Going further, how would I learn what prison is like or what it is about when I could simply walk out behind those walls an hour after entering? In the end, I attended the tour and found it interesting how the prison was presented. It was as if we were trying to obtain a job within the system, as the CO constantly spoke about the great benefits that he receives regarding salary, medical, etc. The warden, a Black woman, talked about the prison in a way that emphasized the cleanliness. Both were interesting characters and spoke a lot to the “usual” purpose of the tours. I tried not to look at the human beings that were behind the bars, as a sign of respect but I would have enjoyed conversation, letting them know that I am not here to view them; I am hear to listen to them. Many were part of the tour as they described their work within the kitchen, etc. and we would briefly hear their stories. Overall, the tour was a learning experience, simply in a way of being critical of touring a prison.

  • Bob Phillips the doors were about 5 feet high Bob… very small
    the audio tour story ifocused on there church-window shape and also claims they were low to prevent inmates from rushing guards..
    the stories that are told reveal more than it seems.. always

  • Bob Phillips

    From the picture, Nancy, I’m guessing that you were part of a tour of Eastern. A curiosity: How high were the door frames? I ask because once upon a time I enjoyed the hospitality of the since closed Cumberland County Prison in Carlisle, PA, at that time the oldest still operational custodial facility in the U.S., built in 1763, functionally a county jail but denominated a prison.
    So, on to the door frames. At Cumberland the door frames were about five feet high. I was told by more than one guard that the purpose of such low door jambs was that prisoners were required to bend over to exit the cells so that the guards might more easily club them (us) over the back of the head.
    It might have been that the average prisoner could have passed under a five foot door header upright. I dunno.
    Whether or not it was historical fact, that several guards knew the story and readily repeated it to me says something powerful about the dynamic of at least early 1980s”correctional”management.
    Eastern certainly set a “style” in mass incarceration. Auburn, of course, a conflicting, more economic, less “spiritual” one. Eastern put the “penitence” in penitentiary.
    On a bad night I can hear the howling of the souls confined at Eastern.

  • KayWhitlock

    Heart of darkness.