Eastern State Penitentiary

Eastern State Penitentiary

Eastern State Penitentiary is located at the corner of Fairmount Avenue and 22nd Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, five blocks northeast of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It opened in 1829. The penitentiary was oringinally based on the idea of the Pennsylvania System, which encouraged solitary confinement as a form of rehabilitation. It was opposed contemporaneously by 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 examplar of the New York system).

Eastern State was viewed as a progressive reform in that it eliminated many of the excesses of physical punishment in colonial America. Despite this, it was widely believed (then and now) to have caused significant mental illness among its prisoners due to its solitary confinement. The system eventually collapsed due to overcrowding problems and the prison used a more conventional style of incarceration until it closed in 1970.

The prison was one of the largest public-works projects of the early republic, and was a tourist destination in the 19th century. Notable visitors included Charles Dickens and Alexis de Tocqueville.

Eastern State is currently open as an historic site, but closed in the winter.

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