Volume 1, Issue 5 (June 2011) - The Heschel School

Washington, DC and Philadelphia
Lockup: The Eastern State
Penitentiary
By Eliana Salmon
The sixth graders’ last stop on their
Pennsylvania trip was the notorious
Eastern State Penitentiary. Located in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Eastern
State Penitentiary was once a prison
for some of the world’s worst criminals,
including Al Capone. The penitentiary
opened in 1829 and housed criminals for
142 years, until it was shut down in 1971.
The penitentiary reopened as a tourist
site and is now a U.S. National Historic
Landmark.
It has become one of the most famous
prisons in America; people visit
to see the architecture of the structure.
There are tall walls that surround the
prison that reach up to 30 feet high and
are anchored 10 feet under the ground.
From the outside, the penitentiary gives
the viewer the impression of a Gothic
castle; the tour guide explained the design
was intended to scare off any unwanted
visitors. One thing that truly
surprised the students was that it was
one of the most expensive buildings in
America of its time, and the prisoners
had indoor plumbing before it was installed
in the White House. There was a
very specific reason for this. The builders
believed in “reform.”
Before Eastern State Penitentiary,
prisons were very violent places and all
types of criminals were mixed in together.
For example, murderers were put in
the same cell as thieves. The founders of
Eastern State Penitentiary believed that
all criminals (even if they had committed
notorious crimes) were created in
the image of god, and they could be reformed.
They believed that other prisons
made prisoners worse than when they
arrived.
When criminals arrived at Eastern
State, they were held in solitary confinement.
They did not leave their cells and
received their food through a slot in the
door. Indoor plumbing meant that criminals
could remain in complete solitude.
The founders of the Eastern State Penitentiary
believed that their way would
cause the criminal to regret what they
did, and feel shameful.
Each cell was twice the size of cells
at other prisons. The cells consisted of a
cot, a toilet, and a small table. Each cell
had its own small yard where the prisoners
would exercise for one hour each day,
but in solitary confinement. Every cell
had a skylight that the prisoners called
the dead eye or God’s eye. The walls
were very thick so that the criminals
heard no noise and there was absolute
silence all the time. When the prisoners
first arrived, they were led to their cells
with their eyes covered. The blindfolds
prevented the prisoners from seeing the
layout of the prison; nor could they see
any of other prisoners and their cells.
As soon as they entered the prison, they
were no longer addressed by their name,
but they only had a number. As a reward
for being good prisoners, the criminals
would receive a book to read, the Holy
Bible. The prisoners were allowed only
two to three showers a month although
there were unsanitary conditions. Mice,
rats, and insects were common in the
prison. At the turn of the century, conditions
got even worse.
At that time the prison population
increased and they could no longer keep
the prisoners in solitary confinement.
Inmates started sharing cells and there
were 4 to 5 prisoners in one cell. The
number of criminals arriving at Eastern
State kept increasing, and the prison had
to build a second floor. The prisoners
no longer had an exercise yard, and the
criminals on the first floor had no skylight.
They built a field for the inmates to
exercise together outdoors.
Over the period of time in which
Eastern State was an active prison, there
were only 100 escapes and only one escaped
without getting caught. His story
is the most famous escape story at the
penitentiary. Six men gathered together
to plan their escape. One of the men
was a carpenter and he built a ladder. In
broad daylight, the 6 men climbed over
the wall using the ladder and once out
of the prison, they hijacked a few cars.
Five of the men were caught and brought
back to the penitentiary, but one was
never found.
One thing that many of the sixth
graders found surprising was the fact
that the prison had a synagogue. About
80 inmates were Jewish and went to the
synagogue to pray. They had a kosher
kitchen and an ark that held a Torah.
Interesting Facts
• Al Capone had his tonsils removed
at the prison infirmary.
• Babe Ruth came to play baseball
with the inmates.
• They had a greenhouse where they
would grow vegetables for the prisoners.
• There were many cats roaming the
prison when it first opened.
• In the mid-twenties, there were
more than 1800 inmates at Eastern
State. ◆
8 ◆ Heschel Herald, Volume 1, Issue 5 The Abraham Joshua Heschel School