Background of Eastern State Penitentiary

     Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829 and was created by John Haviland, who implemented many modern features at the time. These features included cockle furnaces to heat the cellblocks and running water for drinking and toilet use. When the penitentiary first opened, initial emphasis was put on the solitary confinement system, which prevented the inmates from interacting with each other and restricted contact to primarily guards and moral instructors. Over time, however, critics of the solitary confinement system stated that depriving men of human contact led to insanity. This led to the transition from solitary confinement to separate confinement.

     In the separate confinement system, prisoners remained separated from each other, but were not deprived of human contact. Over time, however, the separate confinement system began to show its flaws. After the American Civil War ended, there was an increase in crime and as a result, more convictions and inmates at Eastern State. By the beginning of the 20th Century, the concepts of separation, surveillance, and rehabilitation were all abandoned at Eastern State. 

     For the first part of the 20th Century, Eastern State began its ultimate decline through various disturbances and consistent debates over its nature and future as a prison. In the beginning of the 20th Century, Eastern State became a warehouse for the state's toughest criminals and dealt with a variety of problems, including: escapes, riots, scandals, overcrowding, and pleas for rural relocation. This blog will focus primarily on this time period and examine several different riots in the years 1919, 1924, 1933, and 1942.

     By the time the 1950s rolled around, Eastern State was entering its final decline as a prison for a variety of reasons. First, the inmate population was shrinking to a ratio of approximately one inmate per cell. Although this helped the overcrowding issue, the penitentiary was being used less. The decreasing use of the prison coupled with racial tensions during the time period made Eastern State a box of TNT ready to explode. That explosion came in 1961, when after one of the worst riots in the history of Eastern State, official efforts were made to close the museum. The museum officially closed in 1971. 

     After Eastern State ended its time as an active prison, there were many doubts about its future. Laying abandoned for the rest of the 1970s and most of the 1980s, Eastern State was threatened by attempts to redevelop the area. In 1988, however, a task force of preservationists prevented Eastern State from being torn down and started the process of making Eastern State a historic site. Three years later, Eastern State was opened for its first tours.