My Trip to Prison (Part 3)

This entry is not for the timid or faint at heart.

The first inmate was brought to Eastern State on October 23, 1829. He was 18 year old Charles Williams. His prison record states: "Burglar. Farmer by trade. Can read. Theft included one twenty-dollar watch, one three-dollar gold seal, one gold key. Sentenced to two years confinement."

The moving forces behind construction of the prison wrote that the exterior appearance should be "a cheerless blank indicative of the misery which awaits the unhappy being who enters."

A revolutionary radial design by a young architect named John Haviland was chosen. Each cellblock was to radiate in different directions from the hub. This allowed easy view of every cellblock from the center.

After Charles Williams was brought through the three sets of giant doors, he was assigned a number, prisoner number 1, which would be his new name during his entire stay. Before he was taken to his cell, a black hood was placed over his head. The black hood was used whenever inmates were outside their cells so they could not see any other inmates.


Williams was then placed in a cell with nothing to do. The warders knew what would happen: "His mind can only operate on itself; generally, but a few hours elapse before he petitions for something to do, and for a bible. No instance has occurred, in which such a petition has been delayed beyond a day or two."

It's probably safe to assume that Charles Williams sincerely regretted stealing those gold trinkets before those first few days were up, and he probably memorized the Bible stories in their entirety during the next two years.

The inmates were not allowed to communicate with each other or meet for any purpose, not even for religious services. Ministers sermonized to the inmates while walking through the prison, their voices echoing through the cellblocks.


The inmates weren't allowed to sing, whistle, have visitors, see a newspaper, or hear from any source about the outside world. They were allowed in their exercise yards, which were attached to their 8 by 12 foot cells, just one hour per day. At Eastern State, you went into your cell and you stayed there. You saw no one except a guard, and you spoke to no one.

The official explanation: "No prisoner is seen by another after he enters the wall. When the years of confinement have passed, his old associates in crime will be scattered over the earth, or in the grave and the prisoner can go forth into a new and industrious life, where his previous misdeeds are unknown."

The cells were damp and musty with very little air circulation. The original sewer system didn't work properly so the cells reeked. The central heating system, another new idea at the time, didn't work very well either. The toilet plumbing soon broke down and instead of flushing once a day for all the cells at the same time, it became a once or twice a week happening.

If you misbehaved, you were chained to a cell wall or denied a blanket in winter. One prisoner was kept in a dark cell in irons for 42 days. When a counselor discovered the delirious inmate and gave him some bread and water, the counselor was fired.


Even crueler was the "iron gag." This was a five-inch piece of metal that fit over the inmate's tongue. The inmate was also cuffed with his wrists behind him, and a chain was connected from the gag to the cuffs. If the inmate fought the device and pulled with his arms, the gag was forced deeper into his mouth. At least one inmate died from the iron gag.

By the time Eastern State was completed in 1836, it was the most expensive building in America at a cost of $772,600. It immediately became a popular tourist attraction, being visited by sightseers and dignitaries from around the world. By mid-century the prison was being toured by 10,000 people per year.

But Eastern State was criticized relentlessly for the use total solitary confinement. The London Times claimed that it was "maniac-making."

Charles Dickens visited the Eastern State Penitentiary in 1842 and later wrote about it. "The System is rigid, strict and hopeless...and I believe it to be cruel and wrong... I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain, to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body."

There are no figures on how many people went insane at Eastern State. Prison officials persistently claimed that solitary confinement had no ill effects on the inmates. Cases of mental illness were frequently attributed to "excessive masturbation."

Through the 19th century, problems of mental illness and overcrowding forced Eastern State officials to abandon the idea of complete isolation. The black masks were thrown out in 1903.

By the 20th century, Eastern State Penitentiary was just an old, crowded prison.

Today, 1% (1 in every hundred) civilian in the USA is incarcerated and 80% of them for drug-related crimes. It's a different world - and there are still no answers to the problems of crime.

It is furthermore, ironic to see the new "Super Maximum Security" prison in Colorado is built with the same underlying (and failed) premise - solitary confinement - 23 hours a day.

Adapted from here