My Trip to Prison (Part 4)

Alphonse "Scarface" Capone was an American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging of liquor and other illegal activities during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s.

Born in Brooklyn on January 17, 1899 to Italian immigrants, Capone began his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and becoming the boss of the "Chicago Outfit" – although his business card described him as a used furniture dealer.

In 1929, Bureau of Prohibition agent Eliot Ness began investigating Capone and his businesses. By shutting down the many breweries and speakeasies Capone owned, Ness slowly brought Capone down. To lie low, Capone allegedly arranged to have himself jailed in a comfortable cell at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary for nine months beginning August 1929.

Although he was never convicted of racketeering charges, or his undoubted role in ordering the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre and other murders, Capone's criminal career ended in 1931, when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income-tax evasion, [Begin sarcasm font]a crime more heinous than rape or murder in the eyes of the U.S. Government[End sarcasm font].

In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary, but he was able to obtain special privileges there, just as he had in Philadelphia. He was then transferred to the then brand new Alcatraz Prison (in the San Francisco Bay), where tight security and an uncompromising warden ensured that Capone had no contact with the outside world.

At Alcatraz, his health declined as the syphilis he caught as a youth progressed. He spent the last year of his sentence in the prison hospital, confused and disoriented. He was paroled on November 16, 1939, spent a short time in a hospital, then returned to his home in Palm Island, Florida.

On January 21, 1947, Capone suffered a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia on January 24. He suffered a fatal cardiac arrest the next day.

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Al "Scarface" Capone got his first taste of prison life in Philadelphia. He stopped in Philadelphia while traveling from Atlantic City back to his home in Chicago in May, 1929. He was arrested outside a movie theater for carrying a concealed, unlicensed, .38 caliber revolver. The Philadelphia courts were tough. They handed Capone the maximum sentence: one year in prison.

Capone served eight months of that sentence in a cell nicknamed "Park Avenue".


While the regular inmates had a cell like this one - often doubled up with a bunk bed -


Al (C-5527) Capone's "Park Avenue" cell looked like this - with fresh paint, of course -

Capone was reportedly quite pleased with his new quarters. An article published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, August 20, 1929, described his cell in an article’s whose headline read, "'Very Comfortable' says Capone from Luxury Cell at Eastern Pen.":

The whole room was suffused in the glow of a desk lamp which stood on a polished desk.... On the once-grim walls of the penal chamber hung tasteful paintings, and the strains of a waltz were being emitted by a powerful cabinet radio receiver of handsome design and fine finish....

Al even got fresh flowers daily from the prison's green house and use of the Prison Warden's telephone.

Al Capone was an international celebrity in 1930. His release from Eastern State Penitentiary drew movie cameras, hundreds of on-lookers, and maybe even a few enemies. They gathered outside the prison's only door, all hoping for a glimpse of the famous Chicago gangster.

But warden Smith had other plans. Prison officials feared the crowd in front of Eastern State on March 17, 1930 might include some of Capone's enemies, waiting for his rare public appearance. When warden Smith announced that Capone had already been released the day before, many in the crowd did not believe him and waited for up to five hours later.


Note: Al Capone was sentenced to one year. He served several months in Holmesburg Prison, in Northeast Philadelphia and also a grim looking place, before being transferred to Eastern State, where he served 8 months.

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

My Trip to Prison (Part 2)

Before we get started, I'd like to see all the dogs in sitting down here in the front row. Koda the Corgi, Kero, Willow, Dog the Teddy, Toby (how's the tongue hanging Toby?), Katylou, Whiskey the Demon Dog, Huntababes, Nova, RJ, the Bachman, Ringo and your new 'personal trainer' sweety Amber, Pesto, Pargo and yes, even Yaya's nephew dog Bernie, and her parent's wiener dogs - this means all of youse guys.

Karma, Dharma, Tiger, George, and Gracie, let's see youse cats up here too.

Be seated pooches and ummm, cats. Now listen up.


See this dog? His name is Pep, but the world knows him as Eastern State Penitentiary inmate number C2559. Pep was a Cat-Murdering dog, a black Labrador Retriever admitted to Eastern on August 12, 1924. Prison folklore tells us that Pennsylvania Governor Clifford Pinchot sentenced Pep to serve life without parole at Eastern State Penitentiary for killing his wife's cherished cat.

Prison records support this story: Pep's reported inmate number, C2559 is skipped in the sequence of the numbers assigned new receptions - receptions is prison speak for new intakes, plainly put, newbie prisoners.


Now the Governor, like all politicians, has another story for what went down...He claims Pep was sent to Eastern to act as a mascot for the prisoners.

His PR flack said at the time, "Pep is the answer. Here, in brief, was the answer to the Governor's thought, the fit and fine dog to be sent to those who are in prison. No despairing man brooding in his cell can feel that he is forgotten by God and man, who will feel Pep's loving tongue caressing his languid hand."

Yaright, who's gonna believe that sappy story?

Seems the Governor and Warden Herbert Smith were best buds.

Anyway, Pep lived at Eastern State Penitentiary for a least a decade...that is 70 of your doggy years you know and he's said to be buried at the Correctional Institution at Graterford. Sad thing is, they aren't even sure.


Now Pep, he weren't the only one. See this Beagle here? That's ESP-1B, he was admitted on July 7, 1957. He never left the place alive.


See this corridor? This is a cell block. Each of those doors opens into a room about 8 feet wide by 11 feet deep. It has a steel frame cot an end table and a smelly combination toilet and sink. Do you see anything remotely looking like a grass lawn? Or bushes? Or milkbones or butterflies? No...nor do you see any fire hydrants or interesting places to sniff and relieve yourselves. This is a prison. It's not a fun place for a dog. Any dog.

Got it? No murdering cats. No barking after quiet hours. No biting your own human. No wetting or pooping on the floor inside the house. Got it? Let's see your best behavior at all times. Nuttin' personal okay? I don't ever wanna sees you back heres again.

My Trip to Prison (Part 1)

To prevent escapes, this gate is the only way in or out. Inside are 12 acres of cell blocks and rubble.

Once the most famous and expensive and prison in the world, the Eastern State Penitentiary stands today in ruin, a haunting world of crumbing cell blocks and empty guard towers.


Opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through 'confinement in solitude', the Eastern State Penitentiary was the first of its kind. This was the world's first true 'penitentiary,' a prison designed to insprire penitence, or true regret, in the hearts of prisoners.

It is estimated that more than 300 prisons worldwide are based on the Penitentiary's wagon-wheel, or "radial" floor plan.

The prison remained in operation for 142 years. It closed in 1971.


For now, enjoy the infectious smile of our tour guide - as she laughs when:

I dropped a bar of soap at her feet and sloooooooowly bent over in front of her.

And when that didn't work, I demanded to be strip-searched for nail files or metal saws which didn't get any takers either.

And finally I just said in a quiet, menacing Clint Eastwood sort of way, "Does your Mother know you hang out at an all-male prison all day?"

She probably blogs about how she hates dealing with the public.


I'll write more about the prison's history and quirks later, which include Chicago's Al Capone eight month stay and the life-time without parole Cat-Murdering Dog...