In New
York City, Haviland built
an
equally
forbidding detention center that became infamous for its
misery, violence and dehumanizing conditions. The Manhattan House of Detention
became known ominously as “The Tombs.” Befittingly the elevated
walkway used to walk prisoners from the courthouse adjacent to “The
Tombs” became known as “The Bridge of Sighs.” The design of this
particular lock-up differs from EASTERN and
Trenton in
that it looks more like an Egyptian crypt. Thus, The Tombs is
sometimes referred as a “Mausoleum for the Living.”
In all of Haviland’s designs,
although created to foster rehabilitation, the reality was harshness,
desolation and an ineffective method of incarceration. The early
penal
philosophy, which was wrongly attributed to the Quakers, was that
separation, silence and penitence would somehow be curative. Not
surprisingly these practices led many prisoners to madness and cured
nothing. There was also the prevailing theory that if the prison
environment was sufficiently menacing and inhospitable, no soul would
ever wish to end up there.
Interestingly enough, many of the great intellectuals of the eighteenth
and early nineteenth century, including Dr. Benjamin Rush and even Ben
Franklin, struggled greatly with the difficult issues of criminality,
mental illness and how to treat those human beings that were not
considered to be “normal.” In much of the early prison doctrine,
there
was indeed a heavy emphasis on isolation and atonement. So when EASTERN STATE was
created, its purpose was to not only to segregate society’s outcasts,
but to also rehabilitate them. Prisoners were separated from each
other at all costs, not because it was believed that they would harm
each other, but so that they would not establish relationships that
would extend beyond their period of incarceration. It was thought that
this practice would encourage good behavior and better serve to protect
the community from future criminal activity.
During a recent personal tour of EASTERN
STATE
conducted by our very gracious and knowledgeable guide Jessie Sarnoff
we spent time in a number of areas that are popular with the thousands
of people that visit the prison each year: the rotunda, the exercise
yard, death row and the cells that housed Al Capone and Willie Sutton.
As we walked its echoing dark corridors we talked about the notorious
escapes from the fortress and the history of riots including the one in
1961 ¾ when in corrections parlance “we lost the jail,” which is
when
the prisoners actually take over the facility and it has to be taken
back by force (Attica would later become an infamous example of
this).
I was equally fascinated by the condition of the building. During the
period of its closure from 1971 through the early 1990’s, nature had
begun to reclaim the decaying structure. The sight of tree roots
growing through the crumbling cell walls gives a Gothic horror feel to
this already eerie and unnerving place.
AL CAPONE
As someone who has spent a good number of years working in corrections,
including a stint at the legendary Trenton
State Prison
as a New Jersey Parole Board Hearing Officer, my interest was piqued by
the less well known facts and stories that are always found in the
prison environment. Not all was as bad as it seems at EASTERN.
One story was that some of the veteran guards would come in on the
weekends to have the inmate barbers cut their hair. Not all that
unusual, but some accounts indicate that the guards brought their young
children who would play with the inmates as dad got his haircut.
There
were the anecdotal stories and old pictures testifying to the fact that
guards, inmates and family members of prison workers decorated the
prison for Christmas. And over the years, as in many prisons,
inmates
were known to put their own lives at jeopardy to save a guard’s life
during times of disturbances. Apparently, the Quakers that helped to
inspire the founding of EASTERN
STATE
may have been correct in their belief that “The Light” shines in
everyone - sometimes it is just harder to see, especially from the
darkest reaches of the human soul.
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THE IDEA OF SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT TOWARD THE GOAL OF REHABILITATION, ALTHOUGH SUPPORTED BY
THE QUAKER SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, DID NOT ORIGINATE WITH THEM, NOR
DID IT WORK PARTICULARLY WELL. MANY MISBEHAVIORS ARE THE RESULT OF
MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE ISOLATION ONLY SERVED TO EXACERBATE ITS EFFECTS.
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AL CAPONE'S FIRST
INCARCERATION WAS IN EASTERN STATE. THE INFAMOUS GANGSTER WAS CONVICTED
OF CARRYING A CONCEALED HANDGUN INTO A MOVIE THEATER. DESPITE HIS
CRIMINAL NATURE, HIS CELEBRITY AFFORDED HIM COMFORTS THAT MOST OF THE
INMATES WERE DENIED.
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