“Trick or treat?”
It was a Halloween fundraiser in 1991 that probably ‘resurrected’ one of America’s most intriguing historical public landmarks. The party was themed as ‘Terror Behind the Walls’ and it was held at Pennsylvania’s Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP). The party turned into much longer Halloween special attractions and in 2021, it graduated to a month-long affair known as Halloween Nights. The Halloween Nights at ESP are select nights from September to November with themed parties, events, special tours and even the options of overnight stays.
A Halloween fundraiser party in 1991 marked the rejuvenation of ESP and Halloween is still a big celebration in the now defunct prison Image courtesy Eastern State Penitentiary
The ESP story, however, goes back to the 18th century, a time when a new nation was keen to make its mark in the world.
Shaping justice in modern USA
Locals will tell you that the idea of the modern USA took shape in Philadelphia. Around the same time the US Constitution was ratified at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, Dr Benjamin Rush founded the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons — the first prison reform group in the world. It survives to this day and is now the Pennsylvania Prison Society, which continues to promote correctional reform and social justice. In August 2022, Statista, the German company specialising in market and consumer data, reported that as of July 2021 the US has the highest number of incarcerated individuals worldwide, with almost 2.1 million people in prison.
The Walnut Street Jail was the ESP’s predecessor and the reason for prison reforms brought about by Dr Benjamin Rush’s organisation Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons Wikimedia Commons
Back in 1787, the society founded by Rush was horrified with the conditions in the city’s Walnut Street Jail. Men, women and children were thrown into disease-ridden, dirty pens where rape and robbery were common. The scenes were almost like those from the prisons we see in TV shows set in medieval times like House of the Dragon. Prisons then were a hotbed of disease; it wasn’t unusual for prisoners to die from starvation or the cold. It prompted the vision for what is now known as the The Pennsylvania penal system — a model that would be implemented by over 300 prisons worldwide.
The birth of Eastern State Penitentiary
After years of lobbying, the Pennsylvania Legislature approved funding to build the Eastern State Penitentiary for 250 inmates as a replacement for the Walnut Street Jail. The word penitentiary has its origins in the region and is built on the word ‘penitent,’ meaning showing remorse. The focus was on repentance, an environment where prisoners would be in solitary confinement and reflect over their actions.
The Eastern State Penitentiary was built completely between 1829-1836 and the cost was about $780,000 Image courtesy Eastern State Penitentiary
The ESP became operational in 1829 and by the time the structure was complete in 1836, it was one of the most expensive public buildings in America (built at a whopping cost of $780,000 back then). The castle-like structure was an architectural marvel spread over 11 acres with flush toilets, central heating and shower baths in each cell. There were luxuries that the then US President, Andrew Jackson, couldn’t enjoy at the White House.
ESP was a functional prison until 1970 Image courtesy ESP
Celebrity visitors (and inmates)
Today, ESP is one of the most visited prisons in the world. The first visitors, however, didn’t come in buses with tour guides. They arrived by horse and buggy and by 1858 the prison hit 10,000 annual visitors including some celebrities.
In 1842, Charles Dickens arrived on American shores with a short ‘to visit’ list — Niagara Falls and the Eastern State Penitentiary. He wasn’t impressed, and wrote, “The System is rigid, strict and hopeless solitary confinement, and I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong.” The system of solitary confinement was eventually abandoned as group dining halls were introduced in the 1920s. Charles Dickens wasn’t the most celebrated visitor at ASP though, except this man had to do prison time here.
Today the 18th-century prison is one of America’s most visited tourist spots and attracts celebrity visitors as well Image courtesy ESP
There’s always a queue at ESP’s most visited cell. In 1929, one of the world’s most infamous gangsters, Al Capone, was arrested outside a movie theatre for carrying an unlicensed .38 calibre revolver. He was handed a one-year prison sentence; the first time he was interned in prison. Media reports back in the day suggested that the prison authorities were partial to Capone with a luxurious cell. ESP set the record straight with a recreation of the cell, which is a more realistic vision of what it would have looked like in the 1920s.
The model of Al Capone’s cell at the penitentiary Ashwin Rajagopalan
A macabre tourist spot
The Eastern State Penitentiary closed in 1970 and almost plunged into a decrepit state by the 1980s with calls for demolition. It was the Halloween fundraiser of 1991 and funds from charitable trusts that revived the building. It was used as a shooting location in the Brad Pitt-starrer 12 Monkeys in the 1990s and was listed among the 100 most important endangered landmarks in the world in 1996 by the World Monuments Fund. Today, more than 2,20,000 visitors pass through the unique hub and spoke design of the prison each year, and marvel at the neo-Gothic architectural elements used by architect John Haviland to instil fear into those who thought of committing a crime. The jury is still out on whether that tactic worked but the Eastern State Penitentiary can take credit for being the template for the modern prison as we know it.
