Prisons Prison Systems Auburn State Prison vs.

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Prison Systems

Auburn State Prison vs. Eastern State Penitentiary

In the early 1800's, the United States became the focus of prison reform when both New York and Pennsylvania introduced new systems of prisons. Prior to this time prisons were "used largely for persons awaiting trial and other punishments and for debtors…." (Johnston) But with the advent of these new systems, a whole new era emerged in prison design, purpose, and administration. Pennsylvania, traditional home of the Quakers, had abolished the death penalty for all crimes except murder, which led to the need for an alternative sentence. Long confinement became the obvious choice and they embarked on building an institution that reflected their Quaker philosophies. The first of these "penitentiaries" to be constructed was Eastern State Penitentiary. On the other hand was New York, which also needed to construct places to house prisoners for long-term confinement. However, New York took a more practical approach and based their designs on practicality, not ideology. In the end it was the New York system, represented by Auburn State Prison, that would be the basis for America's correctional system.

It was at the home of Benjamin Franklin in 1787 that members of a group named The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons met and first proposed a radical new idea: to "build a true penitentiary, a prison designed to create genuine regret and penitence in the criminal's heart." ("History of Eastern State") This would necessitate a complete rethinking of prison design and administration, the prison would have to be designed with the criminal's spiritual reflection and change taken into account. The result was a system that stressed the inmate's isolation from other inmates, as well as a great deal of labor. This required each inmate to be placed in an individual cell and remain there for most of the day. The inmate would eat, sleep, and work in complete isolation, even being hooded when being taken outside their cell. The idea was that isolation would allow an inmate to reflect on the evil they have committed, and without the distraction of bad influences like other inmates, could achieve real penitence and rehabilitation. Because of the isolation necessary for the system to work, Eastern State Penitentiary needed to be a large, intimidating structure, that was inefficient in its administration as well as its use of space.

While the goal of reforming inmates was the same in New York, they took a more practical approach. New York authorities decided that complete isolation was unnatural and cruel, breeding despair and insanity. In addition to these issues, "inmates restricted to their cells 24 hours a day contributed nothing to the cost of their own confinement." ("The Evolution of the New York Prison System") Instead, New York constructed Auburn State Prison, which kept prisoners isolated from other prisoners while in their cells, but had common work and dining areas for the inmates. Inmates were kept in a type of isolation, as they were required to remain in complete silence and were not allowed to speak to each other. The New York system maintained that a "steady, predictable, unrelenting routine of hard work, moderate meals, silent evenings, and restful nights in individual cells would produce men who were, indeed, cured of all vices and excesses." ("The Evolution of the New York Prison System")

Both systems required prisoners to work hard and reflect on their past misdeeds, and hoped that they would come to some sort of redemption and reform. In other words, the basic goal of reformation of a criminal was the same in both systems, they only differed on the way to achieve this goal. Because the Pennsylvania system required complete isolation, inmates were forced to spend almost all of their time in their cells. The inmates needed to work, eat, and sleep their cells, therefore, the cells in Eastern State Penitentiary needed to be large enough to accommodate this. On the other hand, since Auburn State inmates had common eating and working areas, their cells only needed to be used for sleeping; and therefore could be smaller. This meant that Auburn-style prisons could hold more prisoners within the same amount of space. And since prisoners were forced to work and eat together at Auburn, there was no need to hide their identity with a hood when being moved around the prison, like at Eastern State Penitentiary.