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But I could feel the misery and insanity of this place and it was suffocating. It's only a place which made people want to keep away from. Eastern State Penitatiary seemed like a place to cause someone to go mad rather than teach them to reflect. 

I see how everyone lived and cannot imagine how they managed to stay alive—the conditions this place holds serves to no ones sustainability to survive. Eastern State Penitentiary now looks the way it made the prisoners feel: empty, broken, and alone. The endless and repeating days are terrible. For prisoners inside, it’s not much different: no freedom, isolated, frustrating, desperate and somehow made the lonely people more aggressive. It seems prisoners became more like objects to be placed somewhere than people who needed reforming.

It is ridiculous and useless. Why are these visitors visiting?

Eastern state will be a new kind of prison, one where the prisoners will spend time alone to contemplate their action, and learn to reform their ways. ESP was a place where they believed prisoners in solidarity would be able to repent for their sins, so that upon their release they would live more wholesome lives. The idea of reforming prisoners rather than just locking them up was revolutionary and enlightening, even though it tended not to work in the practices Eastern State used.

Solitary confinement was not a situation to be accepted without a fight. From the POV of Samuel Brewster, "Eastern State cannot change me or control me, the “new prison” is just like all the rest and I will defeat it." He had to be uncooperative to give himself something to do. It is a place where prisoners try to fight against isolation, which is meant by the builders in order to make the inmates contemplate and reflect towards reformation. Prisoner’s lack of communication and isolation did not aid in improvement but rather inspired rebellion.

Eastern State may have been founded on a good idea- not writing prisoners off as worthless unchangeable criminals but trying to help them be better people- but the methods did not work and were inhumane. The idea of reforming prisoners rather than just looking them up was revolutionary and enlightening, even though it tended not to work in the practices Eastern State used. ESP was a place that stripped people of what made them human, and prevented people from performing acts that keep people sane. It could almost be seen as a method of torture, where instead of helping people as the founders had hoped, it took away every liberty a person has.

The original design of Eastern state forced people to really look into themselves and their actions, alone in a cell with nothing to do but explore your own mind allows a person to form a new perspective on themself. 5 years of no contact with the outside world, apart from that obnoxious preacher and the occasional guard. Constant, unending boredom, or the constant threat of discovery and punishments if attempts to alleviate that boredom were discovered. Eastern State is truly unlike the other prisons today, prisoners must face perhaps the strongest punishment of our time, solitude. Eastern State was a lonely, maddeningly quiet and boring cell, and unproductive waste of his time. The solitary confinement was not going to make him a better person, it would just drive him mad. He had to be uncooperative to give himself something to do.

Eastern State was a prison unlike any other, where the methods were so damaging to the human spirit, and was so radical that the fascination that came with the prison was far greater than the suffering. The prison was a site of mental torture, inconceivably harsh to anyone who had not seen it with his own eyes. It is a place where prisoners try to fight against isolation. Eastern State is truly unlike the other prisons today; prisoners must face perhaps the strongest punishment of our time, solitude. ESP was a place you wouldn’t want to end up in lest you enjoyed the company of your own criminal soul and the judging eye of god.

Does it really do anything for reform and penitence? Who rules the prison, the guard or the prisoners, comes into question. Most prisoners have no ability to read and spend their time (which is what they got) in trying to communicate with their neighbors.

The morals of Eastern State are questionable, and the role of success of reforming prisoners (rather than simply punishing them) is disappointingly low for how many people were forced to stay there. ESP was a place that stripped people of what made them human, and prevented people from performing acts that keep people sane. It could almost be seen as a method of torture, where instead of helping people as the founders had hoped, it took away every liberty a person has.

Eastern state penitentiary is an exemplary pioneer in the pursuit of reforming prisoners through isolation. Eastern state was a place for prisoners to come to terms with what they’d done, and to pray in solitude for forgiveness. It should work [be]cause the nature of human beings is kindness, so as long as they stay alone and contemplate, they will eventually find the way to their true heart.  Upon their release they would live more wholesome lives.

Eastern State was more torture or prison than reform center. Eastern State tried to mentally break me down with silence and darkness. Eastern State Penitentiary is an unusual prison where inmates rarely have the chance to communicate with others, which makes me try to find ways to talk to other inmates more. Solitary confinement was not a situation to be accepted without a fight. Eastern State was an eerie place, not necessarily having the effects on its prisoners it hoped to. It is a place where prisoners try to fight against isolation, which is meant by the builders in order to make the inmates contemplate and reflect towards reformation. The prison would seem useless-does it really do anything for reform and penitence? The methods were so damaging to the human spirit.

A place of aesthetic beauty from outside. A place of silence and regret from inside. Eastern State Penitentiary now looks the way it made the prisoners feel: empty, broken, and alone. These wall that used to be crisp white are falling down, the whole structure of the building is decaying. It has all passed. ESP is a decaying island that stands as a reminder of the suffering it caused. When I finally stepped out of Eastern State Penitatiary, back in the sun and back to freedom, I heard crowds talking incessantly and I felt like a cell myself. But I could feel the misery and insanity of these place and it was suffocating. With all the daily introspection on my crimes,I know I would have gone crazy within the first week.

The original idea of build such prison is good. But the truth is, it overlook the prisoners' crazy behavior. I see the overcrowding, the understaffing as a complete disregard for the ideals of this place. Like all the others, it ended up a very expensive storage areas for criminals. It's only a place which made people want to keep away from. These two things (great conditions and to be pentitent) are irrelevant, and may lead people to thinking committing a crime isn't a big deal, because prison isn't too bad anyway. Small sense of satisfaction that it failed because of its unrealistic goals. It seems prisoners became more like objects to be placed somewhere...

Conflict of silences. A place of aesthetic beauty from outside. A place of silence and regret from inside. Gone are the tiny insanity-inspiring chambers, replaced by shared-chambers capable of providing a life to their inhabitants. It was not a luxury to live in it, to be confined to your thoughts. It was corrupted over the years not by loose morals and flagging ideals but by the sheer pressure of numbers. It seems prisoners became more like objects to be placed somewhere than people who needed reforming.

These wall that used to be crisp white are falling down, the whole structure of the building is decaying. It has all passed. It is still in no better condition that it was when he was alive, but now that the context has changed, it is looked on with more reverence than it deserves. No matter, Eastern State as it is now, a true institution of learning, is the best form of itself that has ever been and undoubtedly could ever be.

Eastern state will be a new kind of prison, one where the prisoners will spend time alone to contemplate their action, and learn to reform their ways. Eastern State is a marvel of prison technology. Heating and plumbing systems for each cell, a design that absolutely minimizes contact with other prisoners-while there is debate on whether it does what it set out to do, there is no doubt it is a far better prison than any other in America, or even the world.  Eastern state penitentiary is an exemplary pioneer in the pursuit of reforming prisoners through isolation.  It should work cause the nature of human beings is kindness, so as long as they stay alone and contemplate, they will eventually find the way to their true heart.  Isolation is hard to truly come by, though, if achieved, it does encourage contemplation.

I have been struggling since we talked about excessability to figure out how one can crip deadlines in a practical way that keeps the subjects of the deadline accountable. Is there a happy medium between excessability and normative time? With no consideration to how practical it would be for the enforcer of the deadline (for example, the teacher), the ideal situation for the subjects of the deadline (i.e., the students) seems to be for their deadlines to be determined on a case by case basis. But who can determine how long exactly it will take for a project to be completed other than the person completing the project? What if they’re wrong? It seems that everyone’s time would have to be ‘cripped’ somehow. Who even operates on normative time? No matter what system we use, are we to be entirely governed by the arbitrary?

First, I just wanted to say how energized I felt after our conversation today. I actually followed Sasha to work and we continued the conversation until around 7:30, debating further about what it means to teach radically inside a prison, and whether it’s even possible. So rather than reflecting directly on the reading, I chose to reflect on the conversation Sasha and I had, and share with you all where we took the conversation after leaving. Of course, the questions only became more complicated and less answerable, but I enjoyed pushing our thinking further along as we challenged our responses/assumptions. It also became clearer to me while Sasha and I were talking that my thinking about these issues were being framed in my head by conversations I’ve had this past summer with one of my close friends, who identifies as a radical anarchist. I had this friend in my head during our meeting as well, debating in my ear about what it means to be radical. In particular, I was reminded of one conversation where they (gender neutral pronouns) asserted that they believed I was radical because of the way I thought, despite not being involved in any particular political action or identifying as radical.