Blogs

It was corrupted over the years not by loose morals and flagging ideals but by the sheer pressure of numbers. 

It's easy for one to think over and reform and contemplate.

Everyone has some good in them and given the opportunity to reflect on their wrong doings in the penitentary they could rediscover the good.

Cleansing of the desire see and behave criminally for no one can dispute God's rules.

I see the overcrowding, the understaffing as a complete disregard for the ideals of this place. 

Today, it stands as a symbol of our dashed hopes.

A place of aesthetic beauty from outside. A place of silence and regret from inside.

Eastern State Penetentiary is the humane and right way to reform criminals.

From the point of view of a Quaker visionary, Esp was a failed excercise in penance and reform.

To give inmates a chance to do contemplation, to think, to reform themselves.

A dream that one point lived on but now has closed to face a new era. Dissapointment.

Although there was some subversion where the inmates talked to eachother, the majority of inmates time must have been solitary and the very fact that they where in a prison, must have made them think what it was that got them here.

No cruel punishment so as not to make them feel hated or unaccepted by the society, so that they could return to the society and be decent citizens. 

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/minecraft-book/

With all the daily introspection on my crimes,I know I would have gone crazy within the first week.

The isolation is the punishment actually in this place.I cannot imagine if I stay in such place day by day without talking.

I see a complete disregard for the humanity of the prisoners.

When I finally stepped out of Eastern State Penitatiary,back in the sun and back to freedom,I heard crowds talking incessantly and I fely like a cell myself.

I am bored this doesn't hold my attention either.

Conflict of silences.

I wondered,if like her,prisoners tried to imagine,but found themselves too busy making shoes(or other commodities)or too disconnected from the world to daydream about another,maybe better,life.

"Stable ruins" seems oxymoroniz because time conhnces(?) even now to weak have in the aging place.

But I could feel the misery and insanity of these place and it was suffocating.

It seems prisoners became more like objects to be placed somewhere than people who needed reforming.

It's only a place which made people want to keep away from.

Eastern State Penitatiary seemed more like a place to cause someone to go mad rather than teach them to reflect.

Imagining myself staying there for years, I only saw a numb me, or the me who suicide.

by 5 p.m. on Thursday: each of us will e-mail Sara 3 quotes or images
(anything that we find compelling, anywhere in the book--
w/ an eye to “code-switching” and/or “impression management” and/or queer theory)
don’t be afraid to include a longer passage, one that makes the context clear

Our revised lesson plan:
I. we'll begin by remembering Marcell’s b’day, and mark it somehow
(w/ congratulations, certainly--also w/ song? we're not sure)

II. Jody will serve as general timekeeper, keeping us to this plan
any of us has the option of calling for writing time if it seems appropriate

III. Hayley will start us off w/ the quotes, passing sheets of 8x11 paper
we'll do this in two rounds: one to write in response to the quotes/others' comments,
one to read (and take notes, if we want)

II. Sasha will get us into pairs, to look @ the comments and
generate questions about them that we would like the large group to talk about

III. Sara will open up the conversation
possible topics for discussion/short summaries/critical ideas to share include
* code-switching
* “impression management” (how you present a certain “me” to others)
* gender and power 
* queer theory/women-centered relationships

V. Anne will offer the opportunity to do some writing, as a form of closing:
what summation can we offer? what thoughts are leftover? and/or not yet articulated?

Eastern State was more torture or prison than reform center. 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.

Life would seem scarily smaller, with low outlook on life, and the only hope for change relies on people coming by

“I am mad and eager to get out. I’d never be bad and have been cured by myself. Why [do] I have to stay here!”

It is funny to create the way to communicate with my buddies and neighbors. There’s no way for them to force me to welcome insolation.

Easter State tried to mentally break me down with silence and darkness.

Eastern State was a lonely, maddeningly quiet and boring cell, and unproductive waste of his time.

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.

From the POV of Samuel Bruster, an uncooperative prisoner sentenced to five years of solitary confinement, ESP is a place where if you follow the rules and life a life in solidarity, it will drive you mad, as these conditions are not humane.

Eastern State cannot change me or control me, the “new prison” is just like all the rest and I will defeat it.

The communal spaces and open water could only do so much to cleanse the place of its past.

Surely at this point any visitor entering the penitentiary, as one would enter a museum, would not be met with _???_* but a faint vibe, reminiscent of the true horrific conditions of this institution.

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.

I see the ultimate failure of what could have been and excellent way to reform prisoners.

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.

Communication can’t be stopped.

Eastern State Penitentiary now looks the way it made the prisoners feel: empty, broken, and alone.

People here visiting with curiosity, with awe for the idea of penitentiary, don’t know how the inmates’ lives here were.

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.

It is very much the same; it is harsh and unforgiving.

Even the building itself is decaying, like all these past objects have the structure of enclosure and abuse and falling.

Silence is a recurring theme in the novel Eva's Man. Which brings to mind the question: why do we choose to remain silent? One idea may be that we are afraid to speak. We are afraid of what consequences may befall us after we speak and that our words may cause harm, so we would rather be silent than be accountable. Another is that we truly don't know what to say. The words suddenly escape us (or were never there in the first place) and all that is left in our heads is total blank. But perhaps it is neither of these things. Maybe we aren't afraid. Maybe we really do know what to say. Maybe there is a kind of power in silence, in withholding the answers we have, knowing that it belongs only within ourselves. Perhaps there is a kind of greed in silence, a desire that we have for our words to be our own, never to exit our minds into the world.

From the P.O.V of one of Quaker reformers:

Eastern state was a place for prisoners to come to terms with what they’d done, and to pray in solitude for forgiveness.

Eastern state penitentiary is an exemplary pioneer in the pursuit of reforming prisoners through isolation.

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.

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.

Eastern state penitentiary was for the most part a failure: prisoners found ways to communicate and rebel, and often played or refused the help of their reformers.

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.

Eastern state provided prisoners with ample time and silence to think over their wrong doings, confess and improve themselves.

Eastern state Pen was efficient in providing an isolated environment for convicts to think about their wrongdoings and give penance.

I am disappointed by the loss of the original mission statement (now they lost the part about isolation), but proud of how it affected other prisons throughout the world.

“Flawed from the start.”

“ESP is a decaying island that stands as a reminder of the suffering it caused.”

“I see this place the same way I saw it years ago: broken, cold, and useless.”

“Far more strict and penalizing than how it is now. Happy it doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Small sense of satisfaction that it failed because of its unrealistic goals.”

“It was not a luxury to live in it, to be confined to your thoughts.”

“Gone are the tiny insanity-inspiring chambers, replaced by shared-chambers capable of providing a life to their inhabitants.”

“The endless and repeating days are terrible.”

“But sitting here for 5 years, isolated, dark, lonely, I really want real life.”

“These wall that used to be crisp white are falling down, the whole structure of the building is decaying. It has all passed.”

“For prisoners inside, it’s not much different: no freedom, isolated, frustrating, desperate and somehow made the lonely people more aggressive.”

“It is very much the same; It is broken and not useful.”

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

If I get any words wrong, can you comment to it so that every one else can see?:)

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.

Eastern State seemed more like a place of torture than reform. Solitary confinement can quickly make a person go mad, so I understand why Eastern State had so many problems, especially after getting a short glimpse at what the prisoners experienced.

ESP is an important but also overcelebrated milestone in American history with an interesting and rich history. ESP cells are lonely but also made me realize our own dependence on technology.

I found the cell to be interesting. Due to time constraints, myself and two others sat in the cell at the same time, but we did our best to ignore each other. I meditated for the half hour, found it very relaxing. Found myself annoyed by the little sounds the others made, very annoyed by the passing tours (and, admittedly, amused then they exclaimed about ‘how creepy’ the people in the cell were).

It is a cold penitentiary consisting of 10 cells, which are both better than how I thought it would be, and also worse than my original imagination.

The cell is cold and a little bit smelly. I am afraid and do not want to stay any longer at all. The grey walls around me make me feel lonely and constrained.