one of the students in my critfemstudies class recommended What I Want My Words to Do to You (this in response to our reading Eva's Man last week, and reflecting on our frustrations with her silence...). she found the film life-changing. watching the trailer, i realize how direct it is, how grounded in a belief that the truth can be told. very different than the film i'm imagining sara's working toward making, which sounds as if it will be so much more oblique and evocative...

Walls, dark color, looks like a dungeon, in a place which is a little bit isolated, there is Easter State Penitentiary. The auditory tour was saying ESP is different because it keeps each inmate alone, and let them reflect on themselves, and reform. It sounds like ESP is the saver of these souls. But walking in it, I did not find it a different prison. I would say it is a better decorated prison-it is like a dungeon from a sci-fi movie. Maybe it is better than the old prisons in the aspects of cleanliness, structure, and order. However, the dark, narrow and depressive cells may not be the best place to for penitents to contemplate or to reform.  Staying there for a couple of minutes, I thought about some random stuff. I thought about what I was going to do next, and how we got here. I thought about the voices in the auditory tour. I thought about Zadie Smith because we were going to revise the paper about NW, and about how I would feel in this cell etc. But eventually, the feeling went to bore, and all I wanted to do was go out. Not to mention imagining myself an inmate who has to be here for years without communicating with anyone. How would these inmates react?

Is this practical?

I heard the penitentiary from my roommate, who wants to go to a haunted house and flattered that there’s real ghost in there. The two days after that our trip of Esem announced the next station: Eastern State Penitentiary. I was surprised that a prison, at least from my point a prison, could become such an attraction.

My first impression of this prison is odd: how could it be such a castle? But when I entered the building, it began to look like a prison: dirty ground, damaged walls, narrow hall ways. The whole place is a conflict: A place of aesthetic beauty from outside. A place of scare and regret from inside.

The audio tour shows that this place has always been on debate in multiple ways.

When it was first built, the supporters claim it is supporting an “idea”, that everyone is born good, and could be changed with instructions. It is a very idealistic concept to try to change those already guilty. In fact, there’s too much not considered in this simple “idea”.

Anne Birk is a Danish criminologist who says that the purpose of Danish prisons “is not to make the inmates’ lives as miserable as possible. Instead, Danish prisons strive for the goal of normalization. The prisons are designed to closely resemble life on the outside,” an idea she calls “re-socialization.” (Toll) The normalization in these prisons, “is not about normalizing the prisoner; it is about normalizing the prison conditions.” (Toll) American prisons have almost ten times the amount of prisoners that Denmark has. (International) It is estimated that tens of thousands of these American prisoners are in solitary confinement. (Goode) Solitary confinement supposed purpose is to confine uncontrollable prisoners, but in many cases those prisoners would function equally as well in less controlled environments. In fact, “isolation [is] likely to produce mental illness as remorse.” (Goode) This makes isolation itself a perpetuator of isolation, “If you treat people like animals, that’s exactly the way they’ll behave.” (Goode)

American prisons should restrict inmates in the same way citizens are restricted when they function in society. Isolation by its nature does not provide any form of “re-socialization” (Toll), and only encourages the prisoner to reach more into themselves instead of a community.

{This is an experimental essay.}

There are two kinds of dynamics. Intended, or assigned, dynamics and those that emerge as a result of the implementation – or at least the attempt thereof –  of the original intended dynamics.

[“Simon spoke aloud to the clearing. ‘What else is there to do?’ Nothing replied,” (Golding, 145). “Turned away from the open space,” (Golding, 145). “[The boys] bumped Piggy, who was burnt, and yelled and danced. Immediately, Ralph and the crowd of boys were united an  relieved by a storm of laughter. Piggy once more was the center of social derision so that everyone felt cheerful and normal,” (Golding, 149). “Give me a drink,” (Golding, 150). “Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take place in this demented but partly secure society,” (152). “Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind,” (Golding, 152). “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” (Golding, 152).]

The Quaker Vision

Eastern State Penitentiary will be a place of silent reflection.  It will be a place where criminals can think about their crimes and truly be penitent.  A prison unlike all others in operation; instead of storing criminals just to remove them from society (Bowditch 3) or abusing them into reformation, Eastern State Penitentiary will be a place that encourages penitence and a reconnection to God and goodness.  

The exterior of the building, with its medieval appearance, tall walls, gargoyles and turrets, should instill fear of the world behind it (“General Overview”).  The interior, however, is reminiscent of churches or cathedrals: tall vaulted hallways; arched windows and skylights.

There are strict rules for the running of Eastern State that will allow prisoners to realize the ugliness of their ways and rediscover the good within themselves most effectively.   Prisoners will have only themselves, guards, and God to communicate with; the entire prison will be silent.  They will not be abused in any physical manner, as the goal is not to harm them but rather to bring them back to goodness and into society.  

We as humans think we can be alone, and think that a day by one’s self in a prison would be fine, but in this day and age we are never alone. I could say that I have spent a day alone by myself, but in reality that would be a day alone with a television and a laptop and a cell phone with access to an endless amount of entertainment, but in an Eastern State Penitentiary cell, one is completely alone. For the first couple of minutes it was bizarre, I was not talking to anyone, I did not have any page to read, any screen to watch, anything to touch. Scared to sit on the floor, I found myself standing in the middle of the room looking above through the tunneled skylight contemplating how prisoners would have spent their time in these prisons. I spent the next few minutes thinking of all of the things I could do to occupy my time: sleep, sing, think… And then I felt completely alone. I knew that there was someone in the cell next to me, and I could hear people speaking down the cellblock, but nonetheless I still felt trapped even with the knowledge that I could step out of the cell at anytime.

As I walked into Eastern State Penitentiary, it was hard to imagine anyone living there. The place was in ruin, stable but very obviously crumbled and corroded. Aside from the audio tour guide’s voice in my ears, the hallways were quiet, with some rooms restored to how they would’ve looked during the prison’s prime. They were almost Church like, as intended by the building’s designer, and much more livable looking than how I imagine today’s prisons. Imagining the silence that accompanied the space, though, it was easy to see why so many of the inmates were incredibly unhappy in their time at Eastern State.

Eastern State Penitentiary was founded in 1829 by a Quaker group called the "Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons”  (General Overview). It was revolutionary for its time, a prison meant to change prisoners for the better instead of merely locking them up. Its silent, penitentiary atmosphere was coupled with impressive accommodations for its prisoners: heat, decent food, and better plumbing than the white house had at that time. They were even taught “honest work (shoemaking, weaving, and the like)” to carry with them into the outside world (General Overview). The only catch was that the prisoners had virtually no contact with anything that could distract them from their own thoughts. They ate alone, exercised alone, and had access to only one book, The Bible. They never saw any of the other prisoners, and their only company was a window on each ceiling called, “The Eye of God.”  

There is such controversy in modern society about prisons: what’s wrong with them, how they should be changed, and generally the omnipresence and seeming uselessness of such institutions in the modern world.  Arguments rage endlessly across political, social, religious and economic boundaries about the prisons themselves while neglecting what inspires our individual opinions about penal theory: the prisoners themselves.  How the prisoners are viewed by society and individuals is largely responsible for how prisons are designed and up kept.