Eastern 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.

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. 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.  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.

Is it practical?

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

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

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

It might be easier or safer for some of them to stay in jail. 

Flawed from the start.

      Eastern State Penitentiary was an innovative attempt at changing the very hearts of prisoners, but which failed to take into account the role of kindness. 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. It started out as an attempt to reform individulas but even now the corruption and evolution of corruption is visible in the empty space. 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. 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.

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 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. The Eastern state not only punish the prisoner, but also save them.

Solitary confinement was not a situation to be accepted without a fight. 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. 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.

When thinking about changing the structure of higher educational institutions in order to make it more accessible for people with disabilities is very encouraging.  Everyone should be able to have access and the ability to attend college.  But before people begin to change the structure of the college classroom people should start with changing the structure of the elementary classroom.  Elementary school is where many students begin to shape how a “normal” classroom should be structured, how to study and retain information the “normal” way, and how they view people with disabilities.  By changing elementary schools, it will make changing higher educational institutions easier because what is now viewed as not “normal” will be seen as “normal”.   It also just might begin to destigmatize people with disabilities.

Eastern is a relic, a decrepit pile of rocks and metal. While in its heyday it was the height of prison technology, it was, in many ways, utterly inhumane. [Cells] smaller than they should have been, particularly for housing two people, and designed to cut off interaction with others- that is torture. Eastern State is a lens into the past, showing the beginning intentions of incarceration in the US and how they changed. It’s an inspiring and illuminating pioneer in reforming the prisons although it failed.

 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. Eastern State is not successful. Treating prisoners so cruelly with isolation will only drive them madder. 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.  Prison reform in Eastern State was one of the cruelest and severe. Prisoner’s lack of communication and isolation did not aid in improvement but rather inspired rebellion. Eastern state was a cold, somewhat menacing, but still contemplative, cell, separated from everything. 

Conflict of silences. Flawed from the start, ESP is a decaying island that stands as a reminder of the suffering it caused. 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. The communal spaces and open water could only do so much to cleanse the place of its past. Eastern State Penitentiary now looks the way it made the prisoners feel: empty, broken, and alone. The endless and repeating days are terrible. Conflict of silences.

Conflict of silences. It is ridiculous and useless. Why are these visitors visiting? For prisoners inside, it’s not much different: no freedom, isolated, frustrating, desperate and somehow made the lonely people more aggressive. How is it possible that people can really be penitent in this mentally torturing condition? It’s not going to make a difference for the guilty, in such a place of fear and loneliness, nothing could evoke their mortality when they’re in torture. 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. Conflict of silences.

Eastern State Penitentiary is the humane and right way to reform criminals.  To give inmates a chance to do contemplation, to think, to reform themselves.  A place of aesthetic beauty from outside.  A place of silence and regret from inside.  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.   A dream that one point lived on but now has closed to face a new era. Disappointment.  The original idea of build such prison is good. But the truth is, it overlook the prisoners' crazy behavior.  Today, it stands as a symbol of our dashed hopes.  It was corrupted over the years not by loose morals and flagging ideals but by the sheer pressure of numbers.   I see the overcrowding, the understaffing as a complete disregard for the ideals of this place. 

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 was an eerie place, not necessarily having the effects on its prisoners it hoped to. Eastern State was more torture or prison than reform center. Easter State tried to mentally break me down with silence and darkness. Life would seem scarily smaller, with low outlook on life, and the only hope for change relies on people coming by. 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. 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. Eastern State cannot change me or control me, the “new prison” is just like all the rest and I will defeat it.

There are still hundred of thousands of prisoners today kept in dungeons, medieval-like conditions, for years, huge portion of their lifetimes, with nothing but conditions for their brains to to rot, be warped, and emerge with hatred, anger, and frustration toward the world. It might be easier or safer for some of them to stay in jail. But I could feel the misery and insanity of these place and it was suffocating.

It was not a luxury to live in it, to be confined to your thoughts. It is very much the same; it is harsh and unforgiving. The endless and repeating days are terrible. But sitting here for 5 years, isolated, dark, lonely, I really want real life. It seems prisoners became more like objects to be placed somewhere than people who needed reforming. The isolation is the punishment actually in this place. I cannot imagine if I stay in such place day by day without talking.

Conflict of silences. Communication can’t be stopped. It has all passed.