Philadelphia Walnut Street Jail

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Penitentiaries
Why do you think the penitentiary first caught on in Pennsylvania and New York? How would you explain the increase in the number of penitentiaries throughout the United States after Eastern State Penitentiary and Auburn Prison began operating?

Until the 1800s, American society was relatively sparsely populated and predominantly rural.
With the Revolution, the ideas of the Enlightenment gained currency and a new concept of criminal punishment came to the fore.
The penitentiary, as conceptualized by the English reformers and their American Quaker allies, first appeared in 1790 when a portion of Philadelphia Walnut Street Jail was converted to allow separate confinement of inmates. In 1790, a "penitentiary house," was built in the Philadelphia Walnut Street Jail, allowing separate confinement of inmates.1
The penitentiary was conceived of as a …show more content…
The New York (Auburn) System
Faced with overcrowded facilities in 1816, the New York legislature authorized a new state prison at Auburn.
Influenced by the success of the separate confinement, New York decided on an experiment to test the effectiveness. It proved a failure; there was a marked increase in sickness, insanity, and suicide among the prisoners.
In 1831 Elam Lynds, a warden at Auburn, worked out a new congregate system of prison discipline where inmates were isolated at night, but congregated in workshops during the day; they were forbidden to talk or exchange glances on the job or at meals, and they were exposed to rigid discipline.
The New York system was more concerned with instilling good work habits and preventing recidivism than with rehabilitation of prisoner’s character.
Throughout this era, which system should be preferred was hotly debated. Underlying the debates were questions about disciplining citizens in a democracy and maintaining social norms in a society that emphasized
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