Abandoned Places by Richard Happer

Author:Richard Happer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

The monstrous model prison

The gatehouse is a huge castle-like structure built of gloomy stone. From either side sheer, looming walls 9 m (30 ft) high stretch out to distant turreted corners. Within, out of sight from all but the birds, is a prison where 450 people lived and died without ever seeing or speaking to one another.

For in this prison, solitary confinement was the norm. All day, every day, the prisoners were locked alone inside their 2.4 m (8 ft) wide, 3.7 m (12 ft) long and 3 m (10 ft) high cells. By today’s standards this seems like a cruel and unpleasant place to put people, but this was actually a radical social experiment aimed at revolutionizing the way that crime was dealt with.

When the Eastern State Penitentiary was completed in 1829 it was the largest and most expensive public structure ever built. The vast complex covered a 4.5 hectare (11 acre) site outside Philadelphia.

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