Eastern State Penitentiary: the prison for repentance?

pen·i·tence – (noun) the state of being penitent; regret for one's wrongdoing or sinning; contrition; repentance

It is a cloudy morning in Philly, the second of my four-day sojourn. It has been drizzling intermittently but it has stopped raining now as we step out. Perfect weather to visit the Eastern state penitentiary - dry enough to walk around and grey enough for that aura of mystery!

Penitentiary, to put it simply, is a jail with a fundamental difference. The idea is not to punish but to invoke in the confined individual, a sense of atonement or “penitence”. It is not operational prison any longer but it’s a historical site, open for public viewing.

We walk from the bus stop to the penitentiary. Nearby houses are pretty with well-decorated doorways painted in vibrant colors – mauve, maroon, red, bottle green, yellow, even a shade close to electric blue!

The enormous wall and guard towers of the Eastern state penitentiary tower among the town houses. The structure is visible from a distance. It seems silently stony and forbidding, almost ominous and brings to my mind what I read on the internet – some cells of the penitentiary are haunted! My heart begins to race. There are hundreds of thousands of little wild flowers surrounding the wall that I notice on getting a little closer. They help bring about a diversion in mood, a bit of courage and a lot of cheer.

Once inside, an I-pod of sorts with headphones serves as our electronic tour guide. The narrative apart from regular commentary actually has the ex-staff – some assistants, cooks, jailors and other officials along with some ex-prisoners giving an account of life within these walls.

It is a weekday and there aren’t many visitors. I am secretly thankful for some human company in the guise of other visitors and the uniformed penitentiary staff around me, off and on in this damp and humungous place!

Eastern State was built in the nineteenth century outside the city of Philadelphia, today stands in the heart of the city. The structure of the place is such that there are long corridors (basically cellblocks) with individual cells that connect to a centre giving it an asterix-like or wagon-wheel shape.

The historical account playing on the head-phone is complete with music and sound effects for that extra zing, “In the initial ‘penitentiary’ system, each cell was designed for a single inmate. The cells were centrally-heated, had running water and a flush toilet. All this in an age when the president of the United States had no running water and the White House was heated with coal stoves!

However, there was to be minimal almost zero contact with another person, including officials on duty till the term of the sentence was completed. Except a Bible, no books or writing material was allowed. All that one heard there was the sound of silence. This environment was created in order to make the prisoner spiritually reflect on his life, change and thereby invoke penitence.

It may seem ideal, but this Eastern state system was not without drawbacks. It is supposed to have given rise to mental illnesses among inmates, driven some men mad! The notable novelist Charles Dickens, who paid a visit to the penitentiary, denounced it strongly. Then in early twentieth century, this system was abandoned and Eastern state became a regular prison"

Rather ironical I feel was the erection of the “death row” at Eastern state sometime in the 1950s. The dreaded, final sentence at the place called the ‘penitentiary’. I must admit I am relieved to leave this ill-omened section.

There used to be a family of stray cats that made this place their home when it was abandoned and fell into ruins. Walking along the dimly lit corridors today, there are white sculptures of these cats that can be found hiding in the unlikeliest of places. So unlikely that spotting them can actually get pretty exciting! Are they called ghost cats? I think so!

Talking of cats, Eastern state has seen a very unusual inmate. The governor of Philadelphia gave a life sentence to a dog named ‘Pep’ for allegedly murdering his wife’s cat. A photograph with a soulful expression on his face and a prison inmate number round his neck hangs in a cell. Of course the imprisonment of this “cat-murdering” dog was much debated at that time!

Al “Scarface” Capone was one of the prison’s notoriously infamous inmates. His cell has been maintained the way it was when he used it – with luxuries like a carpet, a four poster bed, a polished desk, paintings on walls with suffused lighting and strains of a waltz playing in the background!

This is an unpredictable tour, thrilling and edgy. Scary at times making me feel foolish, stepping out in broad daylight. Towards the end of this self-guided, electronically assisted tour, I finally gather some courage and step inside one of the cells which is supposed to be haunted. It is empty and doesn’t seem any different from the other cells. However, a chill runs down my spine and I constantly look over my shoulder. Why? I do not know but I don’t want to find out…

http://www.easternstate.org/