In Undergraduate school,
I majored in history and minored in psychology. In my senior year I was able to
take an extremely interesting course, which in many ways combined the two subjects.
It was called “The Psychology of Incarceration.” This was a special topics
course, but I learned so much and it sparked my interest in the Pennsylvania
System and Eastern State Penitentiary, which was considered the world’s first TRUE
penitentiary, and was run by the Quakers. This combination of two of my passions
seemed like the perfect prompt for a blog post about early Christianity in the
United States.
The belief prior to the implementation of the
Pennsylvania system, was that criminals needed to be removed from society and
that reform was impossible. When Eastern State Penitentiary opened its doors in
1829, it did so with a new system based on the beliefs of the Quakers. The idea
was that the Quakers and their Christian values, paired with solitary
confinement and the help of God, could and would lead to reform of criminals. In
a publication that described Philadelphia in 1824, the authors writing about
Philadelphia discussed the new penitentiary that would be opening its doors and
said that, “We are not yet possessed with sufficient facts to enable us to
decide upon the merits of this plan. It will certainly receive a fair trial in
the new penitentiary.”[1] Prior to this, the punishment was hard labor
and it was doing nothing to reform criminals.
This new system was based on a belief that God, reading
the Bible, prayer and solitude would help foster reform. There were issues causes
by this though, as solitary confinement and silence were very difficult on some
prisoners. In 1849, there was an investigation and inquiry into the effect that
separation was having on the prisoners in terms of both mental and physical health.
The question being asked in the inquiry was, “…social or solitary labor by day –
which is better? In this country we have excellent prisons, conducted on both
these plans for at least seventeen years; and the results ought to show, either
that one should be decidedly preferred to the other, or that the two are almost
equally good…”[2]
The inquiry concluded that the Christian work being done in the Pennsylvania System,
along with its solitary confinement and focus of God, were not playing a significant
role in depression or unfavorable health conditions, but were serving a greater
purpose. It said that the teaching of Christian values allowed for the individual to meditate and reflect on
their actions through the word of God, and this helped lead to reform.
What I found really interesting about all of this was
that the reform-minded Christian Quakers had an idea in how best to help these
criminals to reform and better themselves. It was important to them to do God’s
work in this way, because city prisons were not able to sustain the amount of
prisoners they were receiving and they were having no luck in helping reform
criminals. The Quakers wanted to help by providing the criminals reprieve from
cruel treatment and hard labor, by providing them with the chance to be
redeemed in the eyes of God through prayer, bible reading, silence, hard work
and solitary confinement. These ideas established by the Quakers and their “Pennsylvania
System,” would stick around for a long time. Through the establishment of the
Federal Prison System in the 1890s and through the implementation of other systems
later on. Their methods seemed to work overall, but as noted, the use of solitary
confinement drove people over the edge into depression and suicide. A conclusion
was made in the 1980’s by a historian writing about prison reform, “The Quakers
embarked on another track in regard to the treatment of criminals. The Quakers
believed that imprisonment could serve as an instrument of criminal reform.”[3] Whether or not I agree with
the methods used, the Pennsylvania System provides us with a look at Early
American Christianity through the act of establishing a place of reform. One
that was based on the love of God and the compassionate outreach of Quakers
with Christian minded values and a desire to help the lost to reform.
[1] Lea,
H.C. Carey and I. Philadelphia in 1824: A Brief Account of the Various
Institutions and Public Objects in this Metropolis. Philadelphia: Chestnut
Street, 1824.
[2] Packard, Frederick Adolphus. An Inquiry into the Alleged Tendency of the Separation of Convicts, One from the Other, to Produce Disease and Derangement. Philadelphia: E.C. & J. Biddle, 1849.
[3] Roberts,
Leonard H. "The Historic Roots of American Prison Reform: A Story of
Progress and Failure." Journal of Correctional Education, 1985:
106-109.
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