Eastern State Penitentiary

After getting our fill of downtown Philly we headed over to Eastern State Penitentiary-the world’s first penitentiary. This is the beginning of the revolutionary system of incarceration, dubbed the "Pennsylvania System". Prisoners were held in solitary confinement and forced to work together in silence and the prison was constructed to reduce noise. Outside the cells, there was an individual area for exercise, enclosed by high walls so prisoners couldn't communicate. Each exercise time for each prisoner was synchronized so no two prisoners would be out at the same time. When prisoners left the cell, a guard would accompany them and wrap them in a hood. Prisoners could spend their entire time there never seeing or speaking with another inmate! They weren't even allowed visitors. However, this system quickly became unsustainable due to overcrowding.
I thought I would be scared of the place and although it was imposing (and the audio tour was narrated by Steve Buscemi) I really enjoyed myself. I think the bright sunshine helped. The audio tour let us go through the cell blocks at our own pace and we also joined up with some quick ranger tours. One was about prison art:And another let us into the Klondike-solitary confinement in subterranean and windowless cells, with neither light nor plumbing:

The entire place is a crumbling ruin and the caretakers have deliberately made no attempt to beautify the place. It’s dark, dirty, and there is plaster and water falling from the ceilings and most of the windows are broken but that’s what makes it so awesome!
The one bright spot (literally) was Al Capone’s restored cell. Apparently he curried a lot of favors with the guards and lived in relative luxury during his tenure.

The sorriest thing I saw though was the story of Pep the prison dog. In 1924, the Governor allegedly sentenced Pep "The Cat-Murdering Dog" (an actual dog) to a life sentence at Eastern State. Pep allegedly murdered the governor’s wife’s cherished cat. Prison records reflect that Pep was assigned an inmate number (no. C2559), which is seen in his mug shot. However, the reason for Pep’s incarceration remains a subject of some debate. A newspaper article reported that the governor donated his own dog to the prison to increase inmate morale. Look at that face, he is so precious!