6. In 1812, the Millbank Institution was begun and it cost more than ,000 (an extraordinary sum
of money for the time) and was capable of housing only 1,200 convicts.
7. Early in the nineteenth century, the English Quakers followed in John Howard's footsteps in
effecting prisoner reforms. Elizabeth Fry, an English Quaker, was instrumental in originating
prison aid societies.
8. Reformation in America began when the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia was authorized by an
act of Pennsylvania Assembly in February 1773. Thus began a new era characterized by the
concept of doing time. The new jail received its first prisoners in January 1776. It was the first real
penitentiary in the world. Each prisoner occupied a separate cell and exercise yard to prevent
interaction. (This is one of the primary characteristics of a penitentiary.) There was no segregation
by age or sex. When outside the cell, prisoners were made to wear blinders and were led about
much like draft animals.
9. The Philadelphia Society started the first reforms at the Walnut Street Jail. They did so by
means of a petition to the legislature. The objectives were:
a. Separation of debtors from other criminals.
b. Segregation of the sexes.
c. Total abolition of liquor from the jail.
d. The use of hard labor in lieu of solitary confinement.
10. The Pennsylvania System, 1829. Reform of the Pennsylvania criminal code had begun with the
adoption of the state constitution in 1776, which directed the substitution of imprisonment for
various types of corporal punishment. The outbreak of war, however, interrupted this progress and
it was not until April 1794 that work on the revised code was completed.
11. The Western Penitentiary at Pittsburgh opened in 1826 and provided 190 individual cells. The
objective was punishment by solitary confinement without labor. An act of the Pennsylvania
Assembly in April 1828 provided that the prison would be operated on the principle of solitary
confinement and hard labor. Another act passed on February 27, 1833, directed that the cells be
demolished and rebuilt. This act was never complied with.
12. The Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia opened in 1829, and was known locally as Cherry Hill.
Its established cost was more than 0,000. It had one of the most influential penal philosophies
ever conceived by man. The objectives were based on the proposition that encouraged repentance.
Prisoners lived, slept, read the Bible, received moral instruction, and worked in their cells except for
an hour a day that was set for exercise. This philosophy became widely known as the solitary
system. The system failed for many reasons among which were the deadening and demoralizing
effects of loneliness and monotony; it was difficult to keep prisoners apart, the system was
expensive to maintain, and many prisoners became insane.
13. The Auburn System was established in 1821 in New York. It was initially an adaptation or
variation of the Pennsylvania System. The System was known as the silent system. Prisoners
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