Prisons’ Means for Suppressing Prisoners’ Communication
Auburn State Prison in New York and Eastern State Penitentiary near Philadelphia were influential models of strictly suppressing prisoners’ communication.
The Auburn State Prison in upstate New York State pioneered the silent or congregate system for suppressing prisoners’ communication.
Auburn State Prison in New York and Eastern State Penitentiary near Philadelphia were influential models of strictly suppressing prisoners’ communication.
Nineteenth-century penal authorities differentiated from solitary confinement the Auburn and Pennsylvania systems for suppressing prisoners’ communication.
While strictly suppressing communication among prisoners, Auburn Prison and Eastern State Penitentiary provided official communication with prisoners.
Auburn State Prison and Eastern State Penitentiary vigorously suppressed prisoners’ communication with family and friends.
Vociferous debates about how to suppress communication among prisoners assumed such suppression actually promoted reformation.
Lock-step movement, face-to-back seating, and strict supervision suppressed communications among Auburn State prisoners.
At Auburn Prison, only the prison warden, prison physician, and prison inspectors were authorized to communicate with prisoners in their regular, operational duties.
Spectator counts and spectator revenue for U.S. state prisons in the 1840s, with time series 1820 to 1862 for Auburn State Prison, New York; and 1829 to 1902 for Eastern State Penitentiary, Pennsylvania.
About 3% of prisoners died per year under the Auburn and Pennsylvania prison regimes in early 19th-century U.S. Much larger figures are incorrect.
In the 19th century, public figures and penal scholars from around the world visited Auburn State Prison or Eastern State Penitentiary and discussed extensively their penal communicative practices.
Penal policy competition: Auburn / silent / congregate system versus the Pennsylvania / solitary / separate system
Elams Lynds was an early 19th-century New York prison keeper associated with the Auburn System, strict order, and brutal floggings.
Auburn Prison, a world-famous model for suppressing prisoners’ personal communication, also led in exhibiting prisoners to the public.
Early nineteenth-century reports of New York State prison inspectors include information on labor and provisioning costs for prisons.
In September, 1846, the month of the New York State Fair at Auburn, spectators at Auburn Prison amounted to 42% of the year’s total.
Visitors to prisons were both spectators seeking to tour a prison and family and friends seeking to visit in prison their friend or relative.
In the mid-19th century, Auburn Prison carefully accounted for its spectator revenue. Discretionary use of this revenue prompted less thorough accounting.
While exhibiting prisoners ended early in the 20th century, prisons, especially non-functioning historic prisons, have endured as spectator attractions.
Both the Auburn and Pennsylvania systems for suppressing prisoners’ communication were not able to do so completely in practice.
Prison population growth that exceeded prison cell construction undermined in practice the deliberative consensus to suppress prisoners’ communication.
About 6300 prison library books from 15 prison library catalogs dated 1809-1877. Also statistics on distribution of prison books by subject/type.
William Coffey, an unsuccessful prisoner-author, wrote Inside Out (1823) and probably also A Peep into the State Prison (1839).