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Comparing Pennsylvania And New York Penitentiary Theories Of The 1800's

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Comparing Pennsylvania And New York Penitentiary Theories Of The 1800's
Shunda R. Anderson
07/24/2010

"Compare and contrast the Pennsylvania and New York Penitentiary theories of the 1800's."

The Pennsylvania System, after the failure of Walnut Street, Pennsylvania constructed two new prisons: the Western Penitentiary near Pittsburgh (opened in 1826) and the Eastern Penitentiary in Cherry Hill, near Philadelphia (1829). The Pennsylvania system took the concept of silence as a virtue to new extremes. Based on the idea of separate confinement, these penitentiaries were constructed with back-to-back cells facing both outward and inward. To spare each inmate from the corrupting influence of others, prisoners worked, slept, and ate alone in their cells. Their only contact with other human beings came
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