Eastern State Penitentiary

A very nice & productive Sunday! The beeper's been silent (knock on wood...still have about 12 hrs to go 'til I'm officially OFF jedopardy duty), slept in, got some good work done on my NRSA grant, had lunch with a bunch of friends at "The Bishop's Collar", and took a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary, this crazy fortress-looking building in the Art Museum neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was built in 1829 as the first example of a new movement of jail reform which looked upon prison as an opportunity for true reform as opposed to simply punishment. While this may sound like a good idea on the surface--and had many famous proponents (Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin)--this was accomplished by basically placing the prisoner in his own room in a state of solitary confinement for the entire duration of his/her sentence, which was often several years. Then I went running, now I'm back and looking forward to kicking back and catching some of the T.O.-less Eagles game this evening.