The Walnut Street Prison: America's First Penitentiary Experiment

Before Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia pioneered prison reform at the Walnut Street Jail, which in 1790 became the first penitentiary in the United States, using solitary confinement as a means of rehabilitation. The Quaker-influenced idea — a forerunner of the "Pennsylvania System" later perfected at Eastern State — held that isolating prisoners with a Bible would lead them to penitence — hence the word "penitentiary." The jail stood at the southeast corner of 6th and Walnut Streets, across from Washington Square. The experiment was considered revolutionary worldwide and influenced prison design for generations.