Eastern State Penitentiary: Crucible of Good Intentions

Oversized in color illustrated softcovers, Fine. 116 pp. Illustrated throughout with vintage photography and reproductions. Issued to coincide with the exhibition "Eastern State Penitentiary at Fairmount: Crucible of Good Intentions:, July-September, 1994. The gothic castle-style ESP, located in the Cherry Hill/ Fairmount section of Philadelphia, opened in 1829 and was designed for the newly envisioned system of separate incarceration that had been pioneered by the city's Walnut Street jail. It emphasized reform rather than punishment. It was heated ,with skylighted cells., and had a prisoner capacity of 500. Beginning in 1831, women were also housed there on the upper floor of cell block 7 (there were 19 of them by 1836). Among it's more famous inmates were Al Capone and Willie Sutton (who along with a dozen other inmates escaped in 1945). There was even a dog inmate---1924, Gov. Gifford Pinchot sentenced "Pep The Cat-Murdering Dog" for allegedly killing the Governor's wife's favorite cat; pep has a convict number and a mug shot.…