D. The Penitentiary
The advent of the penitentiary in the United States stands as one of the most significant influences of Christian thought on criminal justice. Moreover, it offers a graphic illustration of how a religious ritual can become the basis of legal punishment. There is no consensus of social histories that led to the implementation of the penitentiary in America. However, the most common argument is that it was largely promulgated by Quaker thinkers as an alternative to the jails and punishments of the time, which were crowded and offered little hope for reformation. Whether the Quaker motives “were more complicated than a simple revulsion at cruelty or impatience” or penal incompetence, its designers claimed that better religious instruction based on Christian doctrine would do more than just reform criminals, but even “open the hearts of [the] wretched ... to God's grace and forgiveness.” Hence, these advocates saw in punishment more than a reaction to crime, but a ritual that could reclaim the souls of their captives.
The very first “[p] enitentiary [h] ouse” appeared in 1790 within the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia, as a measure to alleviate overcrowding at Philadelphia's Old Stone Jail. Ideologically, the solitary confinement was viewed as offering criminals the opportunity to sit and reflect on their wrongs and hopefully to accept responsibility through repentance.
In the years that followed, the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons headed a lobby aimed at the Pennsylvania legislature to approve funding to build the first supermax prison of its day, Eastern State Penitentiary. The state legislature responded by enacting the following:
Be it enacted [by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same] , That a State penitentiary capable of holding two hundred and fifty prisoners, on the principle of solitary confinement of the convicts.
The model of solitary confinement at Eastern State Penitentiary was the creation of reformers who were well-informed about European prison reform. Yet, rather than follow the prevailing liberal philosophies of Europe, the American reformers took a different path and allowed Christian beliefs to inform their whole conception of the penitentiary. Although their use was infrequent until the Roman Catholic Inquisition in the thirteenth century, penitentiaries derive from Catholic practices, which go back to the fourth century. By the time Quakers developed Eastern State, the penitentiary already had a long religious pedigree, including the well-known model of solitary confinement at the Hospice of San Michele in Rome, erected by Pope Clement XI in 1704.
The Hospice and others like it were based theologically on the concept of ““penance,” and should be viewed against the background of this ancient tradition. The Hospice cell design was associated with monastic enclosure and each “inmate[] had a view of the altar” centerpiece from the cell. This facility's reputation was one of the best of the era as far as rehabilitation was concerned, and it is likely that the Americans intended their model to become similarly successful.
Although Eastern State penitentiary traces to Catholic models, there were differences in the Quaker concept. For example, rather than design space around an altar, each solitary cell of the penitentiary was equipped with a skylight dubbed the “eye of God,” which served as a reminder that God was constantly watching. Inmates were given no other reading materials besides the Bible, and unlike the original Catholic system of penance through sacrament, the Quaker style emphasized the inmates' personal connection with God and self-reflection on the crime committed. Hence, the Quaker quest to save souls provided the theological foundation of the modern penitentiary. As punishment, and as a spell of solitude aimed at self-examination and soul searching, penitentiaries represent the use of the law to theological ends and reflect a type of “migration of monastic norms into society in general.”
As this part shows, there are seemingly unlimited connections between religion and criminal justice as it is known today. What follows examines the broader cultural context to show that the criminal justice system is not unique in its religious and ritual orientation, but rather, that it is a part of a greater social attitude that has made “God bless America,” i.e., the idea that God has blessed America, a defining characteristic of the culture.
