The separate system, also known as the Pennsylvania system, was a prison design that aimed to prevent criminal subcultures from forming by isolating inmates in individual cells. Inmates were referred to by number, exercised alone or with hoods covering their faces, and had limited contact with others, even during church services. This system influenced modern prison design but is no longer practical for constant solitary confinement.
The separated system is a form of prison design and philosophy that seeks to improve the inmate reform process through isolation and lack of social interaction. This system was primarily used in the construction of a number of prisons where each inmate had to be contained in a separate unit, effectively placing each inmate in solitary confinement. Isolation was further strengthened through a variety of methods used to strip a prisoner of his former identity. This separate system was intended as a way to ensure that criminal subcultures and attitudes could not thrive in prisons.
Also called the “Pennsylvania system” due to the use of the separate system at Eastern State Penitentiary near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this system was often integrated into the design of a prison. A prison built using the split system would typically look like a part of a wheel that could be used on a bicycle or carriage. There would be a central office that would act as a hub for prison guards and wardens, and from this hub would extend a series of wings like the spokes of a wheel. Each of these wings housed individual cells in which prisoners would be incarcerated on their own.
The separate system was designed to reduce interaction between inmates as a way to prevent criminal organizations from forming within communal prison settings. This project was also designed to speed up prisoner reform by keeping each prisoner isolated and giving him time to reflect on what he had done. In order to further achieve these goals, prisoners in a separate prison system were referred to only by number, never by name, and hardly any contact with other inmates was allowed. Even when outside their cells, during exercises, they often drilled into individual areas that kept prisoners from each other.
These individual exercise areas were not always practical, and so many prisons that used the separate system allowed inmates to exercise together while wearing hoods that covered their faces. Prisoners were often attached to a rope which kept each prisoner apart from each other, and were expected to remain silent during exercise. Even during church services, prisoners could only vocalize by singing, and they were seated in cubicles which allowed the chaplain to see them, but could not see each other. The separate system has influenced the design of many modern prisons, although increasing numbers of inmates have made constant solitary confinement impractical.
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