Jan 7, 2015 3 min read

Two centuries ago, prisons in this country were criminal holding pens in which men, women and children were thrown together to fend for themselves under filthy, brutal and inhumane conditions, where physical abuse by guards was the norm. A group of enlightened Philadelphians proposed a better way to deal with criminals: a Quaker-inspired system of isolating inmates from almost all human contact to force them to reflect on their crimes and to become penitent. Thus was born the world’s first modern prison, Eastern State Penitentiary, which opened in 1829 just outside Philadelphia.

Prisoners there were treated humanely and housed in solitary cells equipped with heat, running water, a toilet and an individual exercise yard. They were given work to perform in their cells but were not permitted to speak or see any other person. They were hooded when it was necessary to move them from their cells.

The prison itself was an architectural marvel, and soon its system of incarceration was replicated around the country and the world. But isolation as a means toward correction began to be questioned. Charles Dickens recounted his visit to Eastern State in his “American Notes,” published in 1842:

“In its intention I am well convinced that it is kind, humane and meant for reformation, but I am persuaded that those who designed the system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent gentlemen who carry it into execution, do not know what it is doing. … I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body … “

Though a number of prisoners were undoubtedly reformed by their forced monastic existence, the deprivation of human contact drove many others mad. By the late 19th century, inmates were beginning to be less isolated, put together in exercise yards, cell blocks and work details. About 100 years ago, isolation as a system for correction was abandoned and used instead as a punishment for the unruly.

Or so we thought.

With the closing of so many mental hospitals in the last half of the 20th century, prisons became the de-facto system for treatment of the mentally ill. Prisons are manned by guards, not doctors, however, and asking them to treat mentally ill inmates is like asking plumbers to perform knee-replacement surgery. The common method for dealing with mentally ill inmates written up for misconduct is to confine them to small cells for 23 hours a day for months or even years, trapped in “an endless cycle of isolation and punishment” that often exacerbates their symptoms and causes them to harm themselves or commit suicide, according to the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, which filed suit against the state Corrections Department.

As was reported in Wednesday’s edition, a settlement has been reached in that suit that will divert inmates with serious mental problems to special treatment units instead of being put in isolation. The settlement also calls for improving the screening process of mentally-ill inmates and increasing the amount of time many are allowed out of their cells from five to 20 hours a week.

It’s about time.

The Corrections Department claims many of these measures have already been instituted, and the number of mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement has gone down from 800 statewide a year ago to 135 now.

Still, for too many, this Dickensian nightmare is very much reality.