In 1829, as a result of overpopulation of other prisons in the area, the Eastern State Penitentiary opened in the city of Philadelphia, designed to be a solitary confinement institution that allowed for better treatment of the prisoners incarcerated there. The massive complex consisted of multiple cell blocks, and later on, more were added. The prison was home to prisoners of all backgrounds, and eventually, it began to house women as well. As time progressed, the Eastern State Penitentiary did away with the solitary confinement that made it unique due to both overcrowding, and lobbyists who sought to affirm that it was cruel and unusual. It remained in operation until January of 1970 but has stayed open to this date, serving as a historic property preserved to allow tourists to observe the cell blocks.
Applying quantitative methods drawn from digital humanities and the social sciences, our project explored how inequality in prisons in the early nineteenth century compares to inequality today, after the advent of mass incarceration. We divided into three teams of three researchers each to ask the questions:
- How does being ‘different’ affect a prisoner’s chances at being pardoned?
- How have rape crimes changed since the 19th century?
- Like with modern day prisons, did sentencing disparities exist in the mid-nineteenth century?
Explore how we asked and answered these questions at the links above, or by reading a summary of our conclusions below.
Summaries of Each Research Question
Pardoning Data Team:
We understand that particular inequalities make people more likely to imprisoned, but we wanted to assess whether these similar or other inequalities would contribute to a prisoner’s pardonability. By seeking to understand the pardonability of a prisoner based on a difference of race, religion, gender, or country of birth at Eastern State Penitentiary from 1830 to 1850, we might be able to have insight into the biases that might have influenced how particular persons were criminalized.
Sex Crimes Team:
We have seen drastic changes in sex crimes in our lifetimes, so we were curious how sex crimes have changed throughout the past few centuries. To understand, we compared the sentences of rape crimes from the Eastern State Penitentiary with the sentences of rape crimes from the modern era. We combined this data analysis with a literature review to draw conclusions about the evolution of sex crimes on both a criminal and social level.
Race and Sentencing Team:
Aware of modern day sentencing disparities, we were interested in seeing whether those same disparities were present at Eastern State Penitentiary. Generally, we were seeking to compare the sentencing lengths for people of color versus white people who committed the same crimes. In order to investigate, we used datasets of Eastern State’s admission books containing relevant race and sentencing information on prisoners from the period of about 1840 to 1860.
Overall Conclusion
Pardoning Data Team:
Being ‘different’ did affect a prisoner’s chances at being pardoned at Eastern State Penitentiary from the years of 1830 to 1850. People of color, who were more likely to have longer sentences, were less likely to be pardoned, even though inmates with longer sentences were more likely to be pardoned.
Sex Crimes Team:
Sentences for rape crimes have significantly increased since the 19th century. During the time of the Eastern State Penitentiary, there was great variance in the sentences for rape crimes, meaning that the sentences neither decreased nor increased throughout the 19th century. Meanwhile, the data from the modern era showed that sentences for rape crimes significantly increased from 1993 to 2016. Additionally, a new category of sex crimes emerged in the more recent data. In 2010, the data included a category of sexual assault crimes in addition to the rape crimes.
Race and Sentencing Team:
After cleaning our dataset containing information from three admissions books, we were able to run a statistical t-test in order to determine the statistical significance of ethnicity on sentence length. The results of our test showed that for several crimes there was a statistically significant difference in sentencing lengths between white people and people of color. Additionally, we calculated the average sentence length for biracial, black, and white inmates as well as the sentence length disparities for black and biracial inmates in relation to white inmate sentences. Overall, the data indicates that black and biracial inmates were statistically more likely to receive a longer sentence than white inmates for certain crimes.
Who We Are
We are undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania in Professor Whitney Trettien’s class Intro to Digital Humanities. Through the past weeks, we have been engaging with critical questions in the field of Digital Humanities, all while working remotely towards our own project on a number of projects relating to inmates and their experiences at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA.
Pardoning Data Team:
Claire Nguyen (History ’22), Junyoung Baik (History ’22), Viruj Menon (Physics and Economics ’20)
Sex Crimes Team:
Brittany Levy (Communication ’20), Jessica Lail (Systems Engineering ’21), Peter Solomon (Biology ’21)
Race and Sentencing Team:
Ethan Perelmuter (CIS ‘20), Saniyah Shaik (CIS ‘20), John Vitale (Communications ‘20)