The Penitentiary is an American invention.

In 1833, construction was completed on the first penitentiary in Illinois, located in the

riverfront town of Alton.

There was no building like it in the entire state, and while only two others anywhere

in the United States.

For its construction, Illinois lawbreakers were punished with fines, flogging, public

shaming, and short stints and jails from which escape was simple.

List didn't do much to turn felons from their lawless ways.

While Alton was still struggling to turn from a small settlement into a thriving river

community, the Quakers in Pennsylvania were busy searching for a way to force criminals

to become penitent for the crimes they committed.

The term penitentiary was born and they created a place where they wanted outlaws to seek

forgiveness for the wrongs they'd done.

Eastern state penitentiary was built in Philadelphia in 1829 to further the Quakers idea of prisoner

isolation as a form of punishment.

Brizzards were confined in windowless rooms with running water and toilets, and they would

interact with no one during their entire sentence.

This extreme isolation caused many of the prisoners to go insane.

It was costly, dangerous, and led to high rates of suicide, so in 1829, a rival system

was also created, and it gained wider acceptance.

This penitentiary was built in Auburn, New York, and here prisoners worked all day at

hard labor and were isolated at night, just as they were at Easter's day.

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