Auburn Penitentiary: Silent and Congregate Correctional Facility

Auburn Penitentiary: Silent and Congregate Correctional Facility

Throughout the nineteenth century, penology was characterized by a debate between two 'schools'. The first was the system of "solitary" and "segregation" proposed by the Pennsylvania penitentiary. The second, that of which will be discussed in this paper, the "silent" and "congregate" system was designed for the Auburn penitentiary in New York State.

The Auburn State Prison was built in 1816, occupied in 1821 and soon after became the model for succeeding American prisons. Quaker thinking, in that "repentance for one's wrongs was best attained through private contemplation, which was facilitated by the penitentiary concept", influenced the Auburn prison. (Carney, 1977: 7)

In the beginning, the idea of total solitary confinement of prisoners was introduced and based on a belief that criminal habits were learned from and reinforced by other criminals. However, after prisoners had several suicide attempts and mental breakdowns, the decision was made to substitute an alternative system known as the 'silent' or 'congregate' system. Under the Auburn "silent" system, inmates were kept in separate cells at night and required to maintain complete silence while during the day, they worked in communal shops with emphasis placed on convict labour. Although meals were communal, consisting of meat and vegetables, and religious instruction on Sunday was given to the convicts in a group, there was an absolute prohibition of any conversation. Prisoners were not to communicate with each other except by permission of the keepers. "The strictness with which these rules have been enforced is such…that among thirty or forty working together for years, in the same shop, no tw...

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