Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
Kitchen
Prison food. The phrase says it all. But in fact prison administrators worked hard in the early decades to provide inmates with unusually nutritious meals. The original system of strict isolation made no exception for mealtimes, however, and inmates ate alone in their cells.
Things changed in later years. This kitchen was built in 1903, and, beginning in 1924, inmates ate together in makeshift dining halls.
Prisons Today
The average cost of feeding an inmate in the United States is now about $1.45 per meal.
Some prison food is intentionally bad. The old "bread and water" punishment diets have been replaced with a food called "nutraloaf."
[Captions:]
An inmate removes bread from the penitentiary ovens while a guard looks on. Photo from Warden Cassidy on Prisons and Convicts, 1897, collection of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site. Top right: The penitentiary dining halls, first used in 1924, were built inside the walls of old exercise yards. Here they are decorated for Christmas dinner, c. 1950. Photo: collection of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, gift of Jack Flynn. Bottom right: The dining halls today, as photographed by Mark Perrott for his book Hope Abandoned.
Top: A kosher meal, pre-heating,
this page online
Bottom: An inmate cook prepares hot dogs for lunch. Fishkill Correctional Facility in New York, 2010. Photo: Jennifer May.
Erected by Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Anthropology & Archaeology • Law Enforcement. A significant historical year for this entry is 1903.
Location. 39° 58.149′ N, 75° 10.374′ W. Marker is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia County. It is in Eastern State Penitentiary. It can be reached from Fairmount Avenue west of Corinthian Avenue, on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 2027 Fairmount Ave, Philadelphia PA 19130, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Southeast Pennsylvania. It is also in the American Northeast and in the Mid-Atlantic. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, New Netherland, and one of the original Thirteen Colonies.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Solitary Exercise Yard (within shouting distance of this marker); Sports at ESP (within shouting distance of this marker); Eastern State in Ruin (within shouting distance of this marker); The Big Graph (within shouting distance of this marker); The United States no longer has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. (within shouting distance of this marker); Morgue (within shouting distance of this marker); A Prison Calisthenic Class (within shouting distance of this marker); Incinerator (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Philadelphia.
Another marker is no longer nearby. 2020 Rate of Incarceration (was within shouting distance of this marker but has been replaced with another marker now near it).
Credits. This page was last revised on February 2, 2023. It was originally submitted on March 26, 2022, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 291 times since then and 26 times this year. Photo 1. submitted on March 26, 2022, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.
