{"id":22236,"date":"2021-04-09T13:07:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T20:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=22236"},"modified":"2023-08-24T16:22:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T23:22:27","slug":"philadelphia-has-a-long-history-of-fights-over-criminal-justice-reform","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/philadelphia-has-a-long-history-of-fights-over-criminal-justice-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Has a Long History of Fights Over Criminal Justice Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kristal Sotomayor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

In order to understand the rich history of criminal reform work, up through the vivid stories of crime and punishment presented in the docuseries <\/span>Philly D.A.<\/i><\/b>, it is important to recognize Philadelphia’s origin story, as it were. This is by no means meant to reflect the entirety of Philadelphia’s complex history around criminal justice, but think of it as a primer on pivotal moments that lead to where we are now.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, we’ll go way back<\/em> because these stories, too, are key touchstones in the Keystone State.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Political Activism Goes Way Back<\/b><\/p>\n

The <\/span>territory<\/span> currently known as Philadelphia is on the ancestral land of the Lenni-Lenape indigenous people. It is estimated that the Lenape people occupied the area for almost 10,000 years prior to European colonization. In <\/span>1681<\/span>, William Penn was granted a charter by King Charles II of England to colonize the land and form the colony of Pennsylvania. A year later, Penn arrived in what would become Philadelphia, and in 1683, the Lenape people signed their first treaty with the Quaker pacifist. <\/span><\/p>\n

Chet Brooks<\/span>, a member and historian of the Lenape tribe, referred to it as \u201cthe treaty that was never ratified, but never broken.<\/strong>\u201d While Penn kept to the commitments outlined in the treaty, his son, Thomas tricked the Lenape into giving away their land, and the tribe moved West in what became known as the Delaware Westward Trek. Most of the 15,000-20,000 Lenape people there did not survive the trek.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Painting:

The Treaty of Penn with the Indians 1681, Edward Hicks, c. 1840. (public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

William Penn coined the name Philadelphia, derived from the Greek meaning \u201cCity of Brotherly Love” <\/strong>(a phrase still synonymous with the city name). It was home to the <\/span>Quakers<\/span>, a Christian denomination who worked (in their words) \u201cactively to make this a better world.\u201d From the founding of the colony, there were tensions over slavery, particularly among the Quakers. In 1684, the slave-carrying ship <\/span>Isabella<\/span><\/i> arrived in Philadelphia with hundreds of enslaved African people. This lead to the <\/span>1688 Germantown Petition Against Slavery<\/span> which was \u201cdrafted by Francis Daniel Pastorius, a young German attorney and three other Quakers living in Germantown, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia) on behalf of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends,\u201d who saw that slavery seemed to clearly go against the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The petition is cited as the first protest against the enslavement of African people by a religious group in the colonies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Philadelphia and Abolition<\/b><\/p>\n

In the 1770s, Philadelphia became the center of the American Revolution as the site of the First and Second Continental Congresses as well as the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the writing of the U.S. Constitution. <\/span>While the American Revolution did not liberate enslaved Africans living in the U.S. colonies, Philadelphia has a deep history of abolition.<\/b> In 1775, Thomas Paine author of “<\/span>Common Sense<\/span>,” an essay advocating for American independence, penned the essay \u201c<\/span>African Slavery in America<\/span>,\u201d in which he called slavery an \u201coutrage against Humanity and Justice.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"1688

1688 Germantown petition against slavery, on parchment paper (from public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

A month after the essay, the <\/span>first American abolition society<\/span> was founded in Philadelphia and called The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, later renamed the equally lengthy but specific: Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage in 1784. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 1780, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the <\/span>Gradual Abolition Act<\/span> which was the \u201cfirst extensive abolition legislation in the western hemisphere. The act gradually emancipated enslaved people without making slavery immediately illegal.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Notably, members of the U.S. Congress, with headquarters in Philadelphia, were exempt from this edict. <\/span><\/p>\n

While these steps did not end slavery, the impact of the abolitionist movement in Philadelphia has marked the city\u2019s history.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the 1800s, Philadelphia became central to the Underground Railroad which helped free enslaved African people. <\/b>With a large free Black community, the city aided fugitive slaves and founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC), which was the first independent Black denomination of the Episcopal Church. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the <\/span>AMEC website<\/span>, the church \u201cgrew out of the Free African Society (FAS) which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787.\u201d The <\/span>Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church<\/span>, located at 6th and Lombard Streets, \u201cstands on the oldest parcel of land continuously owned by African Americans in the United States.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mother

Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia (Wikimedia Creative Commons photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

With support from allies, other anti-slavery organizations formed in Philadelphia throughout the 1800s. In fact, the name of the famous \u201cLiberty Bell\u201d was given by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison from the poem The Liberty Bell<\/em> in 1844, which\u00a0his publication The Liberator<\/em> reprinted from a Boston abolitionist pamphlet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The line \u201c<\/span>Ring it, til the slave be free<\/b>\u201d was adopted by abolitionists as a symbol of freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania System & Eastern State Penitentiary<\/b><\/p>\n

Criminal justice in the colony was a stark contrast to England where death was the typical punishment. In the 1680s, William Penn brought his Quaker beliefs into the foundations of Philadelphia law and order. According to <\/span>The Smithsonian Magazine<\/span><\/i>, \u201cPenn relied on imprisonment with hard labor and fines as the treatment for most crimes, while death remained the penalty only for murder.\u201d When Penn passed away in 1718, the Quaker system of criminal punishment was replaced with \u201cjails simply [as] detention centers for prisoners as they awaited some form of corporal or capital punishment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Walnut

Walnut Street Prison, Pennsylvania Historical Marker, Philadelphia (October 2014). Photo: Morris Levin; Creative Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr. Benjamin Rush<\/strong>, an abolitionist and the “father of American psychiatry,” was concerned with the overcrowding of the Walnut Street Jail, situated directly behind Independence Hall. Rush, who had the ear of Benjamin Franklin and other contemporaries, developed the \u201cPennsylvania System\u201d and the institution of the penitentiary. He believed that the \u201cmoral disease\u201d of crime could only be treated when \u201cprisoners could meditate on their crimes, experience spiritual remorse and undergo rehabilitation.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

These ideas resulted in changes to the operation of the Walnut Street Jail including separating incarcerated people by sex and crime, the installment of vocational workshops, and the abolition of abusive behavior within the prisons. The Pennsylvania System reformed the criminal punishment of the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1822, construction began on the <\/span>Eastern State Penitentiary<\/span> in response to overcrowding in the Walnut Street Jail. The technologically innovative design of the penitentiary was created by John Haviland, a British architect. The Eastern State Penitentiary was constructed with \u201cseven wings of individual cell blocks radiating from a central hub.\u201d It opened in 1829 and had, according to <\/span>Smithsonian<\/span><\/i> magazine, \u201ccentral heating, flush toilets, and shower baths in each private cell, the penitentiary boasted luxuries that not even President Andrew Jackson could enjoy at the White House.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first inmate at the penitentiary was farmer Charles Williams, sentenced to two years for theft. In order to protect the anonymity of the inmate, an integral part of the rehabilitation and reintegration process, Williams was escorted to the prison with a hood covering his face. In addition, the inability to see the prison ensured that it would be impossible to escape because Williams could not see the prison beyond his cell. <\/span><\/p>\n

As an inmate, the only interactions with guards were conducted through a small hole used for feeding. Inmates were expected to live in complete isolation and were only allowed a Bible as personal possession with chores to fill their time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The isolation and heavy monitoring of the Pennsylvania System would prove to be inhumane and unattainable with the technology of the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eastern State Penitentiary stopped using the Pennsylvania System in 1913. Instead, they began to embrace shared cells and allowed inmates to work together and play sports. The penitentiary held approximately 75,000 people over the years of operation including <\/span>notable inmates<\/span> like bankrobber \u201cSlick Willie” Sutton and gangster Al “Scarface” Capone. After 142 years of operation, the penitentiary was closed by the state of Pennsylvania in 1971.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Al

Al Capone’s cell at Eastern State Penitentiary, 2007 photo. (Creative Commons image; 2007)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Wild 20th Century\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The 20th century was marked by a period of corruption within the Philadelphia governmental system such as mismanagement of funds and political favoritism. The impact of the scandals and allegations of fraud led to a wave of strict, law-and-order government officials in the D.A. and mayoral offices.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1951, however, progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Richardson Dilworth<\/strong>, once of Pittsburgh, was elected. Dilworth advanced civil rights by hiring Black lawyers and assigning them major cases. In addition, <\/span>Philly Mag<\/span><\/i> reports, \u201cwhen a racist Common Pleas judge complained about having to hear arguments from Blacks, Dilworth made sure to pack that judge\u2019s courtroom with his best Black assistant district attorneys.<\/span><\/p>\n

“His private law firm was the first major firm in the city to have a Jewish partner. And he hired the brilliant Black lawyer William T. Coleman<\/strong>, who had clerked for two Supreme Court justices but couldn\u2019t land an interview at any other Philly firm.” <\/span><\/p>\n

During his time as D.A., the city developed the planning department, a housing department, and the Redevelopment Authority. His work included the strengthening of city planning to support the needs of the residents. In the 1970s, Coleman became Gerald Ford’s Secretary of Transportation and would later be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the number of racial barriers he broke along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/independentlens\/status\/1383465278235836416?s=21<\/p>\n

Columbia Avenue Riot<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 1960s, the United States was in the throes of the Civil Rights Movement, an era marked by reckoning for racial equality and the rise of the Black Power movement. Throughout the country, there were protests and demonstrations to disrupt segregation and inequality. In late August of 1964, Philadelphia experienced one of the first \u201crace riots\u201d of the Civil Rights era.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Philadelphia race riot<\/span>, also known as the Columbia Avenue Riot<\/strong>, began on August 28 when Odessa Bradford, a Black woman, was stuck in her stalled car at 23rd Street and Columbia Avenue. Bradford refused to exit her immobile vehicle and got in an argument with two police officers\u2014one Black and one white. In the end, Bradford was forcibly removed from her vehicle, and a bystander who tried to stop the police was arrested. This incident led to rumors being spread about a pregnant Black woman being murdered by white police offices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local news report, Philadelphia 1964:<\/em><\/p>\n