Appendix No. 10: Inquiry into the Philadelphia Penitentiary

Tocqueville includes his notes from interviewing forty-five inmates of the Cherry Hill Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA in October, 1831. The prison utilized the disciplinary method of solitary confinement in private cells with labor. Tocqueville asks prisoners how they felt about solitary confinement and the labor assigned to them, how often they interacted with guards or chaplains, what occupied them during the day, and their opinions on religion. He took careful notes on the race and nationality of the prisoner, crime they were convicted of, number of days they had been in the penitentiary, age, level of education, their families, and state of health. If the prisoner was a recidivist, Tocqueville noted their comparisons of the Walnut Street prison and Cherry Hill penitentiary.