A Visit to Philadelphia- 250 Years of Independence

Our Memorial Day trip this year was to Philadelphia. A visit to the city was part of our f*ck it list, our name for the list of things we want to do and places we want to see in the US before we move abroad – eventually. We arrived to grey skies and temperatures in the low 60s, a far cry from the 95-degree days the beginning of the week in the city provided. After a red eye, we were groggy, eyes heavy, but excited to see the city.

The history of Independence Hall and other prominent spots around the city beckoned. To learn more about the details surrounding the formation of our government intrigued us. Reminders of what we’d learned in school, but also how far we as a country had regressed in the past ten years. Stories of courageous black former slaves had been ordered removed from the walls of the National Historic Site by the government. In its place were laminated articles and reminders of what had been removed by citizens, a meaningful protest in its own.

After our visit, we agreed that any trip to the city would be incomplete without a long stop at Eastern State Penitentiary, the country’s first prison. Originally an experiment in isolationism, inmates were hooded and separated from one another, punished for attempting so much as conversation. We listened to Steve Buscemi’s voice tell the story of the site through the years as we took in the rubble that remained of the cells, the long hallways of the double and triple story barracks. In winter, the inmates must have frozen, the concrete walls unable to shield from the drafts and the chills.

The visit concludes with an exhibit on the prison system in the country and how it’s changed throughout the years. Within the last decade, the US housed the largest number of prisoners per capita with over 600 per 100,000. That number has since dropped slightly and a couple of smaller countries have overtaken America for the dubious first place position. We entered a small room with a long corridor. To our right, ran a video, a timeline of clips from political speeches detailing the implementation of the laws which led to the steep increase of prisoners in the US system, then the turn to those same politicians realizing the impact of their decisions, and expressing remorse for the laws they’d voted into place. We traveled through an interactive visit which challenged us all to examine the luck, circumstance, and privilege involved in becoming incarcerated, or avoiding it. Normalizing that even though uncaught, most of us have likely broken the law in some way, and the Adverse Childhood Experiences that so closely parallel life in the system. The exhibit challenges visitors to look at what we assume the functions of prisons are (deterrence) vs what they actually do (societal removal), the high rates of return to the system (45% of Pennsylvania’s released prisoners return within three years) due to the inability to help the recently incarcerated get jobs or structures to get back on their feet.

Finally, the visit compares our system to other countries, the impact of investing the money that goes into prisons into communities or education, and what activists are doing to make change.  

I’ve often wondered about the correlation of drug use, homelessness and the criminal justice system. Philadelphia’s homeless and drug issue seemed to mirror Seattle’s, and I’m disheartened at how we as a society can simply walk through those struggling around us, acting as though they don’t exist. Our cities feel less safe because the investment and commitment to treatment, recovery and reassimilation through jobs is lacking. I don’t have the answers as I don’t know all that goes into it, but what is happening now, ignoring until a crime is committed, then locking people up, doesn’t seem to be effective. If only the investment could come earlier, could be more effective and targeted, if only we learned from the struggles of our current systems and made things better, could we change lives, communities, cities, and our nation for the better.

It's difficult to juxtapose an experience like Eastern State with the privileges of getting to travel to a new place. We enjoyed delicious food, impressive art museums, met up with some new friends. We’re grateful for the privileges that have given us our opportunities to travel, learn, and grow. All we can do is go back and apply the learning to our jobs as educators and try to be part of the solution.