. Prisoners worked together in total silence during the day, but were housed separately at night. Strict discipline was enforced, and violators were subject to severe reprisals. The second model, the Pennsylvania system, begun in 1829 in the Eastern State Penitentiary at Cherry Hill, was based on solitary confinement for convicts by day and night. There was a lot of debate about the two systems. People who favored the Pennsylvania model focused on its hope of rehabilitation, the theory being that a felon alone in a cell with only a Bible to read would become penitent. This is where the term penitentiary came from. The Auburn system was criticized as being virtual slavery, because prisoners were often put to work for private entrepreneurs who had contracted with the state for their labor. Prisoners of the system were never paid leaving a good profit for the business owners and the state. People who believed in the Auburn system said that the idleness of the prisoners in the Cherry Hill penitentiary sometimes caused madness. The activity of the prisoners and the profits from their labor meant the state didn't have to finance the prison. Most states adopted the Auburn approach. European countries adopted the Pennsylvania model. Private business had always been opposed to the industrial Auburn model prison. They considered the unpaid prison labor unfair competition. Early trade unions challenged the idea. As the labor influence grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, dramatic changes occurred. By the 1920's labor and humanitarian critics achieved their goal of severely restricting prison labor. The United States Congress enacted the Hawes-Cooper Act(1929), which deprived prison-made goods of the protection afforded by the Interstate Commerce Act and made such goods subject to state punitive laws. During the depression of the 1930's Congress completed the task by prohibiting transport ...
