The Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania opened in 1829, the outcome of decades of campaigning for a humane alternative to early American prisons. Between 1829 and the prison's closure in 1971, Eastern State gained fame (and infamy) around the world: Alexis de Tocqueville and Charles Dickens both wrote of this prison, and Al Capone was perhaps its most well-known resident. On this website, run by the Eastern State Penitentiary (now a historical site), visitors can learn more about the prison's complex history and the evolving nature of the American carceral system. In the Learn section of this website, visitors will find a 571-page history of the prison (authored by the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Historical Society, and the Eastern State Penitentiary Task Force of the Preservation Coalition of Greater Philadelphia); resources for conducting further research, and three lesson plans. Meanwhile, in the Explore section, visitors can take an online tour of the prison, which was originally constructed in service to the "Philadelphia System" of solitary confinement, which nineteenth century prison reformers believed fostered repentance.