Facts - Fascinating Facts about America’s First Mega-Prison

Eastern State Penitentiary, or ESP, in Philadelphia, was America’s first large-scale penitentiary. The country had built jails before, of course. Jails of various kinds have long predated the United States, too. But never before was a mega-prison built on the scale the state of Pennsylvania used when they first constructed it in the late 18th century. In many ways, the penitentiary became the blueprint for the modern mega-prisons that dot the United States landscape today.