Bergen County Sheriff's Youth Leadership Academy

Effective immediately, ALL Cadets MUST follow this procedure for checking in. You MUST check in a minimum of one time per week, on Sunday. You MUST also check in for any MEETINGS, TRIPS, EVENTS, ETC. at least TWO weeks in advance of the scheduled date. This is to ensure the proper amount of law enforcement personnel is assigned and to ensure that logistics, like buses, other transportation, etc. is properly accounted for. It should be understood that all classes and trips are mandatory unless it effects your schoolwork or a family obligation. With this in mind, please understand that you have a commitment to this program. Three or more consecutive absences will be reviewed, on a case by case basis, for the Cadets removal from the program.

We are less than a week away from our rafting trip and ONLY 18 out of 41 Cadets have responded as to if they will be attending or not. This is unacceptable.

*+*IMPORTANT**+ IF YOU HAVE NOT RESPONDED ON TEAMPAGES AND CHECKED OFF ATTENDING OR NOT ATTENDING YOU MUST DO SO WITHIN 24 HOURS.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation with this procedure.

Our Rafting trip will be held on Tuesday July 19th

Bus leaving promptly at 7:45 am from Courthouse parking lot, we will be returning approximately at 6pm.

The rafting trip lasts approximately 3 to 4 hours, based upon wind conditions and water levels. The actual distance from start to finish is 5-6 miles. Most of the river is on average 2 to 4 feet deep in our rafting stretch. Depths do vary and some spots can be as deep as 6-8 feet deep. The water’s current is calm and the average water temperature averages in the high 70’s – mid 80’s.
Every river rental includes an EXCLUSIVE; FREE BBQ MEAL at “The Famous River Hot Dog Man” This meal includes hotdogs, soda and a snack. If you prefer something different feel free to bring your lunch.

Some things to bring:
Water Shoes (No flip flops or open toed footwear is permitted – $12 at our on-site River Store)

Location of Rafting site…..
2998 Daniel Bray Highway (Route 29)
Frenchtown, NJ 08825

Great trip on Saturday and well deserved. A special thanks to Sheriff’s Officer Rob Alexander for getting us to and from our destination. Below a little history on Eastern State Penitentiary. Also check our photo section for some new pics.

Designed by John Haviland and opened on October 25, 1829, Eastern State is considered to be the world’s first true penitentiary, despite the fact that the Walnut Street Jail, which opened in 1776, was called a “penitentiary” as early as 1790 . The word “penitentiary” derives from the word “penitence.” Eastern State’s revolutionary system of incarceration, dubbed the “Pennsylvania System” or Separate system, encouraged separate confinement (the warden was legally required to visit every inmate every day, and the overseers were mandated to see each inmate three times a day) as a form of rehabilitation.

The Pennsylvania System was opposed contemporaneously by the Auburn System (also known as the New York System), which held that prisoners should be forced to work together in silence, and could be subjected to physical punishment (Sing Sing prison was an example of the Auburn system). Although the Auburn system was favored in the United States, Eastern State’s radial floor plan and system of solitary confinement was the model for over 300 prisons worldwide.

Originally, inmates were housed in cells that could only be accessed by entering through a small exercise yard attached to the back of the prison; only a small portal, just large enough to pass meals, opened onto the cell blocks. This design proved impractical, and in the middle of construction, cells were constructed that allowed prisoners to enter and leave the cell blocks through metal doors that were covered by a heavy wooden door to filter out noise. The halls were designed to have the feel of a church. Some believe that the doors were small so prisoners would have a harder time getting out, minimizing an attack on a security guard. Others have explained the small doors forced the prisoners to bow while entering their cell. This design is related to penance and ties to the religious inspiration of the prison. The cells were made of concrete with a single glass skylight, representing the “Eye of God”, hinting to the prisoners that God was always watching them. Outside the cell, there was an individual area for exercise, enclosed by high walls so prisoners couldn’t communicate. Each exercise time for each prisoner was synchronized so no two prisoners would be out at the same time. Prisoners were allowed to garden and even keep pets in their exercise yards. When prisoners left the cell, a guard would accompany them and wrap them in a hood.⁶

The original design of the building was for seven one-story cell blocks, but by the time cell block three was completed, it was already over capacity. From then on, all the other cell blocks were two floors. Toward the end, cell blocks 14 and 15 were hastily built due to overcrowding. They were built and designed by prisoners. Cell block 15 was for the worst prisoners, and the guards were gated off.

A typical cell.
The system eventually collapsed due to overcrowding problems. By 1913, Eastern State officially abandoned the solitary system and operated as a congregate prison until it closed in 1970 (Eastern State was briefly used to house city inmates in 1971 after a riot at Holmesburg Prison).

Al Capone’s cell.
The prison was one of the largest public-works projects of the early republic, and was a tourist destination in the 19th century. Notable visitors included Charles Dickens and Alexis de Tocqueville while notable inmates included Willie Sutton and Al Capone. Visitors spoke with prisoners in their cells, proving that inmates were not isolated, though the prisoners themselves were not allowed to have any visits with family or friends during their stay.

The Penitentiary was intended not simply to punish, but to move the criminal toward spiritual reflection and change. While some have argued that the Pennsylvania System was Quaker-inspired, there is little evidence to support this; the organization that promoted Eastern State’s creation, the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (today’s Pennsylvania Prison Society) was in fact less than half Quaker, and was led for nearly fifty years by Philadelphia’s Anglican bishop, William White. Proponents of the system believed strongly that the criminals, exposed, in silence, to thoughts of their behavior and the ugliness of their crimes, would become genuinely penitent. In reality, the guards and councilors of the facility designed a variety of physical and psychological torture regimens for various infractions, including dousing prisoners in freezing water outside during winter months, chaining their tongues to their wrists in a fashion such that struggling against the chains could cause the tongue to tear, strapping prisoners into chairs with tight leather restraints for days on end, and putting them into a pit called “The Hole” dug under cellblock 14 where they would have no light, no human contact, and little food for as long as two weeks.

In 1924, Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot allegedly sentenced Pep “The Cat-Murdering Dog” (an actual dog) to a life sentence at Eastern State. Pep allegedly murdered the governor’s wife’s cherished cat. Prison records reflect that Pep was assigned an inmate number (no. C2559), which is seen in his mug shot. However, the reason for Pep’s incarceration remains a subject of some debate. A newspaper article reported that the governor donated his own dog to the prison to increase inmate morale.¹

On April 3, 1945, a major prison escape was carried out by twelve inmates (including the infamous Willie Sutton) who over the course of a year managed to dig an undiscovered 97-foot (30 m) tunnel under the prison wall to freedom. During renovations in the 1930s an additional 30 incomplete inmate-dug tunnels were also discovered.

It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.³⁷

The prison was closed and abandoned in 1971. Many prisoners and guards were transferred to Graterford Prison, about 31 miles (50 km) northwest of Eastern State. The City of Philadelphia purchased the property with the intention of redeveloping it. The site had several proposals, including a mall, and a luxury apartment complex surrounded by the old prison walls

During the abandoned era (from closing until the late 80s) a “forest” grew in the cell blocks and outside within the walls. The prison also became home to many stray cats.

In 1988, the Eastern State Penitentiary Task Force successfully petitioned Mayor Wilson Goode to halt redevelopment

Male and Female soldiers and nurses

T-shirts
Razors
Q-tips
Deodorant (male and Female)
Shaving Gel
Toothpaste
Toothbrushes
Tissues
Body and Hand wipes
Hand sanitizer
Batteries
Body Wash
Gum
Flip Flops
Cards (birthday, thank you, get-well, sympathy ext)
Dart Boards-darts
X-box games, cards
Headlamps for reading
Magazines: sports, cars, hunting, (no porn or maxim)
Hoppe’s cleaning solvent/bore snakes
Beef Jerky
Slim Jims
Twizzlers
AXE deo and body wash and shampoo
lip balm
Granola and Protein bars
Blue Gatorade pwder mix
Gatorade protein shakes (?)

As a reminder, EVERY Cadet MUST submit in writing a detailed plan of action for a leadership project. This project can be for anything that is important to the Cadet personally. It is to be submitted by June 11, 2011 the latest. NO CADET IS EXEMPT FROM THIS TASK. It can be a fundraiser, community event, etc. Attached is a copy of a simple project that a kid from Westwood recently completed. He personally contacted all the schools in the Westwood/Twp district and arranged a sports equipment drive. He also personally made an arrangement with a company that takes these types of donations and submits them to organizations that are in need. This is the type of initiative that we are looking for when you complete this project. I will make myself personally available at 1730 hours on May 25th (before our next meeting) to discuss any questions you may have regarding your ideas. Once again, your proposal is due NO LATER than June 11th for approval by the Instructors of this program. You MUST submit your proposal with your name, rank, telephone number and email address written on all the paperwork. You will be emailed with an approval or disapproval shortly thereafter.