{"id":25509,"date":"2025-11-05T12:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/25509\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T12:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:40:10","slug":"what-caused-western-state-penitentiary-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/25509\/","title":{"rendered":"What caused Western State Penitentiary to close?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is the second in a series about Western Penitentiary\u2019s history and impending demolition. Read the first installment here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After serving as a global model for two decades, there was little room for Western State Penitentiary to do anything but decline. The system would crumble as the one thing holding it up came under fire.<\/p>\n

According to Doug MacGregor, the author of \u201cWestern State Penitentiary\/SCI Pittsburgh: A History,\u201d local business owners had complained about prison labor since its inception, as a prison\u2019s lack of labor costs allowed them to undercut their competition. Legislators often put them down, saying prison labor was crucial to the continued funding of prisons.<\/p>\n

But, in true Pittsburgh fashion, steel brought new opportunities. Braddock\u2019s Edgar Thomson Steel Works opened in 1875<\/a>. Close behind came the rise of unions.<\/p>\n

Once politicians began to see how massive a voting bloc unions created, they were eager to get a piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the unions wanted was \u2018get rid of prison labor,\u2019\u201d MacGregor says.<\/p>\n

In June 1897, Act 141 \u2014 \u201cThe Muehlbronner Act\u201d \u2014 was signed into law. Created by Allegheny County Rep. Charles Muehlbronner, it eliminated the use of machinery for prison labor and limited the number of inmates who could work.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that point onward, prisons are no longer going to pay for themselves, and they\u2019re going to be a massive burden,\u201d MacGregor says.<\/p>\n

While county building projects afforded work to some inmates, less than 10% were involved in labor by 1922, according to MacGregor\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

The loss of income limited funding for good food and building repairs. Simultaneously, prisoners were left locked in their cells with nothing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, they give them less and less liberties, so it\u2019s like you\u2019re building a pressure bomb until something explodes,\u201d MacGregor says.<\/p>\n

Riots over the prison\u2019s poor conditions literally flared up in 1921 and 1924; Western Pen\u2019s interior was left in shambles and on fire after both events.<\/p>\n

Some pressure was alleviated when Pennsylvania\u2019s license plate factory moved to the site in 1925. But Western Pen was a shell of its former self.<\/p>\n

To close or not to close<\/p>\n

The ongoing chaos did not leave a positive impression on Pittsburghers and Pennsylvania leaders. Many wanted Western Pen gone.<\/p>\n

In 1956, developers interested in what\u2019s now the Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood wanted the penitentiary demolished \u2014 it was a blight to the locality. The prison remained open, but shortly after, the Department of Corrections tried to assuage similar concerns through rebranding.<\/p>\n

Western Pen was renamed State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh \u2014 colloquially known as SCI Pittsburgh \u2014 on Nov. 24, 1959. Terms like \u201cwarden\u201d and \u201cguard\u201d were swapped for \u201csuperintendent\u201d and \u201ccorrectional officer,\u201d MacGregor adds.<\/p>\n

But the calls for closure wouldn\u2019t cease.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\u201cKeep out\u201d signs posted at the northern entrance of Western State Penitentiary. The prison closed for the final time in June 2017. Photo by Roman Hladio.<\/p>\n

In 1961, State Attorney General Anne Alpern called for the site\u2019s abandonment following escape attempts at Philadelphia\u2019s Eastern State Penitentiary. About a decade later, in 1973, then-Gov. Milton Shapp revived the debate, claiming that SCI Pittsburgh\u2019s \u201cancient architecture\u201d aided in prison escapes.<\/p>\n

Both situations spurred investigations of the site, but they ended the same: State officials forwent demolition for site improvements or expansions. The latter attempt led to the construction of the so-called \u201cA\u201d and \u201cB\u201d blocks, which were essentially floors of cell pods with shared living spaces not dissimilar to some dormitory designs, MacGregor says. They were a major improvement over narrow stone cells.<\/p>\n

While Pennsylvanians debated whether the prison should exist, inmates \u201cwere suing left and right,\u201d MacGregor says.<\/p>\n

The lawsuits served as an indictment of the conditions at SCI Pittsburgh, which worsened throughout the 1960s and 1970s. One suit from the 1970s won inmates the right to two hours of exercise a day \u2014 until then, they were receiving one hour or less.<\/p>\n

In the 70-some years since the Muehlbronner Act, inmates had little to do aside from sit in their cells while the prison deteriorated around them.<\/p>\n

Robert Faruq Wideman landed in Western Pen in 1976. He was sentenced to life after serving as an accomplice in a robbery-turned-murder the year prior, though he\u2019s arguably better known for his part in the 1984 memoir \u201cBrothers and Keepers,\u201d by John Edgar Wideman \u2014 his brother \u2014 or the historic commutation of his sentence in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wideman calls the prison during this period \u201cwild.\u201d Drugs and gambling were king, fights occurred often, and inmates often had the run of the place while guards opted to linger by desks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor about the first 10 years, I was pretty wild,\u201d Wideman says. \u201cWe were trying to get out of there any way we could, and we were still wild into the drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racism, he adds, ran the prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were guards that \u2026 just wanted to start trouble, just grab people up because they didn\u2019t like them,\u201d Wideman says. \u201cThey started more trouble than a lot of the inmates. Racism, hatred \u2014 we were prisoners, we were murderers and people that did robberies. So they didn\u2019t like us, and, at that time, when we were young, we didn\u2019t like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"During riots, inmates would throw furniture from the upper levels of Western Pen, smashing it on the first floor. This photo was taken after one such riot in 1953. Photo courtesy of Doug MacGregor.<\/p>\n

With the prison already lacking funding, the ongoing lawsuits exacerbated its issues, MacGregor says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese prisons are doing whatever they can to cut corners,\u201d MacGregor says. \u201cThey\u2019re cutting food here, they\u2019re cutting things there, and finally \u2026 there are many, many riots, escape attempts, several times where guards are attacked and killed, taken hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be until after one such riot in 1987 that a lawsuit over the appalling state of the prison would be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge forced a number of changes on the prison, which the prison just couldn\u2019t comply with,\u201d MacGregor says. \u201cThey tried as much as they could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pre-mortem surge<\/p>\n

Closure seemed imminent, yet SCI Pittsburgh would remain open for three more decades.<\/p>\n

Its \u201csaving grace,\u201d so to speak, was something much darker than eleventh-hour state funding: Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, the United States entered an era of mass incarceration.<\/p>\n

Following the Civil Rights Movement, politicians began to promote \u201claw and order\u201d messaging, according to the Vera Institute of Justice<\/a>, and the national prison population would grow by about 400% between 1970 and 2000 due, in part, to harsher drug laws and longer sentencing.<\/p>\n

Black Pittsburghers were already being arrested at a disproportionate rate throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to a 2018 Allegheny County Department of Human Services report<\/a>, three times more Black people than white people were arrested for \u201cless serious crimes\u201d \u2014 like simple assault, vandalism, drug violations or drunkenness, among others \u2014 between 2001 and 2015.<\/p>\n

That rose to five times more Black people than white people for more serious offenses.<\/p>\n

From inside SCI Pittsburgh, the story was different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more racist in the \u201970s,\u201d Wideman says. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go away in the \u201980s, \u201990s and 2000s, but it wasn\u2019t as blatant as it was in the \u201970s \u2014 just like in America. People began to look at each other in a different way after the Civil Rights Era.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Robert Wideman having dinner at Tana\u2019s Ethiopian Cuisine. Photo by Tony Norman.<\/p>\n

For example, Wideman recalls the so-called \u201cChow Hall\u201d having two food lines, each with its own seating area. It wasn\u2019t segregated, but throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, inmates instinctively separated themselves by race.<\/p>\n

In any case, the surge of arrests led the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to build more correctional institutions in Mercer, Fayette and Greene counties.<\/p>\n

Amid the growth, state leaders still deemed SCI Pittsburgh archaic. In 2005, word came that the prison\u2019s oldest sections would be closed. Its newest blocks would temporarily be used for inmate intake and would eventually follow suit.<\/p>\n

But in 2007 \u2014 two years later \u2014 they rescinded the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inmate population just kept going crazy,\u201d MacGregor says. \u201cIt started with just 70 guys in A and B blocks to, within three years, almost 2,000 guys again. We\u2019re going to open up all the old blocks, so we\u2019re running full tilt again.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCI Pittsburgh was meant to be open for only three to five more years. It persisted for 10.<\/p>\n

The final superintendent<\/p>\n

During that period, MacGregor worked alongside Superintendent Mark Capozza, who started in October 2012 and would go down as the last superintendent in SCI Pittsburgh history.<\/p>\n

Even though the circumstances of the prison\u2019s continued operations were dire, Capozza calls it the best prison he\u2019s worked at in his 40-year career at correctional facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss the place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

After SCI Pittsburgh \u201cclosed\u201d in 2005, inmates who had been serving life sentences there were sent to correctional institutions in Mercer, Greene or Fayette counties. When the Pittsburgh facility reopened, many of those so-called \u201clifers\u201d were allowed to return so that they could be in a familiar place and closer to their families.<\/p>\n

Once it was up and running, the Department of Corrections realized it could make further use of the site\u2019s fully operational hospital facilities, which were equipped with units for chemotherapy, mental health crises and special needs and behavioral issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you had that core group of 40, 50 [life sentence] inmates that were the stabilizing force,\u201d Capozza says. \u201cThen you had your extreme behavioral challenges that were there, medical challenges, the mental health unit, and then you had the rest of the inmates, which was by far the bulk of our population [and they] were doing short sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"One light bulb remains visible in one of Western State Penitentiary\u2019s northern towers. While the site had been used for filming earlier this year, no crews were present on Tuesday, Oct. 28 \u2014 the date the photo was taken. Photo by Roman Hladio.<\/p>\n

SCI Pittsburgh employees were also called upon to watch over inmates from rural correctional facilities who had been sent to Pittsburgh hospitals. Guards from an inmate\u2019s respective prison would drive them to local medical facilities, where local officers would take over.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be times where there were 10 inmates at outside hospitals, and we\u2019d have two staff on every one of those inmates,\u201d Capozza says.<\/p>\n

Wideman, likewise, has positive memories of that stretch.<\/p>\n

Capozza and his predecessor, Bill Stickman, \u201cwere people who didn\u2019t just dislike inmates because they were inmates,\u201d he says. \u201cThey treated you more like a person as long as you gave them that treatment back.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Jan. 26, 2017, Department of Corrections Commissioner John Wetzel announced the penitentiary\u2019s closure<\/a>, WHYY reports, praising the site\u2019s potential for repurposing. To Capozza, SCI Pittsburgh\u2019s 2017 closure was surprising, since its operations were unique compared to other local prisons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last inmate left on May 19, 2017, and soon after, the site was turned over to the Pennsylvania Department of General Services.<\/p>\n

Since then, it\u2019s sat vacant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article is the second in a series about Western Penitentiary\u2019s history and impending demolition. Read the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9608,73,75,9609,74],"class_list":["post-25509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pennsylvania-prisons","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-history","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}