"As #prisons go, #EasternStatePenitentiary in #Philadelphia was unusually luxurious. For one, it had flush toilets — beating out even the #WhiteHouse in making the upgrade, #museum exhibit developer #BethTinker told me on a recent tour.

But if plumbing reflected the #penitentiary’s commitment to #prisoners’ physical well-being, its biggest innovation was more spiritual. Eastern State housed the first #synagogue inside a #US #prison, complete with a #Torah #ark and #nertamid, or eternal light. That restored sanctuary — a short walk from gangster #AlCapone’s former cell — is now newly open to the public in a museum exhibit, Freedom through Faith: #Judaism at #EasternState and Beyond.

“It’s a place really of humanity, when you’re not getting a lot of humanity in this space,” Tinker said.

The synagogue, founded in 1922, hosted holiday celebrations and weekly #Shabbat services."

https://forward.com/culture/838196/eastern-state-penitentiary-synagogue-philadelphia/

From the light of freedom to a concrete tomb,
The fall was great and swift.
My soul cried out in a mighty boom,
How could it come to this?

Clamped down, trapped stuck,
Paralyzed in a tiny cage.
Had fate left me not a drop of luck?
Was there reason for this rage?

Told to lay down and die,
Something deep inside me stirred.
I can’t be caged I have to fly!
Not yet am I interred.

They can take my body, tie me down,
It matters not a bit.
My spirit still runs wild and free,
So in freedom here I sit.

~ Ross Ulbricht
Apr 30, 2024

It seems his artistic vision finally became reality.

sources

https://freeross.org/uncageable/

https://rossulbricht.substack.com/p/uncageable-poem-and-drawing

#RossUlbricht #DreadPirateRoberts #SilkRoad #USCourts #CriminalJustice #Prisons #Prisoners #Poetry #News #Crypto #Poem #FreeRoss

@poetry@a.gup.pe @poets@a.gup.pe @writers@a.gup.pe @infostorm@a.gup.pe

Alt...

Hand drawn image of a man interred in prison. He is kneeling in his cell between the bunk and desk cabinet, envisioning a scene above his head of a couple holding hands and giving thanks over food and a crowd seated together and a couple in the distance holding hands.