by Lauren Thompson, double alumna of the Spiritual Research program on the College of Alabama.
The Walnut Road Jail, situated behind Independence Corridor in Philadelphia, had struggled to handle its prisoners. Illness and crime ran rampant as prisoners of all genders and felony statuses have been positioned collectively. (Not nice if you’re dwelling by the late 1780’s…or, like, ever.) The rising populace of Philadelphia additionally posed a menace to the already-crumbling jail. Docs like Benjamin Rush, who considered crime as a “ethical illness”, and different influential leaders started to push for jail reform (Woodham). These reformers, closely influenced by Rush, believed that prisoners wanted a spot the place they may “bear rehabilitation” by fascinated about their crimes (Woodham). Lastly, in 1821, after a long time of lobbying, the Philadelphia Society for Assuaging the Miseries of Public Prisons secured funding for America’s first “true penitentiary (Pickerall).”
Japanese State Penitentiary took its first inmate in 1829; the constructing was unfinished till 1836. Each cell had a skylight, heating, and a few type of plumbing. Guards didn’t enable the prisoners to talk and, when outdoors of their cells, inmates donned hoods to keep up the silence and prisoner/guard anonymity. Particular person jail yards and feeding doorways additional ensured the solitary confinement of every prisoner in Japanese State. The jail itself and the type of prisoner upkeep, known as the Pennsylvania System, have been marvels of the time to some. Some folks on the time marveled on the jail and the following “Pennsylvania System” it created. Others, like Charles Dickens, the Penitentiary was “inflexible, strict and hopeless solitary confinement, and I imagine it, in its results, to be merciless and unsuitable…”
And for this weblog put up? Japanese State Penitentiary’s historical past, bodily design, and the “proof” captured in season 2, episode 6 of Ghost Adventures function a means of understanding how paranormal investigators legitimize their work. On this explicit episode, Zak, Nick, and Aaron tour the jail in the course of the day to assemble eye-witness accounts of paranormal or ghostly happenings, be taught concerning the brutish dwelling circumstances the prisoners of Japanese State Penitentiary confronted, after which be locked down contained in the jail alone for the night time.
In true grad-student trend, once I had been casually watching this episode, I couldn’t assist however discover discursive strikes made by every member of the ghost-hunting workforce. Particularly, it made me consider Reiner Keller’s sociology of data strategy to discourse (SKAD) which examines “concrete and materials” discourses as “performative assertion practices and symbolic orderings…” It considers the hyperlink between social practices as indicators and the (re)manufacturing/transformation of social orders of data. (36-37) Concrete types of discourse embrace texts, speech, discussions, visible photographs, and many others., and in inspecting them we will perceive how discourses concurrently “represent orders of actuality and in addition produce energy results” inside networks of social actors, establishments, and “shares of data.” (37)
Round the 25:25 mark of the episode or the 1:52 mark of the embedded YouTube clip, Nik, Zak, and Aaron are investigating a cell inside Japanese State Penitentiary. Nik asks the spirit (presumably the one who haunts the jail cell they’re in) to talk to him and in the event that they -the spirit(s)- assume they have been wrongly imprisoned within the Penitentiary.
Simply seconds earlier than showcasing an digital voice phenomenon (or, EVP, which refers to sounds captured by numerous units which are typically interpreted because the voices of spirits), Zak -who narrates the present and acts as a signifier- labels what’s popping out of the machine as “symbolic”.
The breathy tone of an alleged spirit fights in opposition to the smooth crackle of the recorder as “I knew God… God…” performs by the viewer’s audio system. The TV present replays the recording just a few extra occasions so viewers can correctly hear the EVP- a means of reinforcing the concept there may be really a voice within the static and leaving time for the viewer’s interpretation of what’s being mentioned. (Stated interpretation that’s unironically influenced by the very present they’re watching)
When the replays of the EVP are over, Zak’s voice comes again to ask:
“Was this a spirit referring to the skylights that have been particularly put in on this jail in order that the inmates may make an amend to God?”
It’s a soar, from A to C, even to those that is perhaps steeped within the shares of data that represent the paranormal and the historical past of Japanese State. Nonetheless, Zak signaling that the EVP is “symbolic” locations authority and legitimacy on the “proof” which is barely (barely) backed when linked to the historic background and bodily building of Japanese State Penitentiary. That is vital for just a few causes:
The EVP, the interpretation of it that’s, and even the way in which the G.A. crew goes about acquiring the proof reconstitute shares of data discovered throughout the “paranormal” neighborhood. The type of investigation- asking spirits to work together, asking questions particular to areas, utilizing sure sorts of apparatus for the acquire of particular “proof”, and many others., is a normative conception typically reproduced in different exhibits like that of Ghost Adventures. On the flip aspect, this sort of discursive transfer could possibly be seen as a means of pushing in opposition to shares of data and establishments that don’t imagine within the existence of ghosts. Skeptics have pushed again on the existence of the “paranormal” for ages.
“I knew God… God…” offers the Ghost Adventures crew with a handy means of developing what some would contemplate backed or laborious proof of the “paranormal.” It moreover offers a means of developing a actuality -which is then offered by paranormal actuality TV- the place the questions of an afterlife don’t have to/or must exist. It’s all there in your display screen. Furthermore, with the ability to hyperlink historic or socio-cultural occasions and practices to “symbolic” ghostly proof advantages Japanese State Penitentiary. Its in depth and darkish historical past isn’t the one factor that pulls the general public’s consideration. The purported hauntings inside these partitions entice crows of individuals (social actors) who may interact with discourse(s) concerning the paranormal- Heck, they could have seen the Ghost Adventures episode earlier than visiting. As an establishment, the proof caught by Zak, Nick, and Aaron reproduces discourses and orders of data, which supplies them extra “authenticity” when advertising and marketing themselves as a haunted location.
One remaining point- This instance exhibits us how people work together with the “immaterial” of our world by the fabric. What goes bump within the night time doesn’t all the time have a corporal type, nor can or not it’s instantly defined. So, utilizing expertise reminiscent of a Panasonic Recorder to catch an EVP after which with the ability to discursively hyperlink such “proof” to historic and/or sociocultural occasions permits us (the dwelling) to ease some anxieties we would have (or simply make you run and scream “BRO!” rather a lot, in case you’re the Ghost Adventures Crew).
Picture Credit: Japanese State Penitentiary, Public Area
Sources
Woodham, Chai. “Japanese State Penitentiary: A Jail with a Previous.” Smithsonian.com, September 30, 2008. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/historical past/eastern-state-penitentiary-a-prison-with-a-past-14274660/.
Pickeral, Tamsin. “Japanese State Penitentiary.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed Might 8, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/matter/Japanese-State-Penitentiary.
Keller, Reiner. “‘Getting into Discourses: A New Agenda for Qualitative Analysis.’” Chapter in Discourse Analysis and Faith: Disciplinary Use and Interdisciplinary Dialogues. De Gruyter, 2022.
Cearns, Byron. “Ghost Adventures S02E06 Japanese State Penitentiary clip6” Youtube.com, Might 1, 2020. Ghost Adventures S02E06 Japanese State Penitentiary clip6.
Japanese State Penitentiary. Entry for 1842 on “Timeline”. Easternstate.org, Timeline | Japanese State Penitentiary Historic Web site.
