Auburn System

The Auburn system (also known as the New York or Congregate System) is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times. The silent system evolved during the 1820s at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, as an alternative to and modification of the Pennsylvania system of solitary confinement, which it gradually replaced in the United States. Whigs favored this system because it promised to rehabilitate criminals by teaching them personal discipline and respect for work, property, and other people.

Among notable elements of the Auburn system were striped uniforms, lockstep, and silence.

During the 19th century, prisoners had no rights or any opportunity to live semi-comfortably. The Auburn system established several characteristics that were unique to the world of disciplinary conditions. Silence was the biggest factor among rules for the prisoners. John D. Cray, a deputy warden at the Auburn Prison, demanded that prisoners be completely silent to take away the prisoners' “sense of self”. When the “sense of self” was taken away, many convicts obeyed the warden's wishes.

The second characteristic of the Auburn system was community activities. During regimented times during the day, prisoners had tasks to perform. Some of these included making “nails, barrels, clothing, shoes and boots, carpets, buttons, carpenters' tools, steam engines and boilers, combs, harnesses, furniture, brooms, clocks, buckets and pails, saddle trees...”.

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