High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Walnut Street Prison founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1790 is considered the first American penitentiary, if not the first in the world. The word "penitentiary" came from the Pennsylvania Quakers and their belief in penitence and self-examination as a means to salvation. Thus was made a new and permanent form of combatting crime through the practice of solitary confinement. Thus was made a new and permanent form of combatting crime through the practice of solitary confinement.