Content Warning: This article contains references to abuse and suicide that may be disturbing and/or triggering to some readers.

The University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law and several student groups hosted a panel calling for restorative justice in the wake of harmful medical experiments by the late Penn dermatologist Albert Kligman.

The panel examined the legacy of Penn Albert dermatology professor Kligmanwho conducted medical experiments on individuals incarcerated at the now defunct Holmesburg Prison without their informed consent. Some victims and their relatives recounted how the experiments changed their lives, demanding an apology from Penn and reiterating calls for the University to offer financial compensation and other forms of restorative justice.

Between 1951 and 1974, Kligman tested viruses, fungi and chemical agents, including asbestos, on hundreds of incarcerated people – most of whom were black – at the prison, which was located in northeast Philadelphia. Many of the inmates suffered lifelong side effects, including permanent scarring, recurring skin rashes and mental health problems, according to journalist Allen Hornblum’s 1998 book. “acres of skin”, which exposed Kligman’s medical experiments on prisoners.

The event was a collaboration between groups including the Black Law Student Association and UMOJA — the umbrella organization for black student groups on campus — and Penn Carey Law. Penn Professor Dorothy Roberts moderated the panel and emphasized Penn’s unique positioning to lead “restorative justice efforts” when examining past university-sponsored and sanctioned violence against marginalized communities.

“Penn’s tangible restitution for the experiments at Holmesburg Prison, which we hope will ultimately result from this event, should be a model,” Roberts told attendees. “That’s what Penn should aspire to. We should be the model university with the highest values.”

Herbert Rice, an 80-year-old survivor of the experiments, said he began participating in the experiments at the age of 24 as a means of earning money while incarcerated. Rice said she first participated in the “milkshake test,” in which she was asked to eat a milkshake and waffles for three meals a day, and decided to increase her study engagement three weeks later.

Rice described increasingly disturbing experiments, including a metabolic study in which she was asked to ingest pills containing “foreign organisms.” Rice said he suffered severe psychological changes as a result of taking the pills, causing him to unintentionally attack a guard – which landed him in solitary confinement for three days.

“He put me in there for three days and I thought I was there for three years,” Rice said. “… You had one meal a day. That meal was breakfast, lunch and dinner on that plate, and they would give it to you and it would fall over, so you had to eat off the floor,” Rice said.

He also detailed the vivid nightmares he would have about the experiments, which he said fundamentally changed the way he led his life – even when he was no longer incarcerated. He reflected on how his baggage affected his home life and led him down the path to substance abuse.

“I brought all these things back home, to my wife, to my kids, to my community, and I was just a damn fool,” Rice said.

Rice also recalled that two of the friends he had made at Holmesburg later committed suicide, pointing to Kligman’s experiments as a contributing factor.

“Kligman, I call him a killer without a gun. Not (for) what he did to me, but what he did to my friends,” he said.

Rice’s grandson, Ja’Ir Rice, showed the generational impact of the study on his family, noting that his grandfather and father were no longer in touch. He also expressed his disdain for what he described as trade-based institutions like Penn that divided his family.

“There are parts of my family now that are dysfunctional because of (the experiments), because of something that got out of his control and it’s excruciating,” Ja’Ir said, “I hope (things) can be changed while my grandfather is still here.”

Adrianne Jones-Alston, daughter of survivor Leodus Jones, echoed these sentiments, reflecting on her father’s participation in the experiments and the “abuse” he brought on her family. She said her parents’ separation led her to run away from home, experience homelessness, violence and eventually substance abuse.

“I can’t blame all the experiments, but I bet it gave me a boost for that downward spiral in my life,” she said.

Jones-Alston outlined seven demands for the university in an effort to provide restorative justice to survivors and their families for the generational effects of the experiments. Among these requests were financial compensation in the form of general support, health care funding, and community and youth program funding for inner-city Philadelphia programs.

“They made some (money), we’re talking billions of dollars — and my father’s skin is in those jars,” she said. “Share the wealth – you know, after all, they paid the price.”

The demands Jones-Alston outlined also included a sincere and “personal” apology, transparency about how much money Penn made during the experiments and their byproducts, and comprehensive ethics training at all schools, including a section addressing Penn’s legacy in Kligman’s experiments.

“Penn needs to step up and take care of it, because it’s not going away. My father is gone, but I am here,” she said.

Hornblum, the book’s author, noted Penn’s position as a “powerhouse” in the widespread phenomenon of prison experiments that swept the US in the 20th century.

“(Penn) had become the Macy’s of human experimentation, (in the sense that) anything anyone wanted to do could be done here,” he said. “Why? Because I would argue the point of Dr. Kligman’s operation—trade, trade, trade.”

Hornblum decried the lack of intervention by city officials at the time. Several members criticized what was characterized as an insincere and belated apology from the city and the university now.

“It is the city of fraternal abuse or the city of fraternal indifference, because (the experiments) have been going on in the post-war period for practically a quarter of a century, and no one of importance is raising their hand, pointing out that maybe this should not be the case. it happens,” Hornblum said.