Allen Hornblum

Expert

Interview: 2 Hours, 2 Cameras

LaVon Miller from our interview in August 2025

Allen Hornblum, author of Acres of Skin, recounts entering Holmesburg Prison in 1971 as an educator and immediately recognizing the facility as a chaotic, violent, overcrowded institution where scores of inmates walked around covered in medical tape. He describes discovering that the prison had become a vast human experimentation center run for decades by University of Pennsylvania dermatologist Dr. Albert Kligman, who used incarcerated men for hundreds of studies ranging from simple patch tests to dangerous trials involving dioxin, psychotropic drugs, chemical warfare agents, and radioactive materials. Hornblum outlines how Kligman courted pharmaceutical companies, the Army, and corporate clients, escalating experiments without oversight and exploiting poor Black prisoners who participated out of financial desperation. He explains the origins of the retinoid drugs Retin-A and Renova in these experiments, the massive profits generated, and the longstanding lack of accountability. The interview also covers public reaction to Acres of Skin, Penn’s 2020 apology following racial justice movements, the push for reparations, and Hornblum’s belief that the legacy of Holmesburg demands both material compensation for survivors and a reckoning within American medical ethics.

Allen’s 1999 book, Acres of Skin, first broke the story of the Holmesburg Prison Experiments to the public.