Sing Sing

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Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Use American English Template:Infobox prison

Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison<ref name="NYS">Template:Cite web</ref> for men operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York, United States. It is about Template:Convert north of Midtown Manhattan on the east bank of the Hudson River. It holds about 1,700 inmates as of 2007,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and housed the execution chamber for the State of New York for a period, with the final execution there occurring in 1963; instead Green Haven Correctional Facility had the execution chamber by the late 20th Century,<ref>"Inmate 99-B-0067" (Archive). New York State Department of Correctional Services. Saturday January 16, 1999. Retrieved on December 19, 2024.</ref> before the total abolition of capital punishment in New York in 2007.

The name "Sing Sing" derives from the Sintsink Native American tribe from whom the New York colony purchased the land in 1685,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and was formerly the name of the village. In 1970, the prison's name was changed to Ossining Correctional Facility, but it reverted to its original name in 1985.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a period museum.<ref name="eartim001">Village looks to create Sing Sing museum, May 22, 2007. Earthtimes.org http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/65218.html Template:Webarchive</ref>

The prison property is bisected by the Metro-North Railroad's four-track Hudson Line.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

History

Early years

State Prison at Sing Sing, New York, an 1855 engraving

Sing Sing was the fifth prison constructed by New York state authorities. In 1824, the New York Legislature gave Elam Lynds, warden of Auburn Prison and a former United States Army captain, the task of constructing a new, more modern prison. Lynds spent months researching possible locations for the prison, considering Staten Island, the Bronx, and Silver Mine Farm, an area in the town of Mount Pleasant on the banks of the Hudson River.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

By May, Lynds had decided to build a prison on Mount Pleasant, near (and thus named after) a small village in Westchester County named Sing Sing, whose name came from the Wappinger (Native American) words Template:Lang, which translates to 'stone upon stone'.<ref name="crimelib001">Template:Cite web</ref> In March 1825, the legislature appropriated $20,100 Template:USDCY to purchase the Template:Convert site, and the project received the official stamp of approval.<ref name="crimelib001" /> Lynds selected a hundred inmates from the Auburn prison for transfer and had them transported by barge via the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River on freighters. On their arrival on May 14, the site was "without a place to receive them or a wall to enclose them"; "temporary barracks, a cook house, carpenter and blacksmith's shops" were rushed to completion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Lewis2005>Template:Cite book Google BooksTemplate:Dead link</ref>

When it was opened in 1826,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> it was considered a model prison because it turned a profit for the state.<ref name="correctionhistory.org">Template:Cite web</ref> By October 1828, Sing Sing was completed. Lynds employed the Auburn system, which imposed absolute silence on the prisoners; the system was enforced by whipping and other punishments.

John Luckey, the prison chaplain around 1843, reported Lynds' actions as warden to New York Governor William H. Seward and the president of the board of inspectors, John Edmonds in order to get him removed from his position. Luckey also created a religious library in the prison, with the purpose of teaching correct moral principles.<ref>Adam Jay Hirsch, The Rise of the Penitentiary: Prisons and Punishment in Early America, New Haven and London (1992).</ref>

In 1844, the New York Prison Association was inaugurated to monitor state prison administration. The Association was made up of reformers interested in the rehabilitation of prisoners through humane treatment. Eliza Farnham obtained a position in charge of the women's ward at Sing Sing largely on the recommendation of these reformers.<ref>Floyd, Janet, "Dislocations of the self: Eliza Farnham at Sing Sing Prison", Journal of American Studies (2006), 40(02), p. 311 Template:JSTOR.</ref> She overturned the strictly silent practice in prison and introduced social engagement to shift concern more toward the future instead of dwelling on the criminal past. She included novels by Charles Dickens in Luckey's religious library, novels the chaplain did not approve of. This was the first documented expansion of the prison library to include moral teachings from secular literature.<ref>Vogel, Brenda, and L. Sullivan, "Reaching Behind Bars: Library Outreach to Prisoners, 1798–2000", The Prison Library Primer: A Program for the Twenty-first Century, Scarecrow Press, 2009, p. 4.</ref>

After 1900

Warden T. M. Osborne
Aerial view of Sing Sing, 1937
Aerial view of Sing Sing, 1937 (alternate view)

Thomas Mott Osborne's tenure as warden of Sing Sing was brief but dramatic. Osborne arrived in 1914 with a reputation as a radical prison reformer. His report of a week-long incognito stay inside New York's Auburn Prison indicted traditional prison administration in merciless detail.<ref>Template:Gutenberg</ref> During his time in Sing Sing he wrote his book Society and Prisons: Some Suggestions for a New Penology, which influenced the discussion of prison reform and contributed to a change in societal perceptions of incarcerated individuals.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite book</ref>

Prisoners who had bribed officers and intimidated other inmates lost their privileges under Osborne's regime. One of them conspired with powerful political allies to destroy Osborne's reputation, even succeeding in getting him indicted for a variety of crimes and maladministration. After Osborne triumphed in court, his return to Sing Sing was a cause for wild celebration by the inmates.<ref>Denis Brian, Sing Sing: The Inside Story of a Notorious Prison, 85–112.</ref><ref>The New York Times: "Convicts' Carnival Welcomes Osborne", July 17, 1916. Retrieved December 8, 2009.</ref>

Another notable warden was Lewis Lawes. He was offered the position of warden in 1919, accepted in January 1920, and remained for 21 years as Sing Sing's warden.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> While warden, Lawes brought about reforms and turned what was described as an "old hellhole" into a modern prison with sports teams, educational programs, new methods of discipline, and more.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Several new buildings were constructed during the years Lawes was warden. Lawes retired in 1941<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and died six years later.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1943, the old cellblock was closed and the metal bars and doors were donated to the war effort.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1989, the institution was accredited for the first time by the American Correctional Association, which established a set of national standards by which it judged every correctional facility.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:As of, Sing Sing houses approximately 1,500 inmates, employs about 900 people,<ref name="2019PREAReport" /> and has hosted over 5,000 visitors per month. The original 1825 cell block is no longer used, and in 2002, plans were announced to turn it into a museum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In April 2011, there were talks of closing the prison to take advantage of its valuable real estate.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Executions

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"Old Sparky," the electric chair at Sing Sing prison in the early 20th century

In total, 614 men and women – including four inmates under federal death sentences – were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing until the abolition of the death penalty in 1972. After a series of escapes from death row, a new Death House was built in 1920 and began executions in 1922. High-profile executions in Sing Sing's electric chair, nicknamed "Old Sparky", include Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on June 19, 1953, for espionage for the Soviet Union on nuclear weapon research; and Gerhard Puff on August 12, 1954, for the murder of an FBI agent.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The last person executed in New York state was Eddie Lee Mays, for murder, on August 15, 1963.

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was unconstitutional if its application was inconsistent and arbitrary. This led to a temporary de facto nationwide moratorium (executions resumed in other states in 1977, and the death penalty was reinstated and abolished in New York in various forms over subsequent years <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>), but the electric chair at Sing Sing remained. In the early 1970s, the electric chair was moved to Green Haven Correctional Facility in working condition, but was never used again.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Educational programs

In 2013, Sing Sing Superintendent Michael Capra and NBC producer Dan Slepian worked with a group of 12 incarcerated men to start a program called "Voices From Within", created by Jon-Adrian Velazquez in an effort to "redefine what it means to pay a debt to society"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Their first project was an emotional video about gun violence, where the men spoke directly to the youth in the communities from which they came. Slepian released the video in 2014 TEDxTalk at Sing Sing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The video is currently being used by various non-profits and law enforcement agencies to help prevent gun violence.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1996, Katherine Vockins founded Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) at Sing Sing,<ref name="nytimes.com">Susan Hodara, "For Inmates, a Stage Paved With Hope", The New York Times, May 27, 2007.</ref> enabling theater professionals to provide prisoners with a curriculum of year-round theater-related workshops.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> It has produced several plays at Sing Sing open to prisoners and community guests and has shown that the use of dramatic techniques leads to significant improvements in the cognitive behavior of the program's participants and a reduction in recidivism once paroled.<ref name="p-c-i.org">Template:Cite web</ref> Its impact on social and institutional behavior was formally evaluated by the John Jay College for Criminal Justice, in collaboration with the NY State Department of Corrections.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Led by Dr. Lorraine Moller, Professor of Speech and Drama at John Jay, the study found that it had a positive impact on prisoner Pavle Stanimirovic, one of the program's first participants, that "the longer the inmate was in the program, the fewer violations he committed."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> RTA currently operates at five other New York state prisons.<ref name="p-c-i.org"/>

The Rehabilitation Through the Arts program is dramatized in the 2023 drama film Sing Sing, starring Colman Domingo alongside a cast of mainly real-life former inmates.<ref>Radheyan Simonpillai, "IFF 2023: Colman Domingo searches for the souls stuck behind bars in prison drama Sing Sing". The Globe and Mail, September 8, 2023.</ref>

The organization Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison provides college courses to incarcerated people to help reduce recidivism and poverty and strengthen families and communities. In 1998, as part of the get-tough-on-crime campaign, state and federal funding for college programs inside the prison was stopped. Understanding the positive effects of education in the transformation and rehabilitation of incarcerated people, inmates at Sing Sing Correctional Facility reached out to religious and academic volunteers to develop a college degree-granting program. Under Anne Reissner, Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison was founded to restore college education at Sing Sing through private funding.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:AnchorFootball team

In 1931, new prison reforms permitted Sing Sing State Penitentiary prisoners to partake in recreation opportunities. The baseball and football teams, and the vaudeville presentations and concerts, were funded through revenue from paid attendance. Tim Mara, the owner of the New York Giants, sponsored the Sing Sing Black Sheep, Sing Sing's football team. Mara provided equipment and uniforms and players to tutor them in fundamentals. He helped coach them the first season. Known as the Black Sheep, they were also sometimes called the Zebras. All games were "home" games, played at Lawes Stadium, named for Warden Lewis E. Lawes. In 1935, the starting quarterback and two other starters escaped the morning before a game.

Alabama Pitts was their starting quarterback and star for the first four seasons, but then finished his sentence. Upon release, Alabama Pitts played for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1935. In 1932, "graduate" Jumbo Morano was signed by the Giants and played for the Paterson Nighthawks of the Eastern Football League. In 1934, State Commissioner of Correction, Walter N. Thayer banned the advertising of activities at the prison, including football games. On November 19, 1936, a new rule banned ticket sales. No revenues could come from show and sports event ticketing. These funds had been paying for disbursements to prisoners' families, especially the kin of those executed, and for equipment and coaches' salaries. With this new edict, the season ended and prisoners were no longer allowed to play football outside Sing Sing.<ref>Sing Sing Football Records: "Sing Sing". Retrieved August 3, 2015.</ref>

Museum

Template:Main Plans to turn a portion of Sing Sing into a museum date back to 2002, when local officials sought to turn the old powerhouse into the museum, linked by a tunnel to a retired cell block, for $5 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2007, the village of Ossining applied for $12.5 million in federal money for the project, at the time expected to cost $14 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The proposed museum would display the Sing Sing story as it unfolded over time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Contribution to American English

The expression "up the river" to describe someone in prison or heading to prison derives from the practice of sentencing people convicted in New York City to serve their terms in Sing Sing prison, which is located up the Hudson River from the city. The slang expression dates from 1891.<ref>Online Etymology Dictionary: "river". Retrieved February 21, 2010.</ref><ref>Encyclopedia.com: Sing Sing. Retrieved February 21, 2010.</ref>

Wardens

The wardens of Sing Sing are appointed by the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Div col

  • Elam Lynds (1825–1830)
  • Robert Wiltse (1830–1840)
  • David L. Seymour (1840–1843)
  • William H. Peck (1843–1845)
  • Hiram P. Rowell (1845–1848)
  • Chauncey Smith (1848–1849)
  • Edward L. Potter (January, 1849)
  • Alfred R. Booth (July, 1849)
  • Munson J. Lockwood (1850–1855)
  • C. A. Batterman (1855–1856)
  • William Beardsley (1856–1862)
  • Gaylord B. Hubbell (1862–1864)
  • Thomas E. Sutton (1864–1865)
  • Stephen H. Johnson (1865–1868)
  • David P. Forrest (1868–1869)
  • Henry Clay Nelson (1869–1870)
  • E. M. Russell (1870–1872)
  • Henry C. Nelson (1872–1873)
  • Gaylord B. Hubbell (1873–1874)
  • James Williamson (September 1874)
  • Alfred Walker (October 1874)
  • George R. Youngs (1876–1877)
  • Charles Davis (February 1877)
  • Benjamin S. W. Clark (March 1877)
  • Charles Davis (1877–1880)
  • Augustus A. Brush (1880–1891)
  • W. R. Brown (1891–1893)
  • Charles F. Durston (1893–1894)
  • Omar Van Leuven Sage (1894–1899) <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Addison Johnson (1899–1907)
  • Jesse D. Frost (1907–1911)
  • John S. Kennedy (1911–1913)
  • James Connaughton* (June 1913) acting warden
  • James M. Clancy (1913–1914)
  • Thomas McCormick (June 1914)
  • George Standish Weed* (October 1914) acting warden
  • Thomas Mott Osborne (1914–1915)
  • George Washington Kirchwey (1915) <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Thomas Mott Osborne (July 1916) <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Calvin Derrick (October 1916)
  • William H. Moyer (1916–1919)
  • Edward V. Brophy (April 1919)
  • Daniel J. Grant* (1919–1920) acting warden
  • Lewis Edward Lawes (1920–1941)
  • Robert John Kirby (1941–1944)
  • William F. Snyder (1944–1950)
  • Wilfred Louis Denno (1950–1967) <ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • John T. Deegan (1967–1969)
  • James L. Casscles (1969–1972)
  • Theodore Schubin (1972–1975)
  • Joseph Higgins* (July 1975) acting warden
  • Harold Butler (October 1975)
  • William G. Gard (1975–1977)
  • Walter Fogg* (August 1977) acting warden
  • Stephen Dalsheim (1977–1980)
  • Wilson E.J. Walters (1980–1983)
  • James E. Sullivan (1983–1988)
  • John P. Keane (1988–1997)
  • Charles Greiner (1997–2000)
  • Brian S. Fischer (2000–2007)
  • Luis Marshall (2007-2009)
  • Dawson J.W. Brown* (January 2009 - July 2009) acting Superintendent
  • Philip Heath (2009-2012)
  • Michael Capra (2012–2023)
  • Marlyn Kopp (2023–present) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

* denotes an acting warden who holds the position until a full-time warden can be appointed Template:Div col end

  • View from afar, 1857 engraving
    View from afar, 1857 engraving
  • The prison and workshops, Template:Circa
    The prison and workshops, Template:Circa
  • A cell in the older facility
    A cell in the older facility
  • Sing Sing after the 1913 fire
    Sing Sing after the 1913 fire
  • Old cell block, Template:Circa
    Old cell block, Template:Circa
  • Guard tower in 2014. The Hudson River and the original Tappan Zee Bridge are in the background.
    Guard tower in 2014. The Hudson River and the original Tappan Zee Bridge are in the background.
  • Group of prisoners seated, as they would be in a classroom, knitting socks for soldiers at Sing Sing, 1915
    Prisoners at Sing Sing knitting socks for soldiers in 1915
  • Stereoscopic view of Sing Sing Prison, interior
    Stereoscopic view of Sing Sing Prison, interior looking down cell block
  • Carl Panzram 1923 inmate
    Carl Panzram 1923 inmate

Notable inmates

See also

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References

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Further reading

  • Barnes, Harry Elmer. The Repression of Crime: Studies in Historical Penology. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith.
  • Blumenthal, Ralph. Miracle at Sing Sing: How One Man Transformed the Lives of America's Most Dangerous Prisoners. (2005)
  • Brian, Denis. Sing Sing: The Inside Story of a Notorious Prison. (2005)
  • Brockway, Zebulon Reed. Fifty Years of Prison Service. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith.
  • Christianson, Scott. Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House. (2000)
  • Conover, Ted. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (2000) Template:ISBN
  • Conyes, Alfred. Fifty Years in Sing Sing: A Personal Account, 1879–1929. SUNY Press (2015). Template:ISBN
  • Gado, Mark. Death Row Women. (2008) Template:ISBN
  • Template:Cite book
  • Goeway, David. Crash Out: The True Tale of a Hell's Kitchen Kid and the Bloodiest Escape in Sing Sing History. (2005)
  • Lawes, Lewis E. Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing. New York: Ray Long & Richard H. Smith, Inc., 1932.
  • Lawes, Lewis E. Life and Death in Sing Sing. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Co., 1928
  • Luckey, John. Life in Sing Sing State Prison, as seen in a Twelve Years' Chaplaincy. New York: N. Tibbals & Co., 1860.
  • McLennan, Rebecca M. The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the Penal State, 1776–1941. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Template:ISBN
  • Morris, James McGrath. The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism.(2003)
  • Papa, Anthony. 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way To Freedom (2004) Template:ISBN
  • Pereira, Al Bermudez. Sing Sing State Prison, One Day, One Lifetime (2006) Template:ISBN
  • Pereira, Al Bermudez. Ruins of a Society and the Honorable (2009) Template:ISBN
  • Weinstein, Lewis M. A Good Conviction. (2007) Template:ISBN (fiction)

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Template:State prisons in New York Template:Execution sites in the United StatesTemplate:Authority control Template:Coord

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