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{{Short description|Maximum-security prison in Ossining, New York}} | |||
:''Alternative meaning: ]'' | |||
{{other uses}} | |||
{{Infobox prison | |||
| prison_name = Sing Sing Correctional Facility | |||
| image = Sing Sing.jpg | |||
| alt = Sing Sing as seen from Hook Mountain, across the ] | |||
| location = 354 Hunter Street, ], ] | |||
| coordinates = | |||
| status = Operational | |||
| classification = Maximum | |||
|population=1,576 | |||
|population_as_of= 2019<ref name="2019PREAReport">{{Cite report|url=https://doccs.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2019/12/sing-sing-final-prea-audit-report-dated-11.11.19-audit-complete-8.9.19.pdf|title=Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Audit Report, Adult Prisons & Jails|last=Feicht|first=Jennifer L.|date=2019-11-11|publisher=]|access-date=2021-09-27}}</ref> | |||
| capacity = 1,747 | |||
| opened = {{Start date and age|1826}} | |||
| closed = | |||
| former_name = Ossining Correctional Facility | |||
| managed_by = ] | |||
| warden = Marlyn Kopp (]) | |||
}} | |||
'''Sing Sing Correctional Facility''' is a maximum-security prison<ref name="NYS">{{cite web|url=http://www.docs.state.ny.us/faclist.html|title=NYS Dept. of Corrections Facility list|publisher=NYS Dept. of Corrections|access-date=2009-07-04|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923163233/http://www.docs.state.ny.us/faclist.html|archive-date=2006-09-23}}</ref> for men operated by the ] in the village of ], United States. It is about {{convert|30|mi}} north of ] on the east bank of the ]. It holds about 1,700 ] as of 2007,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.docs.state.ny.us/Research/Reports/Hub_Report_2007.pdf |title=Hub System: Profile of Inmate Population Under Custody on January 1, 2007 |access-date=2008-03-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080625040328/http://www.docs.state.ny.us/Research/Reports/Hub_Report_2007.pdf|archive-date=2008-06-25|publisher=State of New York, Department of Correctional Services|page=3 (PDF p. 7/63)}}</ref> and housed the ] for the State of New York for a period, with the final execution there occurring in 1963; instead ] had the execution chamber by the late 20th Century.<ref>"" (). New York State Department of Correctional Services. Saturday January 16, 1999. Retrieved on December 19, 2024.</ref> The total abolition of ] occurred in 2007. | |||
'''Sing Sing Correctional Facility''' is a ] in ]. It is located in Westchester County some 40 miles north of New York City. The name comes from the original name of the village of Ossining. | |||
The name "Sing Sing" derives from the ] Native American tribe from whom the New York colony purchased the land in 1685,<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.ossiningchamber.org/history.aspx |title=History of Ossining |publisher=Greater Ossining Chamber of Commerce |access-date=December 21, 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081002072352/http://www.ossiningchamber.org/history.aspx |archive-date=2008-10-02}}</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>{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_legal_corrections_inst_sing.shtml |title=Archived copy |access-date=2010-09-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820223228/http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_legal_corrections_inst_sing.shtml |archive-date=2010-08-20 }}</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 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119064232/http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/65218.html |date=2021-01-19 }}</ref> | |||
It was the third ] prison built when, in ], the legislature appropriated $20,100 to buy the ], a 130 ] (0.5 km²) site with a quarry. | |||
The prison was to be self-supporting, and not require taxpayer funding. | |||
The prison property is bisected by the ]'s four-track ].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/nationalforgotte0000daly/page/120 | url-access=registration | title=The National Forgotten League | publisher=University of Nebraska Press | author=Daly, Dan | year=2012 | location=Lincoln | page=120| isbn=978-0-8032-4460-3}}</ref> | |||
], warden of ] (the second New York prison), took 100 Auburn convicts to the site, and used them to build the prison from the ground up. Other notable wardens besides Lynds were ] and ]. Lawes in particular achieved a lot in cleaning up a scandal-ridden institution, putting an end to the worst of the brutality. However even its its darkest days, conditions at Sing Sing were never as bad as in southern penitentiaries such as Parchman (Mississippi) or the ] at Angola. | |||
==History== | |||
Gangster movies helped make the prison a legend far beyond New York - they included 'The Big House' (1930) 'Castle on the Hudson' (1940), and '20,000 years in Sing Sing' (1932) - the latter based on a book by Warden Lawes | |||
===Early years=== | |||
] was the first person ] by electrocution at Sing Sing on ], ]. From ] until ], only the ] at Sing Sing was used for executions. The last execution at Sing Sing was in August 1963. New York State abolished its death penalty two years later, later reinstating it in ] but there have yet to be new executions. | |||
]]] | |||
On ], ], a riot began with 600-plus inmates in B-block taking 17 correction officers hostage and ended 53 hours later. Today, Sing Sing houses more than 2,000 prisoners. There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block, which still stands, into a museum | |||
Sing Sing was the fifth prison constructed by New York state authorities. In 1824, the ] gave ], warden of ] and a former ] captain, the task of constructing a new, more modern prison. Lynds spent months researching possible locations for the prison, considering ], ], and Silver Mine Farm, an area in the town of ] on the banks of the ].<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kyx9DAAAQBAJ&dq=elam+lynds+Staten+island&pg=PA18 |title=Punishment and Control in Historical Perspective |date=2008-10-24 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-230-58344-3 |editor-last=Johnston |editor-first=Helen |location=University of Hull, United Kingdom |pages=18 |language=en}}</ref> | |||
== Notable prisoners == | |||
By May, Lynds had decided to build a prison on Mount Pleasant, near (and thus named after) a small village in ] named Sing Sing, whose name came from the ] (]) words ''sinck sinck'', which translates to 'stone upon stone'.<ref name="crimelib001">{{cite web |last=Gado |first=Mark |title=All about Sing Sing Prison |work=Crime Library |publisher=Court TV |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/index.html |access-date=2007-06-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070527201254/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/index.html |archive-date=2007-05-27}}</ref> In March 1825, the legislature appropriated $20,100 to purchase the {{convert|130|acre|km2|adj=on}} site, and the project received the official stamp of approval.<ref name="crimelib001" /> Lynds selected 100 inmates from the Auburn prison for transfer and had them transported by barge via the ] and down the ] to ]. 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>{{cite web|url=http://www.hudsonriver.com/halfmoonpress/stories/0500sing.htm|title=The History of Sing Sing Prison, by the Half Moon Press|publisher=Hudsonriver.com|date= May 2000 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010124104200/http://www.hudsonriver.com/halfmoonpress/stories/0500sing.htm | archive-date = 24 January 2001 | |||
* ], a ] and ] | |||
|access-date=2015-05-24}}</ref><ref name=Lewis2005>{{cite book|last = Lewis|first = O.F.|year = 2005|title = The development of American prisons and prison customs, 1776–1845: with special reference to early institutions in the State of New York|isbn = 978-1-4179-6402-4|publisher = Kessinger Publishing|location = Whitefish, MT|page = 109}} {{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> | |||
* ], Irish labour leader imprisoned from 1920 to 1923 for 'criminal anarchy' as a result of his left-wing writings | |||
* ], a former New York City newspaper editor doing life for murder | |||
* ], convicted spies of the Soviet Union. | |||
* ], captain of the '']'' responsible for the worst maritime accident in New York's history. | |||
When it was opened in 1826,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_legal_corrections_inst_sing.shtml|title=New York State Archives: Institutional Records: Sing Sing Correctional Facility|publisher=Archives.nysed.gov|access-date=2010-09-06|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820223228/http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_legal_corrections_inst_sing.shtml|archive-date=2010-08-20}}</ref> it was considered a model prison because it turned a profit for the state.<ref name="correctionhistory.org">{{cite web|title=NYCHS excerpts: Guy Cheli's "Sing Sing Prison"|url=http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/state/singsing/cheliindex.html|access-date=2010-09-06|publisher=Correctionhistory.org}}</ref> By October 1828, Sing Sing was completed. Lynds employed the ], which imposed absolute silence on the prisoners; the system was enforced by whipping and other punishments. | |||
=== See also === | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
John Luckey, to get Lynds removed the prison chaplain around 1843, reported his actions to New York Governor ] and the president of the board of inspectors, John Edmonds. Luckey also created a religious library in the prison, with the purpose of teaching correct moral principles.<ref>Adam Jay Hirsch, '']'', 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. ] 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 {{JSTOR|27557794}}.</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 ] 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=== | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
]'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 ] indicted traditional prison administration in merciless detail.<ref>{{Gutenberg|no=33255|name=Within Prison Walls: Being a Narrative of Personal Experience During a Week of Voluntary Confinement in the State Prison at Auburn, New York|author=]|year=1914|bullet=none}}</ref> During his time in Sing Sing he wrote his book '']'', which influenced the discussion of prison reform and contributed to a change in societal perceptions of incarcerated individuals.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Tannenbaum |first=Frank |title=Osborne of Sing Sing |publisher=] |year=1933 |location=Chapel Hill |pages=103}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=McKelvey |first=Blake |title=American prisons: A history of good intentions |publisher=Patterson Smith |year=1977 |location=Montclair, NJ |pages=262–265}}</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'': , July 17, 1916. Retrieved December 8, 2009.</ref> | |||
Another notable warden was ]. He was offered the position of warden in 1919, accepted in January 1920, and remained for 21 years as Sing Sing's warden.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P7-3e5r5qK0C&dq=lewis+e.+lawes+Al+Smith&pg=RA1-PA57 |title=Federal Probation |date=1947 |publisher=Administrative Office of the United States Courts |language=en}}</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>{{Cite news |title=WARDEN LAWES RETIRES |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.comhttp//timesmachine.content-tagging.us-east-1-01.prd.dvsp.nyt.net/timesmachine/1941/07/07/87639762.html?zoom=14.68 |access-date=2023-10-16}}</ref> Several new buildings were constructed during the years Lawes was warden. Lawes retired in 1941<ref>{{Cite news |title=LAWES IS RETIRING AS SING SING HEAD; Foe of Capital Penalty Put 303 to Death -- Found Some Prisoners 'Very Fine Men' RESIGNS PRISON POST LAWES IS RETIRING AS SING SING HEAD |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.comhttp//timesmachine.content-tagging.us-east-1-01.prd.dvsp.nyt.net/timesmachine/1941/07/07/87639370.html?zoom=14.68 |access-date=2023-10-16}}</ref> and died six years later.<ref>{{Cite news |title=EX-WARDEN LAWES OF SING SING DIES; Head of State Prison for More Than 20 Years Succumbs to Cerebral Hemorrhage KNOWN AS HUMANITARIAN1 j His Application of New Methods to Penal Correction Won Wide Recognition |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://nyti.ms/3ZZztq9 |access-date=2023-10-16}}</ref> | |||
In 1943, the old cellblock was closed and the metal bars and doors were donated to the war effort.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/state/lawes/lewiselawesnotes2.htm| title=Lewis E. Lawes' NYC & NYC Correctional Career:Part 2|publisher=Correctionhistory.org|date=2003-06-25|access-date=2010-09-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/8.html|title=All about Sing Sing Prison, by Mark Gado – Lewis E. Lawes – Crime Library on|publisher=Trutv.com|date=1920-01-01|access-date=2010-09-06|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930211540/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/8.html|archive-date=2012-09-30}}</ref> | |||
<!--Not very reliable source, valid information: Originally the railroad north-to-south through Ossining went through a tunnel under Sing Sing. In the 1950s the roof was removed from the tunnel to allow more headroom to allow for bigger freight trains and was replaced by four bridges to let internal prison traffic cross the railroad.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=68568|title= Ossining Tunnel? (under Sing Sing)|work=railroad.net}}</ref>--> | |||
In 1989, the institution was accredited for the first time by the ], which established a set of national standards by which it judged every correctional facility.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.correctionhistory.org/auburn&osborne/bighouse5.htm | |||
|title=NYCHS excerpts: Mark Gado's "Stone Upon Stone: Sing Sing Prison"|publisher=Correctionhistory.org|access-date=2010-09-06}}</ref> {{As of|2019}}, 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>{{cite web|url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/13.html|title=All about Sing Sing Prison, by Mark Gado – Sing Sing Now – Crime Library on|publisher=Trutv.com|access-date=2010-09-06|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930211548/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/13.html|archive-date=2012-09-30}}</ref> In April 2011, there were talks of closing the prison to take advantage of its valuable real estate.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/up_the_river_views_SCFWPU7s5zANHRGvrSF0CJ | work=New York Post | title='Up the river' views: Sing Sing condos | date=2011-04-06}}</ref> | |||
==Executions== | |||
{{main|Capital punishment in New York (state)}} | |||
<!--Do not list all state executions! Do state so if state executions occurred here, but only federal ones should be noted--> | |||
]," the ] 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 ] 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 "]", include ] on June 19, 1953, for ] for the ] on nuclear weapon research; and ] on August 12, 1954, for the murder of an ] agent.<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.bop.gov/about/history/execchart.jsp | title = Executions of Federal Prisoners (since 1927) | publisher = ] | access-date = August 22, 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130215022029/http://www.bop.gov/about/history/execchart.jsp | archive-date = February 15, 2013 }}</ref> The last person executed in New York state was ], for murder, on August 15, 1963. | |||
In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled in '']'' 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>{{cite web|url=https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state/new-york|title=Death Penalty Information Center|access-date=2023-01-31}}</ref>), but the electric chair at Sing Sing remained. In the early 1970s, the electric chair was moved to ] in working condition, but was never used again.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.correctionhistory.org/auburn&osborne/bighouse4.htm|title=NYCHS excerpts: Mark Gado's 'Stone Upon Stone: Sing Sing Prison'|publisher=Correctionhistory.org|access-date=2010-09-06}}</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 ] in an effort to "redefine what it means to pay a debt to society"<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.voicesfromwithin.org/about-voices-from-within.html#:~:text=The%20Voices%20From%20Within%20Project%20was%20born%20inside%20the%20walls,the%20consequences%20of%20their%20choices | title=Voices from within }}</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>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ilS9wmiEeo | title=Voices from within | Dan Slepian | TEDxSingSing | website=] }}</ref> The video is currently being used by various non-profits and law enforcement agencies to help prevent gun violence.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/14/nyregion/at-brooklyn-police-station-using-inmates-video-and-pizza-to-prevent-youth-crime.html | title=At Brooklyn Police Station, Using Inmates' Video (And Pizza) to Prevent Youth Crime | newspaper=The New York Times | date=14 February 2015 | last1=Kilgannon | first1=Corey }}</ref> | |||
In 1996, Katherine Vockins founded ] (RTA) at Sing Sing,<ref name="nytimes.com">Susan Hodara, , ''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 ] once paroled.<ref name="p-c-i.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.p-c-i.org/rta.php|title=Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage|publisher=P-c-i.org|access-date=2010-09-06|archive-date=2010-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718115542/http://www.p-c-i.org/rta.php|url-status=dead}}</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>{{cite web|url=http://www.p-c-i.org/rta_objectives.php|title=Program Objectives – Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage|publisher=P-c-i.org|access-date=2010-09-06|archive-date=2011-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727161648/http://www.p-c-i.org/rta_objectives.php|url-status=dead}}</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>{{cite web|url=http://www.p-c-i.org/press/MollerStudy.pdf|title=The Impact of RTA on Social and Institutional Behavior Executive Summary Lorraine Moller, Ph.D|access-date=2010-09-06|archive-date=2010-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718115828/http://www.p-c-i.org/press/MollerStudy.pdf|url-status=dead}}</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 '']'', starring ] alongside a cast of mainly real-life former inmates.<ref>Radheyan Simonpillai, . '']'', 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>{{cite web|url=http://www.hudsonlink.org|title=Hudson Link homepage|publisher=hudsonlink.org|access-date=2011-05-19}}</ref> | |||
=={{Anchor|Sing Sing Black Sheep}}Football team== | |||
In 1931, new prison reforms permitted Sing Sing State Penitentiary prisoners to partake in recreation opportunities. The ] and ] teams, and the ] presentations and concerts, were funded through revenue from paid attendance. ], the owner of the ], 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 ]. In 1935, the starting quarterback and two other starters escaped the morning before a game. | |||
] was their starting quarterback and star for the first four seasons, but then finished his sentence. Upon release, Alabama Pitts played for the ] in 1935. In 1932, "graduate" ] was signed by the Giants and played for the ] of the ]. In 1934, State Commissioner of Correction, ] 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'': . Retrieved August 3, 2015.</ref> | |||
==Museum== | |||
{{main|Sing Sing museum}} | |||
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>{{cite web|url=http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2177 |title=Sing Sing Prison Museum, Ossining, New York |publisher=Roadsideamerica.com |access-date=2012-11-30}}</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>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/20colwe.htmlM | work=The New York Times | title=Would a Sing Sing Museum Be in Bad Taste? | date=2007-05-20}}</ref> The proposed museum would display the Sing Sing story as it unfolded over time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://planning.westchestergov.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1174&Itemid=2488 |title=Westchester County |publisher=Planning.westchestergov.com |date=2012-08-15 |access-date=2012-11-30}}</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 ] from the city. The slang expression dates from 1891.<ref>''Online Etymology Dictionary'': . Retrieved February 21, 2010.</ref><ref>Encyclopedia.com: . Retrieved February 21, 2010.</ref> | |||
==Gallery== | |||
<gallery> | |||
File:Houghton AC8 W6795 840aag - American Scenery, Sing Sing.jpg|View from afar, 1857 engraving | |||
File:Prison and workshops, looking south, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views crop.jpg|The prison and workshops, {{circa|1863–1885}} | |||
File:Sing Sing (prison) - cell.jpg|A cell in the older facility | |||
File:Sing Sing after arson fire.jpg|Sing Sing after the 1913 fire | |||
File:Sing Sing old cell block.jpg|Old cell block, {{circa|1938}} | |||
File:Sing Sing 012.jpg|] in 2014. The Hudson River and the original ] are in the background. | |||
File:Prisoners knitting socks for soldiers at Sing Sing 1915.jpg|alt=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 | |||
File:Sing Sing Prison, interior view, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg|alt=Stereoscopic view of Sing Sing Prison, interior|Stereoscopic view of Sing Sing Prison, interior looking down cell block | |||
</gallery> | |||
== Notable inmates == | |||
<!-- In alphabetical order of last name --> | |||
* ] and ], hitmen and members of ], both executed in 1942.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://themobmuseum.org/blog/dealing-death-in-drag/ |title = Dealing death in drag|date = 2019-03-09}}</ref><ref>Flowers and Flowers, p. 63</ref> | |||
* ], 19th-century pickpocket and con artist.<ref>{{cite book|author= Timothy J. Gilfoyle|title=A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York|publisher=W. W. Norton Company|date=2006|isbn=978-0393329896}}</ref> | |||
* ], NYPD Lieutenant convicted for the murder of ] and executed at Sing Sing on July 30, 1915.<ref>{{cite news |title=Defense Rests After Calling Some of Those Who Saw the Murder of Rosenthal |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1912/11/16/archives/say-slayers-didnt-resemble-gunmen-defense-rests-after-calling-some.html |access-date=28 December 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=16 November 1912}} {{subscription required|s}}</ref> | |||
* ], the second woman sentenced to death by electric chair. The sentence was later overruled and Barbella was set free.{{Why|date=April 2022}}<ref>{{cite news|title=Maria Barbella to Die|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/07/19/106064882.pdf|access-date=2 August 2011|newspaper=New York Times|date=July 19, 1895}}</ref> | |||
* ], convicted in October 2000 of having murdered his estranged wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum, 15 years earlier. | |||
* ], American mobster and head of ] who served 18 months at Sing Sing for ].<ref name="$2,000,000 racket">{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/10/16/94641067.pdf|title=$2,000,000 racket aim of Dewey raid|date=October 16, 1935|work=The New York Times|access-date=7 June 2013}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name="fbi records part one page 34">{{cite web|title=FBI Records: The Vault|url=http://vault.fbi.gov/Louis%20%28Lepke%29%20Buchalter/Louis%20%28Lepke%29%20Buchalter%20Part%201%20of%204/view|work=Louis Lepke Buchalter|access-date=7 July 2013}}</ref> On January 22, 1920, he returned to Sing Sing on a 30 month sentence for attempted burglary.<ref name="$2,000,000 racket" /> Buchalter was released on March 16, 1922. He was later executed for murder in 1944.<ref name="fbi records part one page 34" /> | |||
* ], hitman, executed in 1958. | |||
* ] and ], members of ], both executed in 1944. | |||
* ], ], Jacob Seidenshner, and Louis Rosenberg, accomplices of Charles Becker, were all executed in 1914. | |||
* ], editor of '']'', popularly known as the "Rose Man of Sing Sing".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Rose Man of Sing Sing: a true tale of life, murder, and redemption in the age of yellow journalism|last=McGrath|first=Morris, James|date=2003|publisher=Fordham University Press|isbn=978-0823238590|location=New York|oclc=647876393}}</ref> | |||
* ], suspected serial killer, executed, along with Everett Applegate, in 1936. | |||
* ], New York gangster and leader of the ], was sentenced to 10 years at Sing Sing in 1904.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9552387-monk-eastman|title=Monk Eastman: The Gangster Who Became a War Hero|website=Goodreads}}</ref> | |||
* ], so-called Lonely Heart Killers, were both executed in 1951.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-lonely-hearts-killers-are-executed|title=The Lonely Hearts Killers are executed | March 8, 1951|website=HISTORY}}</ref> | |||
* ], early-20th century American serial killer, child rapist, and cannibal, executed in 1936.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Deranged: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer|last=Schechter|first=Harold|publisher=Pocket Books|year=2009|isbn=978-0671678753|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/derangedshocking00sche}}</ref> | |||
* ], formerly, the longest-serving prison inmate in the United States whose sentence ended with his parole, who served 68 years and 296 days in various New York state prisons.<ref>New York Times, January 16, 1974 "Freedom Is Sought for a Murderer in Prison 62 Years"</ref> | |||
* ] and ], hitmen and members of ], were both executed in 1941. | |||
* ], a 19th-century ] ] who was a center of media attention for coming to court wearing feminine attire.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The "Man-Monster" by Jonathan Ned Katz · Peter Sewally/Mary Jones, June 11, 1836 : OutHistory: It's About Time|url=http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/sewally-jones/man-monster|access-date=2020-07-14|website=outhistory.org}}</ref> | |||
* ], serial killer, executed in 1959. | |||
* ], German former leader of the ], incarcerated at Sing Sing various times between 1939-1945 and deported to ].<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 29, 2013|title=Fritz Kuhn and the German-American Bund|url=https://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/122866/}}</ref> | |||
* ], convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Peter Weinberger, executed in 1958. | |||
* ], political activist and union leader sentenced to five to ten years in Sing Sing prison for "criminal anarchy" in 1919.<ref>{{Cite web|title=James Larkin in History of Socialism in British History|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/IRElarkin.htm}}</ref> | |||
* John Katehis, convicted for the murder of ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-katehis-teen-who-stabbed-radio-reporter-50-times-gets-25-to-life/|title=John Katehis, teen who stabbed radio reporter 50 times, gets 25-to-life|website=CBS News|date=December 14, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nysdoccslookup.doccs.ny.gov/|title=12A0161|website=New York State Department of Corrections}}</ref> | |||
* ], head of ] convicted on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution in 1936. Was later moved to ], until he was deported back to ]. | |||
* Michael Magnan, murdered a passenger in a taxi in 2012.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/man-charged-in-connection-with-livery-cab-shooting/ | title=Man Charged in Connection with Shooting of Livery Cab Passenger - CBS New York | website=] | date=19 August 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2012/08/23/victim-in-livery-cab-shooting-dies-of-his-injuries-in-hospital-wednesday/ | title=Victim in livery cab shooting dies of his injuries in hospital Wednesday | website=] | date=23 August 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2014/05/15/brooklyn-thug-convicted-of-fatally-shooting-livery-van-passenger-in-2012/ | title=Brooklyn thug convicted of fatally shooting livery van passenger in 2012 | website=] | date=15 May 2014 }}</ref> | |||
* ], executed in 1963, became the last person executed in New York. | |||
* Joesph Pabon, murdered Eridania Rodriguez in 2009.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2012/03/01/prosecutor-joseph-pabon-accused-in-brutal-slay-hunted-down-eridania-rodriguez-like-a-predator/ | title=Prosecutor: Joseph Pabon, accused in brutal slay, hunted down Eridania Rodriguez like a predator | website=] | date=March 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/nyregion/killer-who-hid-victims-body-in-air-duct-gets-maximum-sentence.html | title=Office Cleaner's Killer Gets 25 Years to Life | work=The New York Times | date=6 June 2012 | last1=Buettner | first1=Russ }}</ref> | |||
* ], infamous con man known for "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} | |||
* ], serial killer and rapist, executed in 1956. | |||
* ], executed in 1953 for conspiring to pass secrets of the American atomic bomb project to the ] during ].<ref>{{Cite web|date=June 20, 1953|title=Execution of the Rosenbergs|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1953/jun/20/usa.fromthearchive|website=]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Dinitia|date=June 21, 2000|title=Intimate View of the Death House; Exhibition on Sing Sing Tells of Last Meals and Final Moments|website=]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/21/arts/intimate-view-death-house-exhibition-sing-sing-tells-last-meals-final-moments.html}}</ref> | |||
* ], serial killer and rapist, executed in 1956. | |||
* ], executed in 1916, was the only Roman Catholic priest executed in the United States. | |||
* ], actor known for his role as ] on the critically acclaimed television series '']'', convicted of ] and served 20 months of his four-year sentence at Sing Sing.<ref>, UPI, March 20, 2006.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/sing-sing-bada-bing|title=From Sing Sing To Bada Bing!|publisher=thesmokinggun.com|date=February 25, 2001}}</ref> | |||
* ], executed along with Henry Judd Gray in 1928, Snyder's execution was illegally photographed. | |||
* ], career criminal who escaped December 11, 1932.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} | |||
* ], member of the ], served his first prison sentence (of approximately one year) at Sing Sing before he was 20 years old.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23877535-joe-valachi---mob-rats---volume-1|title=Joe Valachi - Mob Rats - Volume 1|website=Goodreads}}</ref> | |||
* ], served a 25 years to life sentence after wrongfully convicted for murder, released in 2021. | |||
* ], ] swindler who ran a New York City investment firm with ], son of former ] ], revealed to be a ] that bankrupted the Grant family in 1884.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brands|first=H.W.|title=The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace|publisher=Doubleday|year=2012|isbn=978-0-385-53241-9|pages=621–622}}</ref> | |||
* ] served a sentence for embezzlement at Sing Sing from 1938 until 1941.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Rosenberg|first1=Elliot|date=August 9, 2016|title=From Wall Street to Sing Sing|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/from-wall-street-to-sing-sing-1470783410}}</ref> | |||
* ], serial killer, executed in 1963. | |||
==See also== | |||
{{Portal|New York (state)}} | |||
* ] | |||
* ], which contains one of Sing Sing's ]s | |||
* '']'' by Adam J. Hirsch | |||
* '']'' by Mark Colvin | |||
== References == | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
==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. | |||
* ]. ''Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House''. (2000) | |||
* Conover, Ted. '']'' (2000) {{ISBN|0-375-50177-0}} | |||
* Conyes, Alfred. ''Fifty Years in Sing Sing: A Personal Account, 1879–1929''. SUNY Press (2015). {{ISBN|978-1-4384-5422-1}} | |||
* Gado, Mark. ''Death Row Women''. (2008) {{ISBN|978-0-275-99361-0}} | |||
* {{cite book|author= Gilfoyle, Timothy J.|title=A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York|publisher=W. W. Norton Company|date=2006|isbn=978-0393329896}} | |||
* Goeway, David. ''Crash Out: The True Tale of a Hell's Kitchen Kid and the Bloodiest Escape in Sing Sing History''. (2005) | |||
* ] ''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. {{ISBN|978-0-521-53783-4}} | |||
* 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) {{ISBN|1-932595-06-6}} | |||
* Pereira, Al Bermudez. ''Sing Sing State Prison, One Day, One Lifetime'' (2006) {{ISBN|978-0-8059-7290-0}} | |||
* Pereira, Al Bermudez. ''Ruins of a Society and the Honorable'' (2009) {{ISBN|978-0-578-04343-2}} | |||
* Weinstein, Lewis M. ''A Good Conviction''. (2007) {{ISBN|1-59594-162-2}} (fiction) | |||
== External links == | |||
{{Commons category}} | |||
* – ]<!--This link should be kept no matter what--> | |||
* from ] | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010124104200/http://www.hudsonriver.com/halfmoonpress/stories/0500sing.htm |date=2001-01-24 }} ''Half Moon Press'', May 2000 issue | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121165231/http://www.p-c-i.org/rta |date=2008-11-21 }} | |||
* '''' – Segment from ]'s '']'' | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* from the ] Papers, ] Digital Collections | |||
* | |||
{{State prisons in New York|state}} | |||
{{Execution sites in the United States}}{{Authority control}} | |||
{{Coord|41|9|6|N|73|52|8|W|display=title }} | |||
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Latest revision as of 22:59, 19 December 2024
Maximum-security prison in Ossining, New York For other uses, see Sing Sing (disambiguation).Location | 354 Hunter Street, Ossining, New York |
---|---|
Status | Operational |
Security class | Maximum |
Capacity | 1,747 |
Population | 1,576 (as of 2019) |
Opened | 1826; 198 years ago (1826) |
Former name | Ossining Correctional Facility |
Managed by | New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision |
Warden | Marlyn Kopp (list of wardens) |
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison 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 30 miles (48 km) north of Midtown Manhattan on the east bank of the Hudson River. It holds about 1,700 inmates as of 2007, 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. The total abolition of capital punishment in New York occurred in 2007.
The name "Sing Sing" derives from the Sintsink Native American tribe from whom the New York colony purchased the land in 1685, 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. There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a period museum.
The prison property is bisected by the Metro-North Railroad's four-track Hudson Line.
History
Early years
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.
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 sinck sinck, which translates to 'stone upon stone'. In March 1825, the legislature appropriated $20,100 to purchase the 130-acre (0.53 km) site, and the project received the official stamp of approval. Lynds selected 100 inmates from the Auburn prison for transfer and had them transported by barge via the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River to 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.
When it was opened in 1826, it was considered a model prison because it turned a profit for the state. 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, to get Lynds removed the prison chaplain around 1843, reported his actions to New York Governor William H. Seward and the president of the board of inspectors, John Edmonds. Luckey also created a religious library in the prison, with the purpose of teaching correct moral principles.
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. 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.
After 1900
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. 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.
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.
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. 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. Several new buildings were constructed during the years Lawes was warden. Lawes retired in 1941 and died six years later.
In 1943, the old cellblock was closed and the metal bars and doors were donated to the war effort.
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. As of 2019, Sing Sing houses approximately 1,500 inmates, employs about 900 people, 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. In April 2011, there were talks of closing the prison to take advantage of its valuable real estate.
Executions
Main article: Capital punishment in New York (state)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. 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 ), 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.
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" 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. The video is currently being used by various non-profits and law enforcement agencies to help prevent gun violence.
In 1996, Katherine Vockins founded Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) at Sing Sing, enabling theater professionals to provide prisoners with a curriculum of year-round theater-related workshops. 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. 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. 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." RTA currently operates at five other New York state prisons.
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.
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.
Football 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.
Museum
Main article: Sing Sing museumPlans 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. 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. The proposed museum would display the Sing Sing story as it unfolded over time.
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.
Gallery
- View from afar, 1857 engraving
- The prison and workshops, c. 1863–1885
- A cell in the older facility
- Sing Sing after the 1913 fire
- Old cell block, c. 1938
- Guard tower in 2014. The Hudson River and the original Tappan Zee Bridge are in the background.
- Prisoners at Sing Sing knitting socks for soldiers in 1915
- Stereoscopic view of Sing Sing Prison, interior looking down cell block
Notable inmates
- Frank Abbandando and Harry Maione, hitmen and members of Murder, Inc., both executed in 1942.
- George Appo, 19th-century pickpocket and con artist.
- Charles Becker, NYPD Lieutenant convicted for the murder of Herman Rosenthal and executed at Sing Sing on July 30, 1915.
- Maria Barbella, the second woman sentenced to death by electric chair. The sentence was later overruled and Barbella was set free.
- Robert Bierenbaum, convicted in October 2000 of having murdered his estranged wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum, 15 years earlier.
- Louis Buchalter, American mobster and head of Murder, Inc. who served 18 months at Sing Sing for grand larceny. On January 22, 1920, he returned to Sing Sing on a 30 month sentence for attempted burglary. Buchalter was released on March 16, 1922. He was later executed for murder in 1944.
- Elmer "Trigger" Burke, hitman, executed in 1958.
- Louis Capone and Emanuel Weiss, members of Murder, Inc., both executed in 1944.
- Frank Cirofici, Harry Horowitz, Jacob Seidenshner, and Louis Rosenberg, accomplices of Charles Becker, were all executed in 1914.
- Charles Chapin, editor of New York Evening World, popularly known as the "Rose Man of Sing Sing".
- Mary Frances Creighton, suspected serial killer, executed, along with Everett Applegate, in 1936.
- Monk Eastman, New York gangster and leader of the Eastman Gang, was sentenced to 10 years at Sing Sing in 1904.
- Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, so-called Lonely Heart Killers, were both executed in 1951.
- Albert Fish, early-20th century American serial killer, child rapist, and cannibal, executed in 1936.
- Paul Geidel, formerly, the longest-serving prison inmate in the United States whose sentence ended with his parole, who served 68 years and 296 days in various New York state prisons.
- Martin Goldstein and Harry Strauss, hitmen and members of Murder, Inc., were both executed in 1941.
- Mary Jones, a 19th-century transgender prostitute who was a center of media attention for coming to court wearing feminine attire.
- Leroy Keith, serial killer, executed in 1959.
- Fritz Julius Kuhn, German former leader of the German American Bund, incarcerated at Sing Sing various times between 1939-1945 and deported to Germany.
- Angelo LaMarca, convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Peter Weinberger, executed in 1958.
- James Larkin, political activist and union leader sentenced to five to ten years in Sing Sing prison for "criminal anarchy" in 1919.
- John Katehis, convicted for the murder of George Weber.
- Charles "Lucky" Luciano, head of the Genovese crime family convicted on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution in 1936. Was later moved to Clinton Correctional Facility, until he was deported back to Italy.
- Michael Magnan, murdered a passenger in a taxi in 2012.
- Eddie Lee Mays, executed in 1963, became the last person executed in New York.
- Joesph Pabon, murdered Eridania Rodriguez in 2009.
- George C. Parker, infamous con man known for "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge.
- John Roche, serial killer and rapist, executed in 1956.
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953 for conspiring to pass secrets of the American atomic bomb project to the Soviet Union during World War II.
- Norman Roye, serial killer and rapist, executed in 1956.
- Hans Schmidt, executed in 1916, was the only Roman Catholic priest executed in the United States.
- Tony Sirico, actor known for his role as Paulie Gaultieri on the critically acclaimed television series The Sopranos, convicted of felony weapons possession and served 20 months of his four-year sentence at Sing Sing.
- Ruth Snyder, executed along with Henry Judd Gray in 1928, Snyder's execution was illegally photographed.
- Willie Sutton, career criminal who escaped December 11, 1932.
- Joseph Valachi, member of the American Mafia, served his first prison sentence (of approximately one year) at Sing Sing before he was 20 years old.
- Jon-Adrian Velazquez, served a 25 years to life sentence after wrongfully convicted for murder, released in 2021.
- Ferdinand Ward, Gilded Age swindler who ran a New York City investment firm with Ulysses S. Grant Jr., son of former President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant, revealed to be a Ponzi scheme that bankrupted the Grant family in 1884.
- Richard Whitney served a sentence for embezzlement at Sing Sing from 1938 until 1941.
- Frederick Charles Wood, serial killer, executed in 1963.
See also
- List of reduplicated place names
- Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, which contains one of Sing Sing's electric chairs
- The Rise of the Penitentiary: Prisons and Punishment in Early America by Adam J. Hirsch
- Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs by Mark Colvin
References
- ^ Feicht, Jennifer L. (2019-11-11). Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Audit Report, Adult Prisons & Jails (PDF) (Report). New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
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{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - Village looks to create Sing Sing museum, May 22, 2007. Earthtimes.org http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/65218.html Archived 2021-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
- Daly, Dan (2012). The National Forgotten League. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-8032-4460-3.
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{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Gado, Mark. "All about Sing Sing Prison". Crime Library. Court TV. Archived from the original on 2007-05-27. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
- "The History of Sing Sing Prison, by the Half Moon Press". Hudsonriver.com. May 2000. Archived from the original on 24 January 2001. Retrieved 2015-05-24.
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- "New York State Archives: Institutional Records: Sing Sing Correctional Facility". Archives.nysed.gov. Archived from the original on 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
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- Adam Jay Hirsch, The Rise of the Penitentiary: Prisons and Punishment in Early America, New Haven and London (1992).
- Floyd, Janet, "Dislocations of the self: Eliza Farnham at Sing Sing Prison", Journal of American Studies (2006), 40(02), p. 311 JSTOR 27557794.
- 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.
- Thomas Mott Osborne (1914). Within Prison Walls: Being a Narrative of Personal Experience During a Week of Voluntary Confinement in the State Prison at Auburn, New York at Project Gutenberg
- Tannenbaum, Frank (1933). Osborne of Sing Sing. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 103.
- McKelvey, Blake (1977). American prisons: A history of good intentions. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith. pp. 262–265.
- Denis Brian, Sing Sing: The Inside Story of a Notorious Prison, 85–112.
- The New York Times: "Convicts' Carnival Welcomes Osborne", July 17, 1916. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
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- "EX-WARDEN LAWES OF SING SING DIES; Head of State Prison for More Than 20 Years Succumbs to Cerebral Hemorrhage KNOWN AS HUMANITARIAN1 j His Application of New Methods to Penal Correction Won Wide Recognition". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
- "Lewis E. Lawes' NYC & NYC Correctional Career:Part 2". Correctionhistory.org. 2003-06-25. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- "All about Sing Sing Prison, by Mark Gado – Lewis E. Lawes – Crime Library on". Trutv.com. 1920-01-01. Archived from the original on 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- "NYCHS excerpts: Mark Gado's "Stone Upon Stone: Sing Sing Prison"". Correctionhistory.org. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- "All about Sing Sing Prison, by Mark Gado – Sing Sing Now – Crime Library on". Trutv.com. Archived from the original on 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- "'Up the river' views: Sing Sing condos". New York Post. 2011-04-06.
- Executions of Federal Prisoners (since 1927), Federal Bureau of Prisons, archived from the original on February 15, 2013, retrieved August 22, 2010
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- Kilgannon, Corey (14 February 2015). "At Brooklyn Police Station, Using Inmates' Video (And Pizza) to Prevent Youth Crime". The New York Times.
- ^ Susan Hodara, "For Inmates, a Stage Paved With Hope", The New York Times, May 27, 2007.
- ^ "Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage". P-c-i.org. Archived from the original on 2010-07-18. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- "Program Objectives – Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage". P-c-i.org. Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- "The Impact of RTA on Social and Institutional Behavior Executive Summary Lorraine Moller, Ph.D" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-18. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- 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.
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- Sing Sing Football Records: "Sing Sing". Retrieved August 3, 2015.
- "Sing Sing Prison Museum, Ossining, New York". Roadsideamerica.com. Retrieved 2012-11-30.
- "Would a Sing Sing Museum Be in Bad Taste?". The New York Times. 2007-05-20.
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- Flowers and Flowers, p. 63
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- "Defense Rests After Calling Some of Those Who Saw the Murder of Rosenthal". The New York Times. 16 November 1912. Retrieved 28 December 2020. (Subscription required.)
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- ^ "$2,000,000 racket aim of Dewey raid" (PDF). The New York Times. October 16, 1935. Retrieved 7 June 2013.(subscription required)
- ^ "FBI Records: The Vault". Louis Lepke Buchalter. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
- McGrath, Morris, James (2003). The Rose Man of Sing Sing: a true tale of life, murder, and redemption in the age of yellow journalism. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0823238590. OCLC 647876393.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "Monk Eastman: The Gangster Who Became a War Hero". Goodreads.
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- "The "Man-Monster" by Jonathan Ned Katz · Peter Sewally/Mary Jones, June 11, 1836 : OutHistory: It's About Time". outhistory.org. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
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- "12A0161". New York State Department of Corrections.
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- "Brooklyn thug convicted of fatally shooting livery van passenger in 2012". New York Daily News. 15 May 2014.
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- Rosenberg, Elliot (August 9, 2016). "From Wall Street to Sing Sing". Wall Street Journal.
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) ISBN 0-375-50177-0
- Conyes, Alfred. Fifty Years in Sing Sing: A Personal Account, 1879–1929. SUNY Press (2015). ISBN 978-1-4384-5422-1
- Gado, Mark. Death Row Women. (2008) ISBN 978-0-275-99361-0
- Gilfoyle, Timothy J. (2006). A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York. W. W. Norton Company. ISBN 978-0393329896.
- 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. ISBN 978-0-521-53783-4
- 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) ISBN 1-932595-06-6
- Pereira, Al Bermudez. Sing Sing State Prison, One Day, One Lifetime (2006) ISBN 978-0-8059-7290-0
- Pereira, Al Bermudez. Ruins of a Society and the Honorable (2009) ISBN 978-0-578-04343-2
- Weinstein, Lewis M. A Good Conviction. (2007) ISBN 1-59594-162-2 (fiction)
External links
- Facility Listing – New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
- "All about Sing Sing Prison" by Mark Gado from The Crime Library
- New York Corrections History Society
- Town of Ossining, NY – Town History
- "The History of Sing Sing Prison" Archived 2001-01-24 at the Wayback Machine Half Moon Press, May 2000 issue
- Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
- Tocqueville in Ossining – Segment from C-SPAN's Alexis de Tocqueville Tour
- C-SPAN's Inside the Sing Sing Prison, June 6, 1997
- Unedited footage from C-SPAN's Sing Sing documentary
- Mug shots of prisoners and photos of the prison 1920–1941 (digitized images) from the Lewis Lawes Papers, Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections
- Sing Sing Prison Museum website
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