thumb File:Sing 3842835064 769bc7715d o.jpg|300px|thumb |Prison in 1913 Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison [1] in the Village of Ossining, Town of Ossining, New York, United States. It is located approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City on the banks of the Hudson River. Ossining's original name, "Sing Sing", was named after the Native American Sinck Sinck tribe from whom the land was purchased in 1685. [2] Sing Sing houses approximately 1,700 prisoners. [3] There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a museum. [4]

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History

thumb In March 1796, legislation was passed requiring the building of two state prisons in New York, one in Albany and the other somewhere in southern New York. In addition to the plan for the construction of the two prisons, there was to be appointed a "Board of inspectors," whose job was to "statedly visit the prisons, purchase clothing, bedding, raw materials for manufacturing purposes and to keep an account of the earnings and expenses of each prison" ; the law also provided that the state governor and Council were to appoint a "Keeper, who was to be of some mechanical profession." No prison was built in Albany, but one was constructed in Auburn, beginning in April 1815 and opening a year later.

In 1825, the New York Legislature gave Elam Lynds the task of constructing a new, more modern prison. Lynds was the warden of Auburn Prison and a former Army captain. He 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, located on the banks of the Hudson River.

He also visited New Hampshire, where a prison was successfully constructed by inmate labor, using stone that was available on site. For this reason, by May, Lynds had finally decided on Mount Pleasant, located near a small village in Westchester County with the unlikely name of Sing Sing. This appellation was derived from the Indian words, "Sinck Sinck" which translates to "stone upon stone". ^[5] The legislature appropriated $20,100 to purchase the site, and the project received the official stamp of approval. Lynds hand-selected 100 inmates from his own private stock for transfer and had them transported by barge along the Erie Canal to freighters down the Hudson River. 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. ^{[6] [7]}

When it was completed, Sing Sing was considered a model prison, because it turned a profit for the state. Lynds employed the Auburn system, which imposed absolute silence on the prisoners; the system was enforced by whipping and other brutal punishments. After Lynds left in the wake of a scandal involving the pregnancy of a female prisoner , conditions at the prison began to deteriorate. Fires and disease became common, and in 1861, the governor called in the Army to quell a riot.

Another notable warden, besides Lynds, was Lewis Lawes. He was offered the position of warden in 1919, accepted in January 1920, and remained for 20 years as Sing Sing's warden — a position which had been filled by nine separate people in the nine years prior to 1920, one of those for only three weeks. What he found was a facility that had lost any semblance of order through decades of neglect and abuse. Records documented 795 male and 102 female prisoners at Sing Sing; a head count turned up only 762 and 82 actually present. "How these missing prisoners had left the prison or when, could not be ascertained," he said. Worse still, for one prisoner who had been incarcerated for five years, there was no record of admission or retention history. He was declared a "volunteer," and released on the spot. Also, more than $30,000 in cash was missing from prison bank accounts, and there was no trace as to where the money went. Lewis Lawes made many positive changes and put inmates in positions within the prison he knew he could trust.

For example, when Lawes came across Jimmy DeStefano on the prison roster, he recognized the name from when the inmate was a young orphaned boy running the streets of Little Italy with Al Capone and the Five Points Gang. Knowing he could be trusted and depended upon to do one of the most stressful assignments in Sing Sing Prison, he assigned him as the barber in the Death House. He remained in that position longer than any other inmate barber ever had. During the five years he was barber, he gave 46 men and one woman their final haircuts. The woman, Ruth Snyder, was executed for murdering her husband in order to gain insurance money. A New York Daily News photographer hid a camera on his ankle, and the moment the first jolt of electricity passed through Ruth Snyder's body, he snapped the most famous and only picture ever taken during an execution. This photo is still in demand today. Before Warden Lawes, documented punishments were brutal, and described a long history of abuse by both prison guards and wardens; this changed under Warden Lewis E. Lawes, who implemented historic reforms.

Theater and Arts Program at Sing Sing

In 1996, Katherine Vockins founded Rehabilitation Through The Arts RTA Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) at Sing Sing ^[8]. RTA works in collaboration with theater professionals to provide prisoners with a curriculum of year-round theater-related workshops ^[8]. The RTA program has put on a number of plays at Sing Sing open to prisoners and community guests. The program has shown that the use of dramatic techniques leads to significant improvements in the cognitive behavior of the program's participants inside prison and a reduction in recidivism once paroled ^[10]. The impact of RTA on social and institutional behavior was formally evaluated by John Jay College for Criminal Justice, in collaboration with the NYS Department of Corrections. ^[11]. Led by Dr. Lorraine Moller, Professor of Speech and Drama at John Jay, The study found that RTA had a positive impact on prisoners who participated in the program, showing that "the longer the inmate was in the program, the fewer violations he committed." ^[12]. The RTA programn currently operates at 5 other New York state prisons ^[10].

Contribution to English vernacular

• "Doing the sit-down dance", meaning execution in the electric chair, originated at Sing Sing. ^[14]
• The expressions "up the river" or "upstate" for prison originally referred to those convicted in New York City being sent up the Hudson river to Sing Sing. ^[15]

Wardens

• John S. Kennedy ? to 1913 ^[16]
• James M. Clancy 1913 to 1914 ^{[17] [18]}
• Thomas Mott Osborne 1914 to 1917
• Lewis E. Lawes 1920 to 1941

References

1. NYS Dept. of Corrections Facility list
2. "History of Ossining." ''Greater Ossining Chamber of Commerce''. Retrieved on December 21, 2008.
3. ''Hub System: Profile of Inmate Population Under Custody on January 1, 2007.'' State of New York, Department of Correctional Services. http://www.docs.state.ny.us/Research/Reports/Hub_Report_2007.pdf
4. Village looks to create Sing Sing museum, May 22, 2007. Earthtimes.org http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/65218.html
5. Crime Library profile of Sing Sing Prison http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/index.html
6. "The History of Sing Sing Prison, by the Half Moon Press, May 2000"
7. The development of American prisons and prison customs, 1776-1845 : with special reference to early institutions in the State of New York
8. New York Times: For Inmates, a Stage Paved With Hope May 27, 2007
9. New York Times: For Inmates, a Stage Paved With Hope May 27, 2007
10. Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage
11. Program Objectives - Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage
12. The Impact of RTA on Social and Institutional Behavior Executive Summary Lorraine Moller, Ph.D
13. Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage
14. ''Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins'' by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988)
15. [1]
16. Ex-Warden at Sing Sing Said to Seek His Former Place.
17. Sing Sing's Warden, He Says, Must Remain and Complete Work.
18. Relatives Hear Clancy Has Resigned, but They Cannot Confirm the Report.