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Sing Sing



 
 
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security
Supermax

Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in some countries' prison systems....
 prison
Prison

A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or internment and usually deprived of a range of personal Freedom ....
 in the Village of Ossining
Ossining (village), New York

Ossining is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village in Westchester County, New York, New York, United States. The population was 24,010 at the 2000 census....
, Town of Ossining
Ossining (town), New York

Ossining is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Town in Westchester County, New York, New York, United States. The population was 36,534 at the 2000 census....
, New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. It is located approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 on the banks of the Hudson River
Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
. Ossining's original name, "Sing Sing", was named after the Native American Sinck Sinck tribe from whom the land was purchased in 1685.

Sing Sing houses approximately 1,700 prisoners. There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a museum.

arch, 1796, legislation was passed requiring the building of two state prisons in New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, one in Albany
Albany, New York

Albany is the Capital of the state of New York and the county seat of Albany County, New York. Albany is roughly 136 miles north of the city of New York City, and slightly south of the confluence of the Mohawk River and Hudson Rivers....
 and the other somewhere in southern New York.






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Encyclopedia


Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security
Supermax

Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in some countries' prison systems....
 prison
Prison

A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or internment and usually deprived of a range of personal Freedom ....
 in the Village of Ossining
Ossining (village), New York

Ossining is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village in Westchester County, New York, New York, United States. The population was 24,010 at the 2000 census....
, Town of Ossining
Ossining (town), New York

Ossining is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Town in Westchester County, New York, New York, United States. The population was 36,534 at the 2000 census....
, New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. It is located approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 on the banks of the Hudson River
Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
. Ossining's original name, "Sing Sing", was named after the Native American Sinck Sinck tribe from whom the land was purchased in 1685.

Sing Sing houses approximately 1,700 prisoners. There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a museum.

History

In March, 1796, legislation was passed requiring the building of two state prisons in New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, one in Albany
Albany, New York

Albany is the Capital of the state of New York and the county seat of Albany County, New York. Albany is roughly 136 miles north of the city of New York City, and slightly south of the confluence of the Mohawk River and Hudson Rivers....
 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, in fact, built in Albany, but one was constructed in Auburn
Auburn, New York

Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, New York, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 28,574. It is the county seat of Cayuga County, New York....
, beginning in April, 1815 and opening a year later.

In 1825, the New York Legislature
New York Legislature

The New York Legislature is the State legislature of the U.S. state of New York. It is a bicameral legislature, consisting of the lower house New York State Assembly and the upper house New York Senate....
 gave Elam Lynds the task of constructing a new, more modern prison. Lynds was the warden of Auburn Prison
Auburn Prison

Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison located on New York State Route 38 in Auburn, New York. It is classified as a maximum security facility....
 and a former Army
United States Army

The United States Army is the branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S....
 captain. He spent months researching possible locations for the prison, considering Staten Island
Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, situated almost entirely on the island of the same name in the extreme southwest part of the city....
, The Bronx
The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the Five Boroughs of New York City and the newest of the 62 Administrative divisions of New York#county of New York State....
, and Silver Mine Farm, an area in the town of Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant, New York

Mount Pleasant is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Town in Westchester County, New York, New York, in the United States. As of the 2000 census , the town population was 43,221....
, located on the banks of the Hudson River
Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
.

He also visited New Hampshire
New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States of America. The state was named after the southern English Counties of England of 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
Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a primarily suburban Political subdivisions of New York State#County located in the U.S. state of New York with about 950,000 residents....
 with the unlikely name of Sing Sing. This appellation was derived from the Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 words, "Sint Sinck" which translates to "stone upon stone". 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
Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a man-made waterway in New York state that runs about 365 miles from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes....
 to freighters down the Hudson River
Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
. 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.
Sing Sing (prison) With Warden
Sing Sing (prison)   Cell
Lynds' plan was to use prisoner labor to excavate marble
Marble

Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for Marble sculpture, as a architecture material, and in many other applications....
 from a nearby quarry
Quarry

A quarry is a type of open-pit mining from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone....
 and use it to construct the prison, a practice Lynds had seen used in New Hampshire
New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States of America. The state was named after the southern English Counties of England of Hampshire....
 and Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
. Once the prison was built, the prisoners would continue excavating marble to be shipped down the Hudson River to New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. Beyond the initial sum required to purchase the land, the prison was to be self-supporting, not requiring taxpayer funding. Some of the marble went into the construction of New York University
New York University

New York University is a private university, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan....
, the United States Treasury building, New York City's Grace Church
Grace Church, New York

Grace Church, also known as Grace Church and Dependencies, at 802 Broadway in Manhattan, is a historic full-service parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York....
, and the New York State Capitol
New York State Capitol

The New York State Capitol is the seat of government of the U.S. state of New York. Housing the New York Legislature, it is located in the state capital of Albany, New York on State Street in Capitol Park....
 building in Albany.

When it was completed, Sing Sing was considered a model prison, because it turned a profit for the state. Lynds employed the Auburn system
Auburn system

The Auburn system is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times....
, which imposed absolute silence on the prisoners; the system was enforced by whipping and other brutal punishments. Visitors found the silence of the up-to 900 prisoners, even as they worked. 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
Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the Executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state. In federations, a governor may be the title of each appointed or elected politician who governs a constitutive state....
 called in the army to quell a riot
Riot

A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized by disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence, vandalism or other crime....
.

Another notable warden, besides Lynds, was Lewis Lawes
Lewis Lawes

Lewis E. Lawes was a prison warden and an outspoken proponent of Reform movement.He was born the only child of Henry Lewis and Sarah Lawes . His father worked as a prison guard at the New York State Reformatory, now called the Elmira Correctional Facility....
. He was offered the position of warden, a position which had been filled by nine separate people in the previous nine years, one for only three weeks;and accepted in 1920. 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. Documented punishments were brutal, and described a long history of abuse by both prison guards and wardens.

Sing Sing has its own cemetery
Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which death body and cremation are burial. The term cemetery implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground....
; among those buried there is serial killer
Serial killer

A serial killer is a person who murders usually three or more people"One of the most famous [geographically stable] serial killers is Wayne Williams....
 Albert Fish
Albert Fish

Albert Hamilton Fish was an American serial killer. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, and The Boogeyman....
.

Notable prisoners

  • Albert Fish
    Albert Fish

    Albert Hamilton Fish was an American serial killer. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, and The Boogeyman....
    , a serial killer
    Serial killer

    A serial killer is a person who murders usually three or more people"One of the most famous [geographically stable] serial killers is Wayne Williams....
     and cannibal (executed in 1936 and buried in the prison cemetery).
  • Carl Panzram
    Carl Panzram

    Carl Panzram was an United Statesn serial killer. He often used aliases such as "Carl Baldwin" in Oregon; "Jeff Davis" in Idaho and Montana; "Jefferson Davis" in California and Montana; "Jeff Rhodes" in Montana; "Jack Allen" and "Jefferson Baldwin" in Oregon; "John King"; and "John O'Leary" in New York....
    , serial killer, 1923.
  • Charles Becker
    Charles Becker

    Charles Becker was a New York City police officer in the 1890's and 1910's and who was tried, convicted and executed for ordering the murder of a Manhattan gambler, Herman Rosenthal....
    , the first American policeman executed for murder.
  • Charles Chapin
    Charles Chapin

    Charles Chapin was a New York City newspaper editor later sentenced to a 20-year-to-life term in Sing Sing prison for the murder of his wife....
    , "The Rose Man", a former New York City newspaper editor served a life sentence for murder.
  • Eddie Mays, last prisoner executed by the State of New York in the electric chair in 1963 prior to abolishing capital punishment.
  • Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, convicted of being spies for the Soviet Union
    Soviet Union

    The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
    .
  • Frank Abbandando
    Frank Abbandando

    Frank Abbandando , nicknamed "The Dasher", was a New York Contract killing who committed many murders as part of the infamous Murder, Inc....
    , former member of Murder, Inc.
  • Gary McGivern
    Gary McGivern

    Gerald ?Gary? McGivern was a felony found guilty in 1967 of the robbery of a filling station in Pelham Manor, New York, during which two police officers were wounded....
    , recipient of controversial clemency in 1985.
  • George C. Parker
    George C. Parker

    George Parker was one of the most audacious confidence trick in American history. He made his living selling New York's public landmarks to unwary tourists....
    , con artist who sold the Brooklyn Bridge
    Brooklyn Bridge

    The Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States, stretches 5,989 feet over the East River, connecting the New York City borough s of Manhattan and Brooklyn ....
    .
  • James Larkin
    James Larkin

    James Larkin , an Irish trade union leader and socialist activist, was born to Ireland parents in Liverpool, England in 1875. He and his family later moved to a small cottage in Burren, southern County Down....
    , Irish labor leader imprisoned from 1920 to 1923 for 'criminal anarchy' as a result of his left wing writings.
  • Louis "Lepke" Buchalter
    Louis Buchalter

    Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was a Jewish-American mobster of the 1930s in the USA. He is the only major mob boss to have been executed by state or federal authorities....
    , the head of Murder, Inc.
    Murder, Inc.

    Murder, Inc., Murder Incorporated or Brownsville Boys was the name given by the press for an organized crime group in the 1920s to 1940s that carried out hundreds of murders on behalf of the mob....
     was executed there.
  • Louis Capone
    Louis Capone

    Louis Capone was a New York organized crime figure who became a hitman for the notorious Murder Inc. Louis Capone was not related to the boss of the Chicago Outfit, Al Capone....
    , former member of Murder, Inc.; no relation to Al Capone
    Al Capone

    Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone , commonly nicknamed "Scarface", was an Italian-American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to smuggling and Rum-running of alcoholic beverage and other illegal activities during the Prohibition in the United States Era of the 1920s and 1930s....
    .
  • Martha Beck
    Raymond Fernandez

    Raymond Fernandez and his common-law wife Martha Beck became known as "The Lonely Hearts Killers" after their arrest and trial for serial murder in 1949....
     and Raymond Fernandez
    Raymond Fernandez

    Raymond Fernandez and his common-law wife Martha Beck became known as "The Lonely Hearts Killers" after their arrest and trial for serial murder in 1949....
    , electrocuted there after being found guilty for the murders of twelve people.
  • Miguel Piñero
    Miguel Piñero

    Miguel Pi?ero was a Puerto Rico playwright, actor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe....
    , playwright; sentenced to 25 years for armed robbery.
  • Richard Whitney
    Richard Whitney (financier)

    Richard Whitney was an United States financier, president of the New York Stock Exchange 1930?1935, and a convicted embezzler.Richard Whitney was born into a wealthy Boston, Massachusetts, family, growing up friends of the Boston Brahmin elite....
    , former president of the New York Stock Exchange
    New York Stock Exchange

    New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange based in New York City, New York. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by United States dollar market capitalization of its listed companies' Security ....
    .
  • Ruth Snyder
    Ruth Snyder

    Ruth Brown Snyder was an United States murderer. Her death penalty in the electric chair for the murder of her husband, Albert, at Sing Sing Prison on January 12, 1928, was captured in a famous photograph....
    , convicted of killing her husband for insurance money.
  • Piri Thomas
    Piri Thomas

    Piri Thomas is a writer and poet whose autobiography Down These Mean Streets became a best-seller....
    , writer of Down These Mean Streets
    Down These Mean Streets

    Down These Mean Streets is the autobiography of Piri Thomas, a Latino of Puerto Rican American and Cubans descent who grew up in El Barrio , a section of Harlem, Manhattan that has a large Puerto Rican population....
    .
  • Charles "Lucky" Luciano, considered the father of organized crime.
  • William H. Van Schaick, captain of the General Slocum
    General Slocum

    The SS General Slocum was a steamship launched in 1891. She caught fire and burned to the water in New York's East River on June 15, 1904. More than 1,000 people died in the accident, making it New York City's worst loss-of-life disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks....
    , responsible for the worst maritime
    Maritime

    Maritime may refer to:* Things related to the sea or oceans ,* Things related to sailing,* Things related to a mariner or sailor,* A maritime climate,...
     accident in New York's history.
  • William Tager
    William Tager

    William Tager is a Charlotte, North Carolina man who allegedly assaulted Dan Rather and later murdered Campbell Montgomery because of his belief that television networks were watching him and sending him signals....
    , infamous for attacking Dan Rather
    Dan Rather

    Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is a journalist and former news presenter for the CBS Evening News and is now managing editor and anchor of a television news magazine, Dan Rather Reports, on the cable channel HDNet....
     in New York and shouting "Kenneth, what is the frequency?", subsequently convicted and sentenced to 25 years for shooting a Today Show stagehand.
  • Willie Sutton
    Willie Sutton

    William "Willie" Sutton was a prolific United States bank robber. For his talent at executing robberies in disguises, he gained two nicknames, "Willie the Actor" and "Slick Willie." When not disguised, Sutton was an immaculate dresser....
    , bank robber.
  • Benjamin Gitlow
    Benjamin Gitlow

    Benjamin Gitlow was a prominent American socialist of the early twentieth century....
    , communist convicted of criminal anarchy


Contribution to English vernacular

  • "Doing the sit-down dance", meaning execution in the electric chair
    Electric chair

    Execution by electrocution is an execution method originating in the United States in which the person being put to death is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electric shock through electrodes placed on the body....
    , originated at Sing Sing.
  • The expression "up the river" for prison originally referred to those convicted in New York City being sent up the Hudson river to Sing Sing.


Further reading

  • The Repression of Crime, Studies in Historical Penology by Harry Elmer Barnes. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith.
  • Fifty Years of Prison Service by Zebulon Reed Brockway. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith.
  • The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism by James McGrath Morris (2003)
  • Crash Out: The True Tale of a Hell's Kitchen Kid and the Bloodiest Escape in Sing Sing History by David Goewey (2005)
  • Miracle at Sing Sing: How One Man Transformed the Lives of America's Most Dangerous Prisoners by Ralph Blumenthal (2005)
  • Sing Sing: The Inside Story of a Notorious Prison by Denis Brian (2005)
  • Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House by Scott Christianson (2000)
  • Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover
    Ted Conover

    Ted Conover is an United States author and journalist. A graduate of Denver's Manual High School and Amherst College and a Marshall Scholar, he is also a distinguished writer-in-residence in the Department of Journalism at New York University....
     (2000), ISBN 0-375-50177-0
  • A Good Conviction a novel by Lewis M. Weinstein (2007), ISBN 1595941622
  • 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way To Freedom by Anthony Papa (2004), ISBN 1932595066
  • Lawes, Lewis E.. 20,00 Years in Sing Sing. 1st. New York: Ray Long & Richard H. Smith, Inc., 1932.
  • Sing Sing State Prison, One Day, One Lifetime, by Al Bermudez Pereira
    Al Bermudez Pereira

    Infobox Writer for more information see...
     (2006), ISBN 978-0805972900.
  • Death Row Women by Mark Gado (2008) ISBN 978-0-275-99361-0


External links

  • from The Crime Library
  • Half Moon Press, May 2000 issue