Sing Sing
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Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison in Ossining, New York, USA. It is located approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City on the banks of the Hudson River. The name comes from the town of Ossining's original name of "Sing Sing", though the penitentiary was first called "Mount Pleasant" when it opened in 1828.
Sing Sing houses approximately 1,700 prisoners.[1] There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a museum.[2]
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[edit] History
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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 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, 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, "Sint Sinck" which translates to "stone upon stone". The legislature appropriated $20,100 to purchase the 130-acre (0.53 km²) site, and the project received the official stamp of approval[3]. Lynds selected 100 inmates from his own prison 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.
Lynds' plan was to use prisoner labor to excavate marble from a nearby quarry and use it to construct the prison, a practice Lynds had seen used in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Once the prison was built, the prisoners would continue excavating marble to be shipped down the Hudson to New York City. 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, the United States Treasury building, New York City's Grace Church, and the New York State Capitol 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, 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, eerie. 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—a position which had been filled by nine separate people in the last 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; among those buried there is serial killer Albert Fish.
[edit] Punishments
Punishments for the prisoners were at times harsh and merciless. Punishments included freezing showers that consisted of a prisoner having a tight hollow basin around his neck that caught water around his mouth and chin area, and then a burst of freezing water would drop from the ceiling onto his head. The amount of water that was poured onto the inmates head depended on the severity of the prisoner's violation(s).
Throughout the 19th century, one of the most common and regularly used forms of punishment was solitary confinement. A prisoner would be locked in a dark cell with a limited supply of food for a certain amount of time. Certain changes were made towards the end of the century (1880s) that took away the "solid steel doors and replaced them with barred cell doors and a bathroom", due to the time they served in the cell without coming out. Another regularly used form of punishment was the paddle. Prisoners would receive three to four hits with a hickory or leather paddle. The beatings would only cease if the prisoner would promise to behave. This type was overly used since a prisoner would "receive blows from minor complaints such as poor or short work on contact". Also, the beatings would be administered by "individual keepers" rather than the principal keeper himself (up until 1876 where only the principal keeper was allowed to do this).
From 1914 until 1971, only the electric chair at Sing Sing was used for executions. The last execution at Sing Sing was in August 1963, two years before New York first abolished capital punishment.
In addition to the end of the brutality, the facility was slowly modernized. In the 1920s, several new buildings were built, including a chapel, a mess hall, two administration centers, a hospital and a library.
[edit] Notable prisoners
- Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the head of Murder, Inc. was executed there.
- Charles Becker, the first American policeman executed for murder.
- Albert Fish, a serial killer and cannibal (executed in 1936 and buried in the prison cemetery).
- James Larkin, Irish labor leader imprisoned from 1920 to 1923 for 'criminal anarchy' as a result of his left-wing writings.
- Earl von Brandenburg, formerly a well-known author (pen name: Broughton Brandenburg); imprisoned in 1932 for fraud.
- Charles Chapin, ("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 spies for the Soviet Union.
- William H. Van Schaick, captain of the General Slocum, responsible for the worst maritime accident in New York's history.
- Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, electrocuted there after being found guilty for the murders of twelve people.
- Richard Whitney, former president of the New York Stock Exchange.
- Ruth Snyder, convicted of killing her husband for insurance money.
- Willie Sutton, bank robber.
- Carl Panzram, serial killer, 1923.
- George C. Parker, con artist who sold the Brooklyn Bridge.
- Gary McGivern, recipient of controversial clemency in 1985.
- Daniel Calliste, more widely known as Bang 'Em Smurf, a rapper from South Jamaica, Queens, New York convicted on weapons charges. He is currently housed in Attica Correctional Facility.
- Miguel Pinero, a Nuyorican playwright; sentenced to 25 years for armed robbery.
- Frank Abbandando, former member of Murder, Inc.
- Louis Capone, former member of Murder, Inc. (no relation to Al Capone)
- William Tager, infamous for attacking Dan Rather in New York and shouting "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", subsequently convicted and sentenced to 25 years for shooting a Today Show stagehand.
[edit] Contribution to English vernacular
- The expression "sent up the river", a widely-known American idiom meaning sentenced or sent to prison, refers to criminals convicted in New York City being sent up the Hudson River to Sing Sing.
- "Doing the sit-down dance", meaning execution in the electric chair, originated at Sing Sing.[4]
- A sign outside of the prison states that the use of "Big House" to refer to a prison originated at Sing Sing.
[edit] In popular culture
Other than Alcatraz, Sing Sing is the most famous prison in American popular culture.
- Gangster movies helped make the prison a legend far beyond New York; they included The Big House, Castle on the Hudson, and 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, the latter based on a book by Lewis Lawes.
- In 1961, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly Golightly (played by Audrey Hepburn) regularly visits Sally Tomato at Sing Sing.
- In Alan Moores graphic novel, Watchmen, Rorschach is sent to Sing-Sing, and several scenes are set there
- The 1990 film King of New York opens with Frank White being released from Sing Sing.
- In 1997, author and journalist Ted Conover became a New York State correctional officer because he found it the only way he could write about being one. He was assigned to Sing Sing and worked there for about ten months. The resulting book, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (UK title: Holding the Key), was published in 2000 to critical acclaim.
- Sing Sing Prison is mentioned and frequently visited by the characters of the Law and Order: SVU series.
- The album Sing Sing Death House by The Distillers refers to the Sing Sing prison.
- In the film Constantine (2005), John Constantine uses the electric chair from the Sing Sing prison to transport himself to Hell.
- The movie The Producers features a large dance number in Sing Sing as characters Leo and Max teach the inmates how to sing and dance.
- In the 1999 film Analyze This, mob boss Paul Vite, played by Robert De Niro, is sent to Sing Sing prison to do time.
- In 1985, the soap opera All My Children went on location to Sing Sing to film Brooke English's stay there since she was convicted of refusing to reveal a source.
- In the 2006 game Driver Parallel Lines, after the 1978 segment of the game ends, and T.K. is arrested, he is sent to Sing Sing and is picked up by Ray there in 2006, after being released.
- The 1987 Broadway comedy The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 mentions Sing Sing.
- In the Radiodrama Dickie Dick Dickens, the central character (Dickie) eventually spends many of his later years in Sing Sing, but is released.
- The 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto 4 features a Sing Sing Avenue.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ 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
- ^ Village looks to create Sing Sing museum, May 22, 2007. Earthtimes.org http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/65218.html
- ^ Crime Library profile of Sing Sing Prison http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/index.html
- ^ Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988)
[edit] 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 (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
[edit] External links
- Many chapters of Sing Sing
- Sing Sing Prison, Half Moon Press, May 2000 issue
- "All about Sing Sing Prison" by Mark Gado
- "The History of Sing Sing Prison"
- New York Corrections History Society
- Town of Ossining, NY - Town History
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