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''Sing Sing is also the name of a French radio station.''

'Sing Sing Correctional Facility' is a maximum security prison in Ossining, New York, USA. Sing Sing “reaches back almost to the beginning of the state prison system in New York.” It is located in Ossining New York 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. In 1825, the state legislature gave the job of building a new, more modern prison to Captain Elam Lynds, a prison warden from upstate New York. Lynds spent months investigating possible locations for the facility including Staten Island, the Bronx and an area called Mt. Pleasant, New York on the shores 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, Lynds selected Mt. Pleasant, located near a small village in Westchester County with the unlikely name of Sing Sing. It was derived from the Indian words, "Sint Sinks" which translates to "stone upon stone." The legislature appropriated $20,100 for the land and the project soon received the official stamp of approval.^[1]
Today Sing Sing houses more than 1,700 prisoners. There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block, which still stands, into a museum.^[2]

Contents

History

Punishments

Popular culture

Notable prisoners

References

Further reading

External links

History

In March of 1796, legislation was passed requiring the building of two state prisons in New York: one in Albany and the other somewhere in downstate New York. In addition to the plan for the building 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 state legislature gave Elam Lynds the task of constructing a new, more modern correctional facility. Lynds was both 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. By May, he had finally settled on the Mount Pleasant location and selected 100 convicts from his own prison for transfer. When the state appropriated $20,100 to purchase the 130 acre site, Lynds transported the 100 prisoners 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 only for 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. More than $30,000 in cash was missing from prison bank accounts when Lawes became warden, 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, and among those buried there is serial killer Albert Fish.

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 century one of the most common and regularly used forms of punishment was solitary confinement. This was where a prisoner would be locked in a dark cell with a highly limited supply of food for a certain amount of time. Certain changes were made during the end of the century ("1880's") 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 hits from minor complaints such as poor or short work on contact". Also, the beatings would be administered by "individual keepers" rather than the principle keeper himself ("up until 1876 where only the principle keeper" was allowed to do such a thing).
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 an 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.

Popular culture

★ 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. 80's Spanish Band Los Nikis has the song "10 años en Sing Sing" which means "Ten years in Sing Sing".

★ The expression "sent up the river" refers to the process of criminals convicted in New York City being sent up the Hudson River to Sing Sing.^[3] Other than Alcatraz, it is the most famous prison in American popular culture.

★ In 1961's ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'', Holly Golightly (played by Audrey Hepburn) regularly visits Sally Tomato at 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, '' (U.K. title: ''Holding the Key''), was published in 2000 to critical acclaim.
"Sing Sing Death House" written by now defunct punk band The Distillers lead by front woman Brody Dalle (formerly Brody Armstrong, exwife of Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong) who is now married to Josh Homme, frontman of popular rock group Queen Of The Stone Age.

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 labour 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 doing life for murder.

★ Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, convicted spies of the Soviet Union.

★ Francis "Two-Gun" Crowley, who was convicted of the May 6, 1931 murder of Nassau County Police Officer Patrolman Fred Hirsch.

★ Edwin Collins "Alabama" Pitts, star prison athlete.

★ 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 brutal murders of twelve people.

★ Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange.

★ Ruth Snyder, convicted of killing her husband for insurance money.

★ Willie Sutton, bank robber

★ George C. Parker, con artist who sold the Brooklyn Bridge.

★ Gary McGivern, recipient of controversial clemency in 1985

★ Bang 'Em Smurf, 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 leader of Murder, Inc.

★ William Tager, infamous for attacking Dan Rather in New York and shouting "what's the frequency, Kenneth?!", subsequently convicted to 25 years for shooting a "Today Show" stagehand.

References

1. Crime Library profile of Sing Sing Prison http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/sing_sing/index.html
2. Village looks to create Sing Sing museum, May 22, 2007. Earthtimes.org http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/65218.html
3. ''Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins'' by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988)

Further reading

★ ''Barnes, Harry Elmer (1926) The Repression of Crime, Studies in Historical Penology. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith.''

★ ''Brockway, Zebulon Reed (1912) Fifty Years of Prison Service. 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

External links

★ Many chapters of Sing Sing

★ Sing Sing Prison, may 2000 issue

★ "All about Sing Sing Prison" by Mark Gado

★ "The History of Sing Sing Prison"

★ New York Corrections History Society

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