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59-540: 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

118-491: 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

177-594: A Wappinger Confederacy, as did anthropologist James Mooney in 1910, Ives Goddard contests their view. He writes that no evidence supports this idea. The suggested bands of the Wappinger, headed by sachems , have been described as including: The Wappinger are the namesake of several areas in New York, including: Broadway in New York City also follows their ancient trail. Lewis E. Lawes Lewis Edward Lawes (September 13, 1883 – April 23, 1947)

236-523: A Wappinger people living along the lower Hudson River near today's New York City, were among the first to be recorded encountering European adventurers and traders when Henry Hudson's Half Moon appeared in 1609. Long after their original settlements had been decimated by wars with the colonists, wars with other Indian tribes, questionable land sales, waves of diseases brought by the Europeans, and absorption into other tribes, their last sachem and

295-653: A black ring around their eyes." As the Dutch began to settle in the area, they pressured the Connecticut Wappinger to sell their lands and seek refuge with other Algonquian-speaking tribes. The western bands, however, stood their ground amid rising tensions. Following the Pavonia massacre by colonists, during Kieft's War in 1643, the remaining Wappinger bands united against the Dutch, attacking settlements throughout New Netherland . The Dutch responded with

354-528: 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

413-510: A group of their heavily dwindled people were residing at the "prayer town" sanctuary of Stockbridge, Massachusetts . A stalwart spokesman for Native American concerns and valiant soldier, Daniel Nimham had traveled to Great Britain in the 1760s to argue for a return of tribal lands, and served in both the French and Indian Wars (on behalf of the English) and American Revolution (in support of

472-566: 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,

531-423: 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. The expression "up

590-480: 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

649-497: Is full of great and tall oakes. This day [September 5, 1609] many of the people came aboord, some in mantles of feathers, and some in skinnes of divers sorts of good furres. Some women also came to us with hempe. They had red copper tabacco pipes and other things of copper they did wear about their neckes. At night they went on land againe, so wee rode very quite, but durst not trust them" (Juet 1959:28). Dutch navigator and colonist David Pieterz De Vries recorded another description of

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708-405: 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. 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,

767-551: Is now southern New York and western Connecticut . At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutchess County, New York , but their territory included the east bank of the Hudson in what became both Putnam and Westchester counties south to the western Bronx and northern Manhattan Island . To the east they reached to the Connecticut River Valley , and to

826-807: The Half Moon . The total population of the Wappinger people at that time has been estimated at between 3,000 and 13,200 individuals. Robert Juet, an officer on the Half Moon , provides an account in his journal of some of the lower Hudson Valley Native Americans. In his entries for September 4 and 5, 1609, he says: "This day the people of the country came aboord of us, seeming very glad of our comming, and brought greene tobacco , and gave us of it for knives and beads. They goe in deere skins loose, well dressed. They have yellow copper. They desire cloathes, and are very civill ... They have great store of maize or Indian wheate whereof they make good bread. The country

885-699: The Battle of Kingsbridge in the Bronx on August 30, 1778. It proved an irrevocable blow to the tribe, which had also been decimated by European diseases. Following the American Revolutionary War, what was left of a combined Mohican and Wappinger community in Stockbridge, Massachusetts left for Oneida County in western New York to join the Oneida people there. There they were joined by

944-645: The Massachusetts State Prison in 1918. New York Governor Al Smith asked him to take over as Warden of Sing Sing . Lawes took charge on January 1, 1920. He was featured on the cover and in an article of Time magazine issue of November 18, 1929. His wife, Kathryn (1887-1937), died on October 31, 1937, at Ossining Hospital after she fell at the Cortlandt, New York , end of the Bear Mountain Bridge . The heel of her shoe

1003-543: The Metro-North Railroad 's four-track Hudson Line . 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 ,

1062-761: The Munsee , a large subgroup of the Lenape people . All three were among the Eastern Algonquian -speaking subgroup of the Algonquian peoples . They spoke using very similar Lenape languages , with the Wappinger dialect most closely related to the Munsee language . Their nearest allies were the Mohican to the north, the Montaukett to the southeast on Long Island, and the remaining New England tribes to

1121-423: The Munsee language -word wápinkw , used by the Lenape and meaning " opossum ", might be related to the name Wappinger. No evidence supports the folk etymology of the name coming from a word meaning "easterner," as suggested by Edward Manning Ruttenber in 1906 and John Reed Swanton in 1952. Others suggest that Wappinger is anglicized from the Dutch word wapendragers , meaning "weapon-bearers", alluding to

1180-653: The United States Coast Artillery . Afterwards, he worked at an insurance company before beginning his prison career as a guard at Clinton Prison in Dannemora, New York , on March 1, 1905. On September 30, 1905, he married Katherine Stanley. He subsequently worked at first Auburn Prison , then Elmira Reformatory . In March 1915 he was named Superintendent of the City Reformatory on Hart Island in New York City . Lawes became warden of

1239-743: 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,

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1298-763: The "prayer town" Stockbridge, Massachusetts in the western part of the colony, where Natives had settled who had converted to Christianity. In 1765, the remaining Wappinger in Dutchess County sued the Philipse family for control of the Philipse Patent land but lost. In the aftermath the Philipses raised rents on the European-American tenant farmers , sparking colonist riots across the region. In 1766 Daniel Nimham , last sachem of

1357-632: 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

1416-547: 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

1475-617: 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

1534-634: The Colonists). He died with his son Abraham in a slaughter of the Stockbridge Militia at the Battle of Kingsbridge in 1778. Following the war, what was left of a combined Mohican and Wappinger community in Stockbridge, Massachusetts left for Oneida County in western New York to join the Oneida people there. There they were joined by the remnants of the Munsee , forming the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe. From that time,

1593-470: The Hudson. He argued before the royal Lords of Trade , who were generally sympathetic to his claims, but did not arrange for the Wappinger to regain any land after he returned to North America. The Lords of Trade reported that there was sufficient cause to investigate "frauds and abuses of Indian lands...complained of in the American colonies, and in this colony in particular." And that, "the conduct of

1652-835: The Indians would set an adverse precedent regarding other similar disputes. Nimham did not give up the cause. When the opportunity to serve with the Continental Army in the American Revolution arose, he chose it over the British in the hopes of receiving fairer treatment by the American government in its aftermath. It was not to be. Many Wappinger served in the Stockbridge Militia during the American Revolution . Nimham, his son and heir Abraham, and some forty warriors were killed or mortally wounded in

1711-614: The March 1644 slaughter of between 500 and 700 members of Wappinger bands in the Pound Ridge Massacre , most burned alive in a surprise attack upon their sacred wintering ground. It was a severe blow to the tribe. Allied with their trading partners, the powerful Mohawk of the Iroquois nations in central and western New York, the Dutch defeated the Wappinger by 1645. The Mohawk and Dutch killed more than 1500 Wappinger during

1770-474: 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

1829-545: 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

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1888-538: The Wappinger ceased to have an independent name in history, and their people intermarried with others. Their descendants were subsequently relocated to a Stockbridge-Munsee reservation in Shawano County, Wisconsin . The tribe operates a casino there, and in 2010 was awarded two tiny parcels suitable for casinos in New York State in return for dropping larger land claims there. The totem (or emblem) of

1947-593: The Wappinger was the "enchanted wolf," with the right paw raised defiantly. By one account, they shared this totem with the Mohicans. The origin of the name Wappinger is unknown. While the present-day spelling was used as early as 1643, countless alternate phonetic spellings were also used by early European settlers well into the late 19th century. Each linguistic group tended to transliterate Native American names according to their own languages. Among these spellings and terms are: Anthropologist Ives Goddard suggests

2006-401: The Wappinger who resided around Fort Amsterdam: "The Indians about here are tolerably stout, have black hair with a long, lock which they let hang on one side of the head. Their hair is shorn on the top of the head like a cock's comb. Their clothing is a coat of beaver skins over the body, with the fur inside in winter and outside in summer; they have, also, sometimes a bear's hide, or a coat of

2065-639: The Wappinger, was part of a delegation that traveled to London to petition the British Crown for land rights and better treatment by the American colonists . Britain had controlled former "Dutch" lands in New York since 1664. Nimham was then living in Stockbridge, but he was originally from the Wappinger settlement of Wiccopee, New York , near the Dutch-founded settlement of Fishkill on

2124-707: The Wappingers' earliest recorded European contact, their settlements included camps along the major rivers between the Hudson and Housatonic , with larger villages located at the river mouths. Settlements near fresh water and arable land could remain in one location for about 20 years, until the people moved to another place some miles away. Despite many references to their villages and other site types by early European explorers and settlers, few contact-period sites have been identified in southeastern New York. The Wappinger first came into contact with Europeans in 1609, when Henry Hudson's expedition reached this territory on

2183-461: 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. Plans to turn

2242-422: The early 1970s, the electric chair was moved to Green Haven Correctional Facility in working condition, but was never used again. 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

2301-510: The early 19th century, the Stockbridge-Munsee in New York were forced to remove to Wisconsin . Today, members of the federally recognized Stockbridge-Munsee Nation reside mostly there on a reservation, where they operate a casino. In 2010 the tribe was awarded two tiny parcels suitable for casinos in New York State in return for dropping larger land claims there. While Edward Manning Ruttenber suggested in 1872 that there had been

2360-496: The east. Like the Lenape, the Wappinger were highly decentralized as a people. They formed approximately 18 loosely associated bands that had established geographic territories. The Wappinger had summer and winter camps. As agriculturists, they cultivated maize, beans, and various species of squash. They also hunted game, fished the rivers and streams, collected shellfish, and gathered fruits, flowers, seeds, roots, and nuts. By 1609,

2419-452: The lieutenant-governor and the council...does carry with it the colour of great prejudice and partiality, and of an intention to intimidate these Indians from prosecuting their claims." Upon a second hearing before New York Provincial Governor Sir Henry Moore and the council, John Morin Scott argued that legal title to the land was only a secondary concern. He said that returning the land to

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2478-525: The north the Roeliff Jansen Kill in southernmost Columbia County, New York , marked the end of their territory. Their nearest allies were the Mohican to the north, the Montaukett to the southeast on Long Island, and the remaining New England tribes to the east. Like the Lenape, the Wappinger were highly decentralized as a people. They formed numerous loosely associated bands that had established geographic territories. The Wequaesgeek ,

2537-483: 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

2596-452: The prison library to include moral teachings from secular literature. 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

2655-577: 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. In 1931, new prison reforms permitted Sing Sing State Penitentiary prisoners to partake in recreation opportunities. The baseball and football teams, and

2714-552: The remnants of the Munsee , forming the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe. From that time the Wappinger ceased to have an independent name in history, and their people intermarried with others. A few scattered remnants still remained. As late as 1811, a small band was recorded as having a settlement on a low tract of land by the side of a brook, under a high hill in the northern part of the Town of Kent in Putnam County . Later in

2773-618: 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. 41°9′6″N 73°52′8″W  /  41.15167°N 73.86889°W  / 41.15167; -73.86889 Sintsink The Wappinger ( / ˈ w ɒ p ɪ n dʒ ər / WOP -in-jər ) were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what

2832-494: The skins of wild cats, or hefspanen [probably raccoon], which is an animal most as hairy as a wild cat, and is also very good to eat. They also wear coats of turkey feathers, which they know how to put together. Their pride is to paint their faces strangely with red or black lead, so that they look like fiends. Some of the women are very well featured, having long countenances. Their hair hangs loose from their head; they are very foul and dirty; they sometimes paint their faces, and draw

2891-746: 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

2950-448: The two years of the war. This was a devastating toll for the Wappinger. The Wappinger faced the Dutch again in the 1655 Peach War , a three-day engagement that left an estimated 100 settlers and 60 Wappinger dead, and strained relations further between the two groups. After the war, the confederation broke apart, and many of the surviving Wappinger left their native lands for the protection of neighboring tribes, settling in particular in

3009-462: The warring relationship between the Dutch and the Wappinger. Such reference would correspond to a first appearance in 1643. This was thirty-four years after the Dutch aboard Hudson's Half Moon may have learned the name the people called themselves. The 1643 date reflects a period of great conflict with the natives, including the preemptive Pavonia massacre by the Dutch, which precipitated Kieft's War . The Wappinger were most closely related to

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3068-622: 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

3127-674: Was a prison warden and a proponent of prison reform . During his 21-year tenure at Sing Sing Correctional Facility , he supervised the executions of 303 prisoners. Lawes was born on September 13, 1883, in Elmira, New York . He was the only child of Henry Lewis Lawes (died 1925) and Sarah Abbott. His father worked as a prison guard at the New York State Reformatory, now called the Elmira Correctional Facility . Lawes ran away at 17 and joined

3186-507: 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

3245-447: 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

3304-483: Was caught between two boards and it caused her to fall and break her leg. She wasn't found until nighttime and she died from hypothermia . Characters based on Lewis and Kathryn Lawes may be found in David Pietrusza 's 2014 historical novel "Dance Hall: A Novel of Sing Sing." He remained at his post as Warden of Sing Sing for twenty-one years, instituting reforms, until he retired on July 16, 1941. He

3363-556: Was made into a 1932 movie under the same title, starring Spencer Tracy , and again in 1940 as Castle on the Hudson , featuring John Garfield . Over the Wall was produced in 1938 based on the life of one of his inmates, Alabama Pitts . Invisible Stripes in 1939, with George Raft , was based on his novel of the same name, while Humphrey Bogart starred in You Can't Get Away with Murder in 1939, an adaptation of Chalked Out ,

3422-469: 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

3481-585: Was replaced by Robert J. Kirby . Lawes became the president of the Boy Rangers of America in 1941. Lawes died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 23, 1947, at age 63 in Garrison, New York . He was interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow , New York . Lawes wrote several books. Several of his works were made into films. His most famous book, Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing ,

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