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46-525: 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

92-772: A $ 99,540 grant from Pfizer to promote uptake of their COVID-19 vaccine . ACA hosts bi-annual conferences in different cities around the U.S. The first conference is the "ACA Winter Conference" with the year included in the title before ACA. It holds its second annual conference, the Congress of Correction, during the summer. Notable speakers at ACA conferences have included General Richard Myers , Congressman Danny Davis , presidential campaign director Donna Brazile , presidential candidate and commentator Pat Buchanan , covert CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson , TV anchor Laurie Dhue , political analyst Charlie Cook , and Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak . In 1982,

138-558: A 72-year-old senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia , Judge David L. Bazelon , resigned from the governing panel of the ACA with a 21-page statement of criticism. Bazelon had three years remaining on his five-year term. He described its lack of transparency and accountability, its apparent willingness to bend to political influence, and its dual role as

184-494: A Democrat in the state House from 1976 to 1980 and state Senate from 1984 to 1992, later working for the Republican Lieutenant Governor. Alcorn County paid Benjamin, the president and lobbyist for Mississippi Correctional Management (MCM), $ 114,000 a year, although he lived more than 200 miles away. The Alcorn Board of Supervisors attorney said the supervisors had not been required to seek bids before giving Benjamin

230-491: 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

276-520: 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

322-555: 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,

368-423: 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

414-476: 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

460-568: A trade group and accreditor. Bazelon pointed out the apparent conflict of interest, writing, "How can the commission in good conscience represent itself as 'independent' and 'unbiased' while being financially dependent on the objects of its scrutiny?" Bazelon also pointed out that ACA inspection teams at the Menard Correctional Center in Illinois, for example, did not even contact U.S. District Court Judge James L. Foreman , who had found

506-405: 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,

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552-613: The Federal Bureau of Prisons and the private sector. Shane Bauer of Mother Jones wrote that the ACA functions as "the closest thing [the United States has] to a national regulatory body for prisons" in addition to being the American correctional industry's trade association . According to their website, the ACA has more than 5,000 members. The ACA was founded under the name National Prison Association . The driving creative force

598-525: 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 ,

644-611: The Vienna Correctional Center , operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections , became the first accredited adult correctional institution. In 2011, ACA began to branch out, and it audited the first detention facilities outside of the U.S. or Canada. In January 2012 four Mexican facilities became accredited by ACA, using their Core International Standards manual. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, ACA received

690-717: 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,

736-616: 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

782-539: 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

828-600: 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

874-477: The Grenada County jail for years. Benjamin said the company also has jail accreditation contracts worth $ 4,000 or $ 5,000 a month with other counties including Chickasaw, Hancock, Holmes, Marion, Pearl River, Washington, and Yazoo. Prior to that he worked as a $ 3,000-a-month jail consultant for DeSoto County. On June 8, 2008, DeSoto County Board of Supervisors supervisors approved the contract saying, "Mr. Benjamin

920-465: 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

966-530: 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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1012-618: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 491438082 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 08:39:47 GMT American Correctional Association The American Correctional Association ( ACA ; called the National Prison Association before 1954) is a private, non-profit, non-governmental trade association and accrediting body for

1058-461: 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

1104-609: The announcement of his indictments on dozens of corruption charges. Epps had been identified by a federal investigation conducted by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi called Operation Mississippi Hustle . He'd taken $ 1.47   million in kickbacks, from 16 corporations, for his role in awarding nearly $ 1   billion worth of private prison contracts. Epps also resigned from his full-time job as Corrections Commissioner for

1150-481: The association president. For the next twenty years, Brinkerhoff used the NPA as a platform to pursue basic correctional reforms such as the separation of state and federal prison systems, and the idea of parole , then a relatively new concept. With Brinkerhoff's influence, the state of Ohio passed a state parole law in 1885, the nation's first. The organization's name was officially changed in 1954 to more accurately reflect

1196-509: The cases of the others who were charged with bribing Epps. Irb Benjamin was charged with bribery of Epps in connection with the contractual drug and alcohol treatment his company provided to MDOC prisons. Benjamin's indictment was announced on August 22, 2015. He was paid at least $ 862,000 to acquire and maintain ACA accreditation for jails in numerous counties. Passing ACA standards was required if they were to be awarded contracts to hold state prisoners. Benjamin had represented Alcorn County as

1242-565: The contract as warden because it was a contract for services, which are exempt from bid laws. Benjamin had received $ 5,000 a month to handle accreditation by the American Correctional Association for Alcorn's Regional Correctional Facility, and he had received another $ 4,500 a month as the jail's warden. Benjamin had formed MCM in 1996, when the state Department of Corrections and counties started hiring private contractors to operate prisons and smaller regional jails. It operated

1288-579: The corrections industry, the oldest and largest such association in the world. The organization was founded in 1870 and has a significant place in the history of prison reform in the U.S. ACA accredits over 900 prisons, jails, community residential centers (halfway houses), and various other corrections facilities in the U.S. and internationally, using their independently published standards manuals. Approximately 80 percent of all U.S. state departments of corrections and youth services are active participants. Also included are programs and facilities operated by

1334-422: 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

1380-454: The executive director of ACA in 1990, after serving as the sheriff of Arlington County, Virginia . Court records indicate a long history of suits and allegations of mistreating his staff. Gondles was accused of sexual harassment , "acts of abuse of power", fraternizing and having sex with female deputies, bullying top aides, and targeting Arlington County employees who supported his opponent during his 1987 campaign for sheriff. In 1988, while he

1426-595: The federal bench in 1985, said, "This is the largest graft operation that certainly I have seen, and I have seen a lot." Wingate cited the burglary of his former Flowood home by Epps as the reason why he gave a sentence that was much longer than the 13-year sentence recommended by prosecutors. Epps is being held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville in Texas, near Dallas. He is due to be released on November 25, 2033. James A. Gondles Jr. became

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1472-518: The medical care so poor as to violate the constitution, and did not contact Dr. Lambert King, the special master Judge Foreman had appointed in 1980 to oversee the mandated improvements before they filed their approving reports. Later critics have named several other institutions that retained their ACA accreditations while outside parties found grave violence and/or court-ordered reforms. These include: On November 5, 2014, Christopher B. Epps resigned from his position as ACA president, shortly before

1518-581: The organization's philosophy and scope. ACA began exploring the feasibility of accrediting its members in the 1960s, funded in part by a sizable 1969 grant from the Ford Foundation . In May 1974, the ACA created its "Commission on Accreditation for Corrections" in a meeting chaired by Walter Dunbar, a New York corrections figure known for his spokesman role at the Attica Prison riot . (The ACA maintains an annual achievement award in his honor.) In 1979,

1564-472: 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

1610-452: 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

1656-577: 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

1702-504: 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 Too Many Requests If you report this error to

1748-714: 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

1794-596: The state of Mississippi on the same day. Epps pleaded guilty to money laundering and filing false tax returns. Many vendors were indicted, some pleaded guilty, one committed suicide, and eleven more suspects faced criminal bribery charges. The Assistant U.S. Attorney estimated the corruption's net benefit to prison contractors exceeded $ 65 million. Epps personally received at least the bribes for steering what Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca had first estimated at $ 800   million in contracts between 2006 and 2014. Presiding Federal judge, Henry Travillion Wingate heard

1840-609: 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

1886-647: Was Enoch Cobb Wines , a minister and reformer who organized an 1870 congress in Cleveland, hoping to introduce the principles of the progressive New York Prison Association to a national stage. Former U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes served as the organization's first president in 1883. Hayes "missed no opportunity to speak with well-informed sincerity about more effective and more humane ways of dealing with offenders". He remained president until his death ten years later. Roeliff Brinkerhoff , an Ohio publisher, political figure, and frequent Hayes ally, succeeded Hayes as

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1932-468: Was "pressured", estimated he had paid Epps between $ 180,000 and $ 225,000 in cash bribes to secure support for the regional jails. His plea covered bribes that had been paid for drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs that his company ran. LaMarca told Wingate, "it's just a matter of time" until others whom Benjamin informed upon are indicted. On May 25, 2017, Epps received a federal prison sentence of almost 20 years. Judge Wingate, who had been appointed to

1978-502: 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

2024-447: 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

2070-465: 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

2116-481: Was recommended by Commissioner Epps at the state level." On November 25, 2014, Benjamin said that he was not aware of the Epps recommendation. Benjamin pleaded guilty to federal charges on October 18, 2016. He faced 10 years in prison, plus a fine of up to $ 250,000. Federal presiding Judge Wingate sentenced Benjmain to 70 months in prison, fined Benjamin $ 100,000, and ordered him to forfeit $ 260,782. Benjamin, who said he

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