Misplaced Pages

#934065

74-525: 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

148-772: 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,

222-558: 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

296-494: 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

370-491: 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

444-600: 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. American Correctional Association The American Correctional Association ( ACA ; called

518-518: 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

592-635: 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

666-520: 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

740-501: 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

814-515: 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 was Enoch Cobb Wines , a minister and reformer who organized an 1870 congress in Cleveland, hoping to introduce the principles of

SECTION 10

#1732869522935

888-555: 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,

962-423: 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

1036-476: 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

1110-568: 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

1184-497: 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

1258-405: 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,

1332-537: 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

1406-797: 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

1480-670: 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

1554-525: 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 ,

SECTION 20

#1732869522935

1628-728: 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

1702-423: 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

1776-525: The National Prison Association before 1954) is a private, non-profit, non-governmental trade association and accrediting body for 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

1850-611: 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

1924-717: 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,

1998-731: 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

2072-616: 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

2146-539: 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

2220-600: 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

2294-612: 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,

Sing Sing - Misplaced Pages Continue

2368-477: 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

2442-414: 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

2516-799: 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

2590-596: 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

2664-465: 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

2738-536: 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 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

2812-530: 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

2886-524: 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

2960-588: 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

3034-401: 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

Sing Sing - Misplaced Pages Continue

3108-614: 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

3182-701: 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

3256-461: 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

3330-609: 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

3404-481: 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

3478-509: 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

3552-565: 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

3626-422: 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

3700-502: 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

3774-492: 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,

SECTION 50

#1732869522935

3848-454: 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

3922-595: 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

3996-448: 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

4070-518: 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

4144-516: 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 ,

4218-581: 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,

4292-472: 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

4366-452: 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

4440-577: 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

4514-464: 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

SECTION 60

#1732869522935

4588-541: 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

4662-555: 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

4736-494: 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

4810-478: 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

4884-596: 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

4958-448: 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

5032-462: 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

5106-534: 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

5180-468: 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

5254-452: 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

5328-447: 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

5402-465: 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

5476-481: 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

#934065