Location | 135 State Street Auburn, New York |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°56′05″N76°34′27″W / 42.93472°N 76.57417°W |
Status | Open |
Security class | Maximum security |
Capacity | 1,821 [1] |
Opened | 1818 |
Managed by | New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision |
Director | Joseph E. Corey (superintendent) |
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. [2] It is classified as a maximum security facility.
Constructed in 1816 [3] as Auburn Prison, it was the second state prison in New York (after New York City's Newgate, 1797–1828), the site of the first execution by electric chair in 1890, and the namesake of the "Auburn system," a correctional system in which prisoners were housed in solitary confinement in large rectangular buildings, and performed penal labor under silence that was enforced at all times. The prison was renamed the Auburn Correctional Facility in 1970. [1] The prison is among the oldest functional prisons in the United States.
In its early years, the prison charged a fee to tourists in order to raise funds for the prison. Eventually, to discourage most visitors, the fee was increased.
In contrast with the purely reformatory type prison instituted in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia System introduced by the Quakers, the "Auburn system" modified the schedule of prayer, contemplation, and humane conditions with hard labor.
Prisoners were compelled to work during the day, and the profit of their labor helped to support the prison. Prisoners were segregated by offense; additionally they were issued clothing that identified their crime. The traditional American prison uniform, consisting of horizontal black and white stripes, originated at the Auburn prison. The prisoners had their heads closely cropped and walked in lockstep, keeping step with their heads bowed. Each prisoner placed a hand on the shoulder of the man in front of him to maintain a rigid separation.
There was a communal dining room so that the prisoners could gather together for meals, but a code of silence was enforced harshly at all times by the guards. Thus the inmates worked and ate together, but in complete silence. At night the prisoners were kept in individual cells (even though the original plan called for double cells).
For several decades, this system was adopted by other jurisdictions. This system was also called the "Congregate System." The Sing Sing Correctional Facility, also in New York, was built using this system under the supervision of the former warden of the Auburn prison, Elam Lynds.
As of 2010, Auburn Correctional Facility is responsible for the manufacturing of New York State's license plates. [4]
Auburn has "a long history of controversy, scandal, and riot." [5]
It has been the site of several notable riots over the years, including November 1820 and a race-related riot in 1921. The most serious were two related incidents in the summer and winter of 1929. On July 28, 1929—only a week after a similar incident at Clinton Prison in Dannemora—inmates sprayed acid in an officer’s face and gained access to the prison's armory. Prison shops were set on fire, six buildings were destroyed, and four prisoners escaped. Two inmates were killed and one wounded, and five officers were injured. Later that year, on December 11, Warden Edgar Jennings and six guards were taken hostage by a group of inmates, some of whom had obtained guns in the July riot and concealed them in the interim. This uprising caused the death of Principal Keeper George A. Durnford as well as eight prisoners. Three inmates were later charged, convicted, and executed at Sing Sing for their roles in the riots. [6] [7]
On November 4, 1970, inmates succeeded in seizing control of the facility and held 50 people, including guards and outside construction workers, hostage for more than eight hours. The incident was attributed to increasing racial tensions and to prisoners' rights being violated. [8]
Copper John is a statue of an American Revolutionary War soldier that stands atop the Auburn Correctional Facility. It has entered the local lexicon as a reference to the prison and aspects of it, for example, getting sent to Auburn Prison is "going to work for Copper John."
"John" was originally a wooden statue that was erected atop the administration office of the prison in 1821. In 1848, the statue had weathered so much that it was taken down and a new statue was made out of copper by the prisoners in the prison foundry. In 2004, the New York state government became aware that the statue was fashioned to be "anatomically correct" and ordered the statue to be "incorrected". Some correctional officers made an impromptu protest by passing out T-shirts showing the iconic statue and reading "Save Copper John's Johnson"; but the statue was nonetheless removed, his penis was filed off, and remounted in August. [9]
The warden was an administrative position appointed by the New York State Commissioner of Correction. Currently, the heads of all New York State correctional facilities are termed "superintendent".
The principal keeper operated the prison on a day-to-day basis. Many went on to become wardens. [20]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(July 2017) |
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City on the east bank of the Hudson River. It holds about 1,700 inmates and housed the execution chamber for the State of New York until the abolition of capital punishment in New York in 1977.
Old Sparky is the nickname of the electric chairs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Old Smokey was the nickname of the electric chairs used in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. "Old Sparky" is sometimes used to refer to electric chairs in general, and not one of a specific state.
Thomas Mott Osborne was an American prison officer, prison reformer, industrialist and New York State political reformer. In an assessment of Osborne's life, a New York Times book reviewer wrote: "His career as a penologist was short, but in the interval of the few years he served he succeeded in revolutionizing American prison reform, if not always in fact, then in awakening responsibility.... He was made of the spectacular stuff of martyrs, to many people perhaps ridiculous, but to those whose lives his theories most closely touched, inspiring and often godlike."
Lewis Edward Lawes 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.
Elmira Correctional Facility, also known as "The Hill", is a maximum security state prison located in Chemung County, in the City of Elmira in the US state of New York. It is operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. A supermax prison, Southport Correctional Facility, is located 2 miles (3.2 km) away from Elmira.
The New Jersey State Prison (NJSP), formerly known as Trenton State Prison, is a state men's prison in Trenton, New Jersey operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections. It is the oldest prison in New Jersey and one of the oldest correctional facilities in the United States. It is the state's only completely maximum security institution, housing the most difficult and/or dangerous male offenders in the inmate population. NJSP operates two security units and provides a high level of custodial supervision and control. Professional treatment services, such as education and social work, are a priority at the facility. The Bureau of State Use Industries operated the bedding and clothing shops that were once located in Shop Hall at the facility. These industries have been relocated to South Woods State Prison.
William C. Holman Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison located in Atmore, Alabama. The facility is along Alabama State Highway 21, 9 miles (14 km) north of Atmore in southern Alabama.
The Cummins Unit is an Arkansas Department of Corrections prison in unincorporated Lincoln County, Arkansas, United States, in the Arkansas Delta region. It is located along U.S. Route 65, near Grady, Gould, and Varner, 28 miles (45 km) south of Pine Bluff, and 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Little Rock.
The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison located just outside Lucasville in Scioto County, Ohio. The prison was constructed in 1972. As of 2022, the warden is Donald Redwood.
The Auburn system is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times. The silent system evolved during the 1820s at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, as an alternative to and modification of the Pennsylvania system of solitary confinement, which it gradually replaced in the United States. Whigs favored this system because it promised to rehabilitate criminals by teaching them personal discipline and respect for work, property, and other people.
The Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord (MCI-Concord) is a medium security prison for men located in Concord, Massachusetts in the United States. Opened in 1878, it is the oldest running state prison for men in Massachusetts. This prison is under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction. The facility has a total capacity of 614 general population beds, but with a long-term decline in the number of men incarcerated for the entire state, the population as of 2023 had decreased to about 300 and Governor Maura Healey announced a plan to close the prison in the summer of 2024 and transfer the remaining prisoners to other facilities.
The Pendleton Correctional Facility, formerly known as the Indiana Reformatory, is a state prison located in Fall Creek Township, Madison County, near Pendleton and about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Indianapolis. Established in 1923, it was built to replace the Indiana State Reformatory located in Jeffersonville after a fire severely damaged the original property. The Pendleton facility currently offers maximum and minimum-security housing for adult males over 22 years old. The maximum-security portion is made up of 31 acres (130,000 m2) surrounded by a concrete wall. It has an average daily population of approximately 1,650 inmates. Located on the grounds outside the enclosure, the minimum-security dormitory holds approximately 200 prisoners on a daily basis.
The Indiana Women's Prison was established in 1873 as the first adult female correctional facility in the country. The original location of the prison was one mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Indianapolis. It has since moved to 2596 Girls School Road, former location of the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility. As of 2005, it had an average daily population of 420 inmates, most of whom are members of special-needs populations, such as geriatric, mentally ill, pregnant, and juveniles sentenced as adults. By the end of 2015, the population increased to 599 inmates. Security levels range from medium to maximum. The prison holds Indiana's only death row for women; however, it currently has no death row inmates. The one woman under an Indiana death sentence, Debra Denise Brown, had her sentence commuted to 140 years imprisonment in 2018 and is being held in Ohio.
Kentucky State Reformatory (KSR) is a medium-security prison for adult males. The prison is located in unincorporated Oldham County, Kentucky, near La Grange, and about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Louisville. It opened in 1940 to replace the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort after a flood damaged the original property. The current (2020) capacity of KSR is 1053 inmates.
The Missouri State Penitentiary was a prison in Jefferson City, Missouri, that operated from 1836 to 2004. Part of the Missouri Department of Corrections, it served as the state of Missouri's primary maximum security institution. Before it closed, it was the oldest operating penal facility west of the Mississippi River. It was replaced by the Jefferson City Correctional Center, which opened on September 15, 2004.
The Wardens of Sing Sing are appointed by the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
Captain Elam Lynds (1784–1855) was a prison warden. He helped create the Auburn system, which consisted of congregate labor during the day and isolation at night, starting in 1821 and was Warden of Sing Sing from 1825 to 1830.
North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women (NCCIW) is the primary North Carolina Department of Public Safety prison facility housing female inmates on a 30-acre (12 ha) campus in Raleigh, North Carolina, and serves as a support facility for the six other women's prisons throughout the state. The facility's inmate population, which is the largest in the state, consists of inmates from all custody levels and control statuses including death row, maximum security, close custody, medium security, minimum security, and safekeepers.
Wethersfield State Prison was the second state prison in the state of Connecticut. Used between 1827 and 1963, it was later demolished and the site turned into a park on the banks of the Connecticut River.
Frank Lamar Christian, M.D., was the warden of Elmira Correctional Facility from 1917 to 1939.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)William Brittin, who died in 1821, master carpenter and builder of the prison who became its first agent and warden ... Elam Lynds, a lash wielding principal keeper who delighted in enforcing discipline. He was sadistic by nature.
Gov. Flower has undertaken to 'shake up' the State prison Wardens, and some lively developments may be looked for during the next two weeks. Orders will be issued within a day or two directing Warden Charles A. Durston to proceed to Sing Sing Prison and relieve Warden William B. Brown, who will be requested to walk into the secluded shades of private life. ... The new Warden of Auburn Prison is to be James C. Stout of Auburn, and thereby hangs a political tale particularly interesting at this time ...
George W. Benham, retired Auburn banker, former warden of Auburn Prison and for many years ...
Dr. Frank L. Christian, superintendent of the Elmira Reformatory, took charge of Auburn prison tonight as acting warden. He at once started a study of conditions. It is likely that Warden Jennings will go away for a needed rest. ..
Captain John L. Hoffman, assistant superintendent of the Institution for Defective Delinquents at Napanoch, was appointed ...
Dr. Frank Christian, superintendent of Elmira reformatory ... Guy L. Meekor, chief of the reformatory.
Governor Roosevelt acted with speed today in taking steps to solve the prison problem at Auburn following Wednesday's riot there. ...
Dr. Frank L. Heacox, chief physician of Auburn prison, was appointed acting warden today, succeeding Captain John L. Hoffman, whose resignation as warden was accepted by Dr. Raymond F.C. Kieb, Commissioner of Correction.
Wilfred L. Denno, a veteran of twenty-four years of service in the State prison system, was appointed warden of New York's famed Sing Sing prison today ... Robert E. Murphy, 51, principal keeper at Green Haven Prison, who was appointed warden at Auburn to succeed John Foster
... the warden's first assistant, who was responsible for the day-to-day operation of the prison, was known as the "'principal keeper.'
Edward L. Beckwith, principal keeper of Auburn prison since the death of George Durnford, for whose murder Max Becker, a convict, now is on trial for his life, was stabbed and killed today by a long-term prisoner in the mess hall, where 900 inmates were having their midday meal. ...