One of the reasons the Mt. Pleasant site was chosen . . . was the availability of stone. The banks of the Hudson River at this location offered an abundant quality of high-grade marble. Quarrying was already a major industry in the Hudson Valley and a leading supplier of stone to New York City, Boston and Albany. Cut stone . . . financed the cost of building the prison. Using these funds, Lynds began work on a blacksmith shop, temporary barracks and a makeshift cooking area.

After months of backbreaking labor, the prisoners were able to complete 60 . . . cells. A cell for Sing Sing was only seven feet long by three feet wide and six feet seven inches high. . . . The design for the facility called for . . .800 such cells, stacked on top of each other, four cells high, in a building that was 476 feet long. But Lynds . . . pushed the inmates to the limits of human endurance and ruled by the whip and the yoke. . . . the main building was completed in 1828 ...

A typical cell door from the original Sing Sing 1825. (photo by author)

. . . More than 73% of the prisoners at Sing Sing in 1854 were used under contract labor to produce such items as furniture, carpets, tapestry, shoes, bedding, cigars and cut stone.

By 1890, after a strong lobbying effort by area unions, laws were passed which prohibited prison contract labor. The immediate effect was disastrous. Warden A. A. Bush said "Over a thousand men are now locked in their cells with nothing to do. Idleness in a prison is horrible . . . ."

. . . over the next decade, inmate labor returned to Sing Sing. But a compromise was reached. All items produced would be utilized by the state of New York, not the public.

. . . various methods of repression and discipline evolved inside the prison walls. These methods ranged from the "silent system," devised in the 19th century at New York's Auburn prison, to actual instruments of torture such as steel cages and the lash. In 1864, Sing Sing records show that 613 out of 796 prisoners received some sort of physical punishment. One man was punished twenty-two times . . .

. . . However, it is also important to remember that this type of violence was a reflection of the era as well.

Admission procedure in 19th century Sing Sing. A drawing from Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper February 16, 1878. (Courtesy of Ossining Historical Society)

. . . The prisoners ate in silence, worked in silence and existed in a quiet world where penitence was the goal. They walked together in lockstep, in their striped prison uniforms, like robots, one behind another. . . . Inmates were given a Bible to read and were allowed no visitors . . . . Meditation was encouraged. . . . Any violation of the silent system was treated with harsh and immediate punishment. Most wardens believed that to ignore any infraction committed by an inmate was to encourage rebellion. . . .

One method of torture was "the bath," used for decades at Sing Sing to terrify the population and maintain order. An inmate was tied to a chair . . . the water was dropped in a steady stream from a great height and landed on the top of a prisoner's head. Prison records show that 170 men received this punishment in 1852. That same year, 120 men were placed in solitary confinement and five were "bucked." . . . causing the man to hang upside down like a roasted pig. . . .

In the early years at Sing Sing, floggings were common. Since there was no standard code of punishment, the duration of these beatings was left to the whim of the guards. . . .