NYCHS
browses
New York
State's
Archives,
Museum,
Library
correction
history
photos
on-line
The sepia facsimiles in this NYCHS presentation are based on larger photos in The Digital Collections, most grayscale, on the NYS Archives' website (logo left). Each links to its full-size on-line original which can be accessed by clicking.

PART 2 OF 4

Main text below comes from the NYS Archives' Guide to Records of the DOCS web pages:

The NYS Archives' Guide to Records of the Department of Correctional Services describes more than 300 records series comprising approximately 4,000 cubic feet of records. Most of the records described relate to inmates and programs at major correctional facilities and the facilities that preceded them. The records date from 1797 to about 1980, most dating from the 20th century. The majority of records relate to programs at maximum security prisons for male felons, which is the largest segment of the inmate population confined in New York . . .

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Above sepia facsimile is based on a grayscale NYS Archives photo that provides a view of a Sing Sing Register of Inmates, ca. 1842-52.

Click facsimile for full on-line NYS "The Digital Collections original as well as information about the photo, its subject matter and copyrights.

Sing Sing
Correctional Facility

Sing Sing Correctional Facility is located at Ossining, Westchester County.

It is classified as a maximum security confinement facility for males 21 years of age and older.

It also serves as a detention center for males 16 years of age or older and a diagnostic and treatment center.

Presently there are approximately 2,200 inmates confined at Sing Sing.

Sing Prison opened in 1826 to replace Newgate Prison in New York City.

Newgate, the first State prison, was established in 1797.

In addition to felons, the first individuals sent to Sing Sing included mentally incompetent and insane inmates who, by 1848, were all transferred to the Utica State Hospital.

In 1839, the Mount Pleasant Female Prison opened at Sing Sing with women being transferred there from Bellevue and Auburn. In 1877, this prison closed and women were sent to county penitentiaries until the new women's prison at Auburn was opened in 1893.

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Above sepia facsimiles are based on grayscale NYS Archives photos of Sing Sing Prison.

The image on the left shows an exterior view of the prison's male department circa 1880-1910.

The image on the right shows an interior view down a corridor of the Ossining institution. In the center, a walkway passes in front of the cell doors for the length of the corridor. A rail on the left side of the walkway protects from a drop to a lower level. Halfway up the corridor on the second floor, a small, glassed-in room has steep steps leading down to the lower floor.

Click facsimile for full on-line NYS "The Digital Collections original as well as information about the photo, its subject matter and copyrights.

All executions in the State were performed at Sing Sing from 1914 to 1963 when the last execution was performed in New York. In 1969, the location for all executions was moved to Green Haven Prison.

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Above sepia facsimiles are based on grayscale NYS Archives photos of the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison 1920-1940

The image left shows front view; image right, side view, and center image, part of the death chamber.

Click facsimile for full on-line NYS "The Digital Collections original as well as information about the photo, its subject matter and copyrights.

In 1970, the name of the facility was changed to Ossining Correctional Facility and, in 1985, it received its present name. There is a full range of programs operating at Sing Sing including academic, vocational, college, and graduate work.

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This NYCHS presentation is intended as an introduction to the treasures
to be found among the on-line archival sources used and cited in it.
Viewers are encouraged to use links provided above to access those sources.
Below are links to some of the Sing Sing-related pages on this NYCHS site.

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Sing Sing's
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Sing Star
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Sing Sing
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