PRISON REFORM WARDEN LEWIS E. LAWES NEW YORK 1910-1919 PHOTO ALBUM/SCRAPBOOK

Item #1337

Lewis E. Lawes (1883-1947) was the Warden of Sing Sing Correctional Facility between 1920-1941 and author of Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing. He is considered a prison reformist. During his time as warden of Sing Sing he introduced athletics and educational programs to the inmates. Lewis E. Lawes began his career in correctional facilities in 1904 when he was appointed to the position of prison guard at the Clinton prison. He then transferred to Auburn in 1906, and in October of that same year he began at the Elmira Reformatory.

In this large 15 1/8” x 11 tome album, there is a collection on 79 photographs and roughly 30 newspaper articles. There are 38 leaves/47 pages, and an additional 100 leaves that are not utilized. The front cover is embossed with the subject's name in gold: “Lewis E. Lawes”.

This is an archival account of Lawes early days in his career overseeing reformatories and prisons before his appointment to Sing Sing. The opening page is a photo of Lawes atop a horse on the grounds of the NYC (boys) Reformatory on Hart Island. During his time as Superintendent he oversaw the creation The New Hampton Farm Colony, much of the newspaper articles are to do with this reform.

On the following pages are newspaper clippings giving much attention to his earlier days at Elmira where he was quickly promoted from Reformatory staff to the position of Chief Guard. In these articles he is often referred to as “Captain”. In regards to his perception by his attendant staff, he is praised as “always conscientious and faithful, winning the respect and confidence of his superiors by his energy and strict attention to duty”. He later takes up the position of Superintendent of the NYC Reformatory. In an article from “The Voice of New York” it is told that Lawes used his power as an attempt at making the reformatory a more humanizing place: making hospital ward conditions more sanitary while removing cruel punishments of sleep deprivation, and the like… promoting conversation between inmates where previously they were to be in absolute silence, and not restricting recreational time on the weekends.

Further articles, not necessarily in sequential order, detail poor conditions at Rikers (July, 1915), an inmate riot at Hart’s Reformatory (date unknown), trials of reforming youthful prisoners on trips to labor at a “farm colony” in Orange County, etc. In 1916, Outlook Magazine took to telling the tale of moving an entire reformatory sixty miles out to a temporary work order on a farm colony in Orange County. A piece out of a paper in Atlanta, George wrote of the same task proclaiming it a “radically progressive” act. The following year, The New York Times picked up the piece when farm labor had turned into canning preservation work among the prison laborers. The NYT followed several inmates on their way out of reformatory to say, “About forty of the young men who left the institution within the last six months have made good in various callings.” This positive reform is attributed to the positive labor conditions inside, readying the men for integrating into society as it is.

Newspaper clippings span from 1912-1919. Lawes scoured the Middletown Times, the Buffalo Times, the Brooklyn Eagle, and the Elmira Star Gazette. Other articles detail the accounts of escaped convicts, parole upon release, film-making at the penitentiary, the need for crime prevention rather than punishment, and so on.

While the majority of the album is dominated by new stories, there are nearly eighty photographs within which display the reformatory boys laboring on the farm and in the snow, posing behind prison fences and iron bars, and swimming on what is to be presumed a long, hot day. Photographs range in size from 2 5/8” x 4 1/2” to 5” x 7”.

Other miscellany include… programs of the reformatories evening of holiday entertainment and another from the Brooklyn Academy of Music, on page twenty it is told that films on prison reform including the moving picture of the boys at Hart’s Island, and live music by the NYC Reformatory Band of New Hampton, and another as an invitation to a prison exhibit next to; a Christmas Greeting addressed to Mr. Lawes in 1910; a subpoena for Lawes to attend a Grand Jury as witness (1915); and, a certificate acknowledging Lawes position as Superintendent in 1917.

The pages show discoloration , otherwise this album is in good condition for its age.

Price: $1,800.00