New York Prison System (late 1800s)

[glinda]

I'm looking for recommendations of good sources on the early history of the prison system in New York City, especially about the prisons that would have existed in the late 1800s and would have housed female inmates. (Given how many prisons exist in New York state these days, I find it unlikely that Sing Sing was the only prison that close to the city.) I'm especially interested in reports on prison conditions - I'm currently reading Within Prison Walls by prison reformer Thomas Mott Osborne - and any mascinations around their building/expansion.

Thanks in advance for any information or general pointers in the right direction.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

That's a terrific book, isn't it? The NY Correction History Society site may help you. I don't know whether it's still online - I'm writing this with restricted access to the web - but if it isn't, it's likely to be cached by archive.org. The Society site is an absolutely enormous site; you could spend weeks there.

I link to it here, along with a bunch of other prison resources for that time period, including additional writings by Thomas Mott Osborne:

http://duskpeterson.com/toughs/bibliography/masculinity/index.htm#prisons

Though I don't link to it, somebody put together a documentary a few years ago on Osborne's life that included period film of, I believe, Sing Sing. It may still be available on DVD, if you do a bit of Googling.

I spent several years researching this topic for a novel series (except for women prisoners, on which I have little information), so feel free to shoot me an e-mail if questions come up.

http://duskpeterson.com/#contact

[glinda]

It's such an interesting book! And the Correction Society site is both vast and is such a late 90s/early 00s website - I love it!

Oh and that's a bibliography of great joy that is! I forsee some quality time with inter-library loans working my way through that!

Thank you! :D

[duskpeterson]

Whoops! It looks as though lilly_c beat me to reccing the NY Correction History Society site, at your blog. Well, now you know that two of us think it's worth visiting!

[glinda]

Better twice than not at all, it's a super useful site!