Firm but Fair: the Life of Sing Sing Warden Lewis Lawes

By John Jay Rouse

Lewis Lawes was a man who was quite influential in the correctional history of the United States. His writings and his political contacts put him in a unique position to talk constructively about the important criminal justice issues during the 1920s and the 1930s. The topics debated during this time period, juvenile justice, gun control, the death penalty and what the role of prisons should be, are just as relevant today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 6, 2000
• ISBN: 9781462823000

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FIRM BUT FAIR:

THE LIFE OF

SING SING WARDEN

LEWIS LAWES

John Jay Rouse

Copyright © 2000 by John Jay Rouse.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

BEGINNINGS

Chapter 2

I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER

Chapter 3

LIFE BEHIND BARS

Chapter 4

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

Chapter 5

LAWES AS CELEBRITY

Chapter 6

THE LAST YEARS

End Notes

Bibliography

Preface

I first had the idea for this book in 1985 when I was a doctoral student in Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. I was trying to come up with an idea for my doctoral dissertation when I came across the personal papers of Warden Lewis Lawes in the Special Collections of John Jay Library. I ultimately decided to do my dissertation on another topic, citizen crime patrols, but I remained intrigued by Lawes and the work that he did in the 1920’s and 30’s. Over the years I kept coming back to the collection and ultimately read the entire contents, about 7,000 pages, plus I read all of his books and articles and transcripts of speeches.

Warden Lewis continues to be a fascinating figure for me because he was successful in stirring debate on criminal justice topics. He did not always get his way but he was always willing to struggle for what he believed in.

Chapter 1

BEGINNINGS

Lewis Lawes, probably the most famous and accomplished prison warden in American penology, started his life in a quiet little town, Elmira, in upstate New York. He was born on Friday, September 13, 1883 to Harry Lewis Lawes and Sarah (Abbott) Lawes. He was their only child. His father was born in England and was a Protestant. His mother’s family was Irish Catholic, originally from County Kerry. The Abbotts had emigrated to the U.S. during the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840’s. His mother saw to it that he was brought up as a Catholic.

Lawes grew up a half mile away from the New York State Reformatory where his father worked as a guard. He attended P.S. 5 and the Elmira Free Academy. He worked for The Telegram, Elmira’s Sunday paper, after school and on weekends. He was not always the respected, strait-laced, law-abiding citizen that he would become. As a boyhood friend, Frank Tripp, has stated:

It’s swell to meet boyhood friends who rise to the top—the very top—in their life’s work and find them just like you left them; when you stood on a corner and pondered whose window would next be stoned out. As a matter of fact I kept looking in Lewie’s hand—for a rock.1

In 1901, at the age of 17, Lawes decided to run away from home and join the United States Coast Artillery. He was posted to Portland, Maine and Fort Hamilton, N.Y. He started as a corporal and was a sergeant when he left. It is not clear what prompted Lawes to make this drastic move. In his writings there is very little reference to his family. Perhaps he felt the military would help him to regain a focus which seems to have drifted a little in his youth.

After Lawes left the Coast Artillery he returned to Elmira and got a job at an insurance company. He timed his walk to the insurance company he worked at in downtown Elmira so that he was passing by the front door of Katherine Stanley’s house as she was leaving for work. He would then initiate conversations about his job, her job, the weather and sports in order to get to know her better. Eventually they started dating—walks in the country and picnics were typical dating fare. Lawes was earning $7 a week at this time.

Lawes was growing restless in his job at the insurance company and he decided that he wanted to pursue his father’s line of work. He started his prison career as a guard at Clinton Prison at Dannemora on March 1, 1905. When he arrived at Dannemora he asked the station master when the next train back to Plattsburg would be leaving and he was told the next morning. Dannemora was a town of state institutions. In addition to a state prison Dannemora also had a State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and a State Hospital for the Tubercular. Lawes decided to stay because he thought he could do some good at Dannemora. However he frequently thought back on it later in life—what would have happened if he could have take a return trip on the train that day?

The pay was $55 per month with 12 hour days and 2 weeks vacation per year. Prison jobs were patronage jobs in those days— every prison employee was expected to pay twenty-five dollars a year to the party in power in order to retain his job. Lawes did not pay but managed to keep his job anyway.

During the time that Lawes was in Dannemora he kept up a correspondence with Katherine Stanley. He was not dating anyone else and decided that she was the right woman for him. They were married on September 30, 1905. Lawes was two weeks past his twenty- second birthday. Katherine did not join him in Dannemora but stayed back in Elmira.

While Lawes was at Dannemora an old convict named Chappeleau told him that carrying a club was not going to elicit respect from the convicts. Once Lawes used his club and struck the victim of a knife attack rather than the knife wielder. He never used his club again.This was out of the ordinary for the time— prisons were still primarily about punishment.

Lawes took a State Civil Service test for the position of Reformatory Guard on May 24, 1906. He scored #1 on the list with a grade of 96.90. On March 1, 1906, Lawes transferred to Auburn Prison. His pay went for $55 per month to $61 per month. His wife joined him when he transferred to Auburn.

While visiting his parents in Elmira Lawes met a former classmate, George Crandall. Crandall was a journalist and he had also worked on the campaign of a newly elected Republican Assemblyman from Chemung County. Lawes asked Crandall for help in getting a position in the Elmira Reformatory. When a vacancy occurred in the Fall it was given to Lawes. He started working there on October 1, 1906.

In 1912 Lawes took a leave of absence from Elmira and enrolled in the New York School of Social Work. At the time he and Katherine already had two daughters—Kathleen and Crystal. In March, 1915, Lawes was appointed Superintendent of the City Reformatory on Hart’s Island in New York City.

While Lawes was in charge of the New York City Reformatory on Hart’s Island about ninety boys collapsed on the field during a ball game. They had taken narcotics from the prison hospital and the drugs had acted as emetics. The guards blamed the incident on Lawes’s lack of proper supervision. A grand jury found that the guards had framed Lawes because they resented an out-of-towner being in charge. All but two of them were fired.

Lawes then lobbied through the press for another location for the reformatory. Eventually land was purchased in New Hampton. Lawes did not like the old reformatory location because it shared an island with a home for derelicts and a potter’s field.

One night in New Hampton Lawes was awakened by the sound of horses’ hooves. He went out in his car and found two inmates on horses galloping along the road. One of them had a gun. Lawes told them that unless they immediately surrendered to him he would take away all of the privileges from all of the inmates in the reformatory. They handed over the gun and went back with Lawes.

While he was working in New Hampton Lawes was approached by a film