biography
| name: |
Lawes, Lewis Edward
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1883–1947)
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| biography:
| Prison administrator and reformer, born in Elmira, New York, USA. The son of a prison guard, he worked as an apprentice reporter at the Elmira Telegram, spent three years in the army (1901–4), and worked temporarily in the insurance business until offered a position as a guard at Clinton Prison, Dannemora, NY (1905). He then became a guard at New York's Auburn prison (1906) and at Elmira Reformatory (1906–15), where he was chief guard and later head records clerk. He was named overseer of the New York City Reformatory (1915) and then was allowed to establish a new reformatory at New Hampton in Orange Co, NY. As warden of the notorious prison Sing Sing, Ossining, NY (1920–41), he introduced extensive educational and recreational programmes, transforming Sing Sing into one of the most progressive prisons of its time. He broadcast his reform message on the radio, wrote several books, and co-wrote a prison melodrama that had a brief Broadway run. Pragmatic as he was humanitarian, an opponent of the death penalty who, nevertheless, presided over 302 executions, he was one of America's most liberal prison wardens. |
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