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    Auburn Correctional Facility
    Auburn Correctional Facility
    Auburn Correctional Facility
    Ebook170 pages1 hour

    Auburn Correctional Facility

    By Eileen McHugh, Cayuga Museum and Michael Pettigrass

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    What is now called Auburn Correctional Facility has been open in Auburn since 1817, and it is the oldest continually operating prison in the country. Auburn's claim to being the preeminent American prison is bolstered by its many firsts. Auburn was the first prison in the world to house convicts in individual cells and the first prison in the country to employ a chaplain and put a matron in charge of the women prisoners. Auburn Prison developed the widely duplicated system of inmate management that became known as the Auburn System, a totally silent regimen of forced labor and complete control. Auburn was the first prison to separate mentally unstable inmates from the general population and was the site of the world's first use of the electric chair for capital punishment. The prison was at the front line of the prison reform movement in the early 20th century when Thomas Mott Osborne was voluntarily incarcerated and helped found the Mutual Welfare League in Auburn Prison in 1913.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439623619
    Auburn Correctional Facility

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      Book preview

      Auburn Correctional Facility - Eileen McHugh

      Pettigrass

      INTRODUCTION

      Auburn Correctional Facility has been open at the same spot in Auburn, New York, since 1817. It is now the oldest continually operating prison in the country. At the forefront of both the American and international penal systems since the day it opened, Auburn was the first prison in the world to house inmates in individual cells. Auburn was where the widely duplicated Auburn System of inmate management was developed. Auburn was the first prison to have a chaplain on staff, and it was the first prison to separate the mentally ill from the general prison population. On August 6, 1890, Auburn was the first prison in the world to execute an inmate in the electric chair.

      The act authorizing the erection of a new state prison was passed in April 1816. Auburn boosters lobbied the state legislature for the placement of the proposed prison in Auburn. Four men—Samuel Dill, David Hyde, Ebenezer Beach, and John Beach—donated land to the state as a site for the new prison. Work started on the main building and the prison wall in 1816. The state granted the authority to use convict labor in building the prison in April 1817, both to relieve the crowded jails and to save the wages of free workmen. The first 53 inmates arrived in 1817 and were immediately put to work on the building.

      The construction of the prison went on for several years under the direction of William Brittin. The state inspectors appointed Brittin as the first agent and warden of Auburn Prison in 1818. It was Brittin who designed the north wing at Auburn Prison, completed in 1821, which was made up entirely of solitary cells. It became the model for most American prisons.

      The Auburn System was designed to prevent the corruption of one prisoner by another. The goal was to totally isolate each prisoner while forcing him to work for the prison’s profit. The Auburn System was based on complete silence, strictly enforced with the threat of the whip. Prisoners were forbidden to communicate with each other in any way. Such a system, which violated the most basic human nature, could not be maintained without extreme physical cruelty. One goal of the Auburn System was to have the prisoners defray the costs of their incarceration through their own labor. For decades, the prison shops at Auburn produced shoes, coverlets, clocks, clothing, agricultural implements, furniture, and more, with much of it sold in downtown Auburn. The contract labor system was discontinued at Auburn Prison in 1890. It was replaced by the state use system in which inmates were "to manufacture articles solely for the use of all state departments, institutions, and political

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