Sing Sing Correctional Facility’s Dark Past Is Starkly Different to Its Treatment of Prisoners Today

Dubbed the "Plaza Hotel" of prisons, Sing Sing correctional facility is one of the most requested prisons by folks heading to the slammer in the United States due to its close proximity to Manhattan and its scenic placement along the Hudson river just an hour from the city.

It's about as famous as prisons can be because when it opened, it "turned a profit for the state."

But there are other reasons Sing Sing is famous and folks are wondering after the debut of the recent film about the prison — does it still exist today?

Because of the prison's infamous reputation, and since it's been around for some 200 years, people may get to thinking that Sing Sing has been decommissioned for quite some time. However, that couldn't be further from the truth.

According to the historic prison's website, the prison is still very much in operation. It reads: "Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in Ossining, New York. It houses about 1,700 incarcerated people and is located about 30 miles north of New York City on the bank of the Hudson River."

The article on the penitentiary adds that the location has been wrongly maligned due to its past: "Sing Sing's almost 200 year history earned it a worldwide reputation as a notorious prison, but it is unfair to recognize it only for those reasons."

It continued to say that despite its history, the facilities at Sing Sing today have distanced it from that sordid past: "Today, Sing Sing is considered a model correctional facility with its innovative rehabilitation programs for the incarcerated."

Michael Capra, the superintendent for Sing Sing also echoed the verbiage on the website in a featured quote on the facility's history page, stating: "When the public thinks about Prison, they associate it with punishment. When I think about Prison, I associate it with structure, security, discipline, education, vocation and families."

Capra went on to state that Sing Sing's primary function is to help rehabilitate folks and that he is wholly dedicated to ensuring the facility's prisoners are afforded that chance: "I spend many hours thinking about putting 1,700 broken pieces back together so when they leave this place they will be prepared to be productive, educated, confident, employed,​crime-free people.

The New York Post quoted Michael Capra delineating why funding was so vital for the bolstering of Sing Sing's educational programs and that's because institutions that provided assistance in helping criminals get degrees while on the inside is a proven tool for helping to combat recedivism.

"So why shell out cash on prisoners? Recidivism is New York is roughly 42 percent, but when an inmate receives a college degree while incarcerated, that number drops to 4 percent. That’s why Capra encourages his wards to get an education," the outlet wrote.

Capra commented on the initiatives as well: "What I say to the new inmates is that I want you to re-identify who you are and ­really think about what it is to be a real man. Men go to work," he said.

Nicknaming an electric chair after a character who sounds like they'd fit right into The Brave Little toaster is pretty macabre — there were 614 executions conducted at Sing Sing, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who spied for the Soviet Union and Gerhard Puff who murdered an FBI agent.

In the early days of the jail, prisoners weren't allowed to speak, whippings were common place, and folks wore striped suits and were forced to walk in lock step.

In the same New York Post article, Capra stated that violence hasn't gone down in Sing Sing — even though the amount of prisoners it once housed is down by 1,000 men on average.