Accordingly, he made several visits to Sing Sing Prison, and found the existing system --­ if it could be called that --- very defective; in fact, so much so, as to require a reformation so extensive he thought it could not be brought about by the efforts, however earnest or active, of any one individual; but required a permanent body charged with this humane and useful work.

Foreword This remarkable volume chronicles and celebrates the worthy history of the Correctional Association of New York upon the occasion of its 150th anniversary. . . . The determination of how a society should deal with persons who violate its rules and customs presents a dilemma. It is a dilemma because of the conflict inherent in deciding whether the emphasis in the treatment of criminals should be upon punishment and sequestration of the offender in the hope of deterring him and others from committing further offenses or, on the other hand, redeeming the prodigal son so that, with a new set of values, he will internalize conformity with society's rules. One hundred fifty years ago Pennsylvania and New York pioneer reformers opted for the creation of institutions of confinement that would cure the criminal by a ritual of atonement. . . .The prison, an institution conceived in the early nineteenth century as an enlightened cure-all that would not only substitute for the cruel physical punishment of the past --- such as execution, amputation, and flogging --- but rehabilitate the prisoner, teaching him virtue, seemed simple in concept but nevertheless a panacea. It has not worked that way. Today over one hundred thousand people are confined in correctional facilities in New York State. There are more than one and a half million prisoners in the entire United States . . . . In light of the magnitude and complexity of the problem crime and the efforts to eliminate crime in today's society, good fortune for New York that the Correctional Association survived and thrived and continues to tell it like it is, to educate the public, to ensure that officeholders face the truth, and to protect the rights and legitimate interests of prisoners. Judge Morris E. Lasker United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

The Call to Action

The public notice that appeared in New York City newspapers calling upon concerned citizens to attend a meeting to form the Association pleaded for the need to "find employment for those [released prisoners] who shall give evidence of repentance and reformation." The first meeting of the Association was held at the Apollo Rooms, 410 Broadway, in New York City. "Despite the inclement weather," reported the New York Tribune the next day, "a large and highly intelligent audience assembled to act in the work of reforming prisoners and of adjusting our very imperfect and in some respects inhuman system of prison discipline." This outcry for public action observed that a discharged convict was entitled by law to receive "the mere pittance of three dollars" from the warden and maybe, if he was lucky, the return of his clothing and other possessions that were surrendered when he entered prison.

The Association noted that despite a state statute mandating the return of a prisoner's personal articles after the term of confinement, "not only is his clothing treated as a forfeiture to the State as well as his liberty, but even mementos of affection ... are sometimes cast aside or destroyed with a want of feeling not particularly commendable in the administration of justice. John Edmonds commented: "When they go forth into the world, they are often, for want of employment, reduced to great distress and subjected to sore temptations. To starve or steal, is too often the only alternative presented to them."

It was not uncommon for discharged prisoners to lack "money enough even to pay their stage fare down to the city, and when they arrive among us, unless they have friends who can relieve them, or can find some one kind enough to trust them with the means of living, or the means of earning it, they must of necessity starve or steal. Why should we wonder that they find their way back again to prison, and that right speedily?"

In 1844 a discharged convict was entitled by law to receive "the mere pittance of three dollars" from the warden and maybe, if he was lucky, the return of his clothing and other possessions that were surrendered when he entered prison.

The problem was compounded in 1845, when the Legislature "enlarged that [$3] pittance by adding to it three cents a mile, for the distance from the prison to the place of trial. But, by an erroneous construction of the statute ... this allowance of mileage [became] a substitute for, not an addition to, the former allowance of $3." In one instance a man who wished to return to his family in Ohio upon his discharge from Auburn Prison received three cents.

More than a century later this issue still persisted. In 1959 the Association deplored the practice of giving twenty-five cents to inmates discharged from Rikers and Hart islands. "Despite all the efforts made toward rehabilitation while in custody the fact remains that many of these prisoners need assistance on release, especially at a time when a telephone call or a subway ride consumes all, or a major portion, of the paltry allowance of twenty-five cents.”

Only five of the sixty-seven female inmates at Sing Sing Prison in 1846 could read or write with any proficiency. Their educational program consisted of a half hour of reading each morning from "Mr. Sargent’s admirable temperance Tales [which are] exactly adapted to their necessities, and their sad experience."

The Association's remedial efforts were aimed at prisoners of both sexes, even though in the 1840s the number of female prisoners was small. In 1846 at Sing Sing Prison there were 67 female inmates (as compared to 737 males); about one-half had been committed to the prison that year. Nearly all were serving sentences of two to four years, although five women were serving ten-year sentences. Virtually all of the female prisoners had committed crimes "against property;" two female prisoners under age, twenty were serving their second sentence at Sing Sing. To help these members of the prison population, the Association formed a Female Department, "consisting of such females as shall take an interest in the objects of the Society ... and have particularly in their charge the interests and welfare of prisoners of their sex."

Each year the Association has printed an annual report for transmittal to the NYS Legislature, as contemplated by the 1846 law granting the Association its charter. . . The oldest prison reform organization in the U.S. is the Pennsylvania Prison Society, founded in 1787. It was originally known as the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. . . .

The problems of female prisoners were acute. Only five of the female inmates at Sing Sing Prison in 1846 could read or write with any proficiency, while the educational program in prison consisted of a half hour of reading each morning from "Mr. Sargent's admirable temperance Tales [which are] exactly adapted to their necessities, and their sad experience." At the city prison on Blackwells Island, "the prisoners of both sexes ... were under one roof, in different tiers of cells, under the sole charge of men, and daily exposed to gross improprieties."

The Association's Mission

At the time of the Association's formation in 1844 its constitution embraced three basic purposes:

The Association officially changed its name to the Correctional Association of New York on March 1, 1961.

• the amelioration of the condition of prisoners whether detained for trial, or finally convicted, or as witnesses;

• the improvement of Prison Discipline and the Government of Prisons; and

• the support and encouragement of reformed convicts after their discharge, by affording them the means of obtaining an honest livelihood, and sustaining them in their efforts at reform.

In a letter to the Association dated September 28, 1846, Alexis de Tocqueville "urgently request[ed] you to send me all that shall be published in America, during the ensuing year, on the important subject of prisons." He had traveled to the U.S. to study the Separate and Silent systems and recognized one for France. His choice was the Silent System.

The by-laws adopted by the Association greatly amplified this basic mission. Rather than simply aid discharged convicts in obtaining employment, the founding members endeavored to establish a multifaceted, voluntary public service and civic organization. In today's vernacular, the Association was nothing less than a legal aid society, a think tank on emerging theories of prison reform, a special committee with plenary powers to investigate prison conditions, a social services agency ministering to the needs of inmates' families, a halfway house for released inmates, and a lobbying firm seeking to influence the direction of prison legislation, all rolled into a single organization . . . Looking at society's attitudes [in 1844] toward prisoners and criminals (the two are not always the same), one finds a barbaric and brutal world with only the smallest pinholes of enlightenment and concern for basic human dignity and fundamental civil rights. It was not unusual for a prison to house together debtors, persons awaiting trial, convicts with sentences of less than six months, and witnesses "until the trials at which they may be wanted."

The Association was certainly among the more enlightened citizen groups of the time." Its membership included many prominent figures from New York society and abroad. In fact, for many years Oscar 1, the King of Sweden and Norway, was an honorary member; Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill were corresponding members.

In its first year the Association raised nearly $2, 000 in cash contributions, as well as donations of goods such as fish, brooms, dried apples, combs, and a subscription to the Tribune from Mr. Horace Greeley, its publisher.

From its inception, the Association's efforts were nonpartisan and entirely voluntary, and its funding came solely from private contributions. Article VII of the Association's constitution specifies that a $25 contribution "shall constitute a member of the Association for life;" $100 would make one "an honorary member of the Executive Committee for life;" and a $500 contribution "Shall constitute a life Patron." In its first year the Association raised nearly $2,000 in cash contributions, as well as donations of goods such as fish, brooms, dried apples, combs, and a subscription to the Tribune from Mr. Horace Greeley, its publisher.

Predictably, the Association's ambitious and wide-ranging mission quickly surpassed the generosity of its supporters. Not to be deterred, much of the Association's pioneering work in investigating abuses and the brutal conditions in prisons was funded from Executive Committee members' own pockets rather than the Association's budget. In its early years, when visits were largely confined to the prisons in New York City and the three state prisons, the Association's members undertook that labor without any remuneration. By contrast, in 1867 when the Association visited virtually every prison and jail in New York State (more than sixty), the cost was nearly $7,000 and constituted more than one-half of that year's budget.