Thomas Mott Osborne

Within Prison Walls Thomas Mott Osborne

Finally came an appointment by Governor Sulzer to a State Commission on Prison Reform, suggested to the Governor by Judge Riley, the new Superintendent of Prisons. My position as chairman of the Commission made it seem desirable, if not necessary, to inform myself to the utmost as to the inner conditions of the prisons and the needs of the inmates. I do not mean that it was necessary to reinvestigate the material aspect of the prisons-it is known already that the conditions at Sing Sing are barbaric, and those at Auburn medieval-but that it was desirable to get all possible light regarding the actual effect of the System as a whole, or specific parts of it, upon the prisoners. I began to feel, therefore, that the time had come to carry out the plan which had been so long in the background of my mind.