Written by Robert Rose "Why do we conduct oral histories about incarceration? What is the significance of bringing these stories to light?” These are questions we ask internally at the Sing Sing Prison Museum as we plan to launch excerpts from oral history interviews; we have conducted this work over the past few years. We wanted to frame the videos and audio recordings in a light that would help audiences see the value of oral histories as a part of the archive, and the way a museum can be part of the work in the justice fields. We take inspiration from fellow nonprofit StoryCorp whose missio ..read more

By Amy Hufnagel ​ As we head into Black History Month in February, we wanted our reading and listening blog to reflect and celebrate Black achievement while also acknowledging where systemic racism continues in our justice system. Prison labor is one example of systemic racism. SSPM acknowledges that incarceration disproportionately and unfairly impacts Black people: they are 4 times more likely to be sent to jail than their white counterparts, more likely to serve time in prison for crimes they didn’t commit than their white counterparts; and, since the pandemic, Black Americans are going to ..read more

​Written by Brent Glass and Giovanna Phipps  What we're reading: Austin Reed: The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict, published by Yale University Press in 2015, was edited and introduced by Caleb Smith, professor of English at Yale. This is a remarkable and rare memoir by an African-American man who spent more than thirty years incarcerated in various New York state institutions. In a compelling narrative, he reveals the "secrets and the habits of the convicts, with the mysteries and miseries of the Auburn Prison, together with the rules and regulations of the prison ..read more

Written by Amy Hufnagel, Associate Director  In fall/winter 2023-2024, the Sing Sing Prison Museum (SSPM) will continue its webinar programming, launching a new 6-part series as part of a new series called Carceral Conversations. This series begins on Thursday, October 12th at 12pm and is titled What I Brought Home and Left Behind: Formerly Incarcerated Individuals Share Memories and Personal Collections. It continues on the second Thursday of every month through March 14th, 2024. Pre-registration is required, and audiences can choose to register for one or all of the sessions. The ..read more

Written by Giovanna Phipps and Amy Hufnagel The Sing Sing Prison Museum (SSPM) prioritizes the importance of seeing varied perspectives, especially on criminal justice reform. This month, SSPM is highlighting the NBC podcast Letters from Sing Sing, which follows the story of Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez and Dan Slepian, and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover, which tells the story of a journalist turned correction officer. Both stories paint a clear picture of what occurs behind the walls of Sing Sing Correctional Facility and share experiences in the US Justice system and the ..read more

Written by Amy Hufnagel and Giovanna Phipps Amy is the Associate Director of the Sing Sing Prison Museum and Giovanna Phipps is the Social Media Manager of the Sing Sing Prison Museum. ​The Sing Sing Prison Museum (SSPM) has a revised mission statement. Sing Sing Prison Museum shares stories of incarceration and reform, past and present, and brings people together to imagine and create a more just society. This mission helps us focus our work yet is broad enough to allow for lots of invention and creativity. As we begin to put this new mission into practice, we start by reactivating “W ..read more

Last week, I had the privilege of seeing a performance of Twelve Angry Men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility (SSCF). Produced by Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) and performed by men incarcerated at SSCF, this play challenges all of us to explore the biases and prejudices that shape our decisions and relationships. The RTA production was outstanding with powerful and vivid performances. The audience loved it and gave the cast (pictured here) a well- deserved standing ovation. RTA’s mission is to “help people in prison develop critical life skills through the arts, modeling an approach ..read more

​Imagine the surprise of readers of House & Garden magazine when they opened the January 1925 issue and found a five-page illustrated feature about the gardens of Sing Sing Prison. A lavish profusion of irises, lilacs, dahlias, peonies, rose bushes, blue spruce, maple and fir trees with over two hundred flowering bushes thrived in stark contrast to the prison’s stone and brick architecture including the 100 year old cellblock and the newly built condemned cell building that housed New York State’s electric chair. The photographs were made by Mattie Edwards Hewitt (1869-1956), a prominent ..read more

Sing Sing Prison Museum's Executive Director, Brent D. Glass, recently published a post for the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Shared here with permission:  Click to Read ..read more

WHAT WE'RE READING: This month we are honored to feature an autobiography "The Urban Underworld in Late Nineteenth-Century New York: The Autobiography of George Appo," by former Sing Sing incarcerated individual, George Appo, and edited by Timothy J. Gilfoyle. The book follows the first-hand account of Appo, a pickpocket and con man, who spent his early years in various penitentiaries and prisons in New York. He recalls his time in Sing Sing Prison, providing insight into corruption, corporal punishment, and incarceration.  Appo, an orphaned Chinese American, lived in the Five Points ne ..read more