The new Sing Sing, therefore, has been planned as a Classification
and Distributing Prison, from which the prisoner, after a definite
determination has been made of his mental, physical and economic
possibilities, will be assigned to that State institution best suited
to his individual demands. For example, if it be found that a prisoner
is physically unsound, he will be sent to an institution where he
can be therapeutically bettered; or, if mentally deficient, to an
institution where he can be scientifically treated, and, if possible,
given work that will enable him to direct his minimal capacity so as to
exempt him from purely custodial care.
The construction and location of the buildings at Sing Sing mean much
more, therefore, than the mere erection of a series of large prison
buildings for the detention of those who have violated the laws of
the State. It will exist as a twentieth century prison elixir, which
will take the recrement of society and so purge and refine it that the
result will advance, rather than retard, the onward and upward movement
of humanity.