In addition to using the building as a clinical hospital for the
housing of psychiatric and medical requirements of the prison, it is
also planned to use it as a school for the education of male nurses, as
it is found that efficiency in prison nursing is directly proportional
to the nurse’s understanding of the relation of scientific, medical and
psychiatric knowledge to the peculiar problems of a prison community.
The entire Sing Sing project includes kitchens, dining rooms, library,
school, vocational shops, recreation hall, roads, walks, a modern
sewage plant, a power house to heat and light the many buildings and
to operate the industrial plants, and a church for the development of
religious and community ideals.
In addition to the proper placing and co-ordination of the structures
and their component parts, and the abolishment of unsanitary conditions
in the interiors, by the architectural treatment of buildings and site,
a great step forward has been taken in the creating of a proper and
fitting atmosphere and environment. The old idea of the ugly, heavy
barred and broken walls, which produced the dismal, forsaken, isolated
and jail-like appearance of former prisons, has been discarded. In
their places will be many-windowed, substantial brick structures,
extending from the river to the plateau in the rear of the elevated
site, in dignified and well-proportioned stages.
The causes which formerly created in prisoners the feeling of being
entombed, useless and hopeless exiles have been done away with. It
is our hope that ideals of respectability, industry, efficiency and
co-operation will arise from these new prison conditions and make
strong, beneficial and lasting impressions on the mind of each prisoner.
It is only by such utilization of the experiences in allied fields and
their thoughtful application to prison conditions that progress may be
hoped for in solving this important human problem.