Sing Sing Correctional Facility

New York's first state prison, Newgate, opened in New York City in 1797. Newgate was quickly found to be unsatisfactory due to poor construction and the impossibility of developing viable industries. As a result, a commission was formed in 1825 (Chapter 25) for the purpose of building a new state prison in the first or second senatorial district, based on the design of Auburn Prison, which opened in 1816. The commission was authorized to sell Newgate and was appropriated $70,000 to erect a prison to house 800 convicts.

The commission chose a site named Mount Pleasant in the town of Sing Sing (now Ossining) and purchased 130 acres of land formerly worked as a silver mine. Plans were immediately drawn up for the construction of the prison and work progressed steadily (although somewhat slowly) by utilizing convict labor from Auburn and Newgate prisons. By the middle of 1826, 169 men were confined in the prison while the rest of the cells were being completed. In may of 1828, the entire inmate population of Newgate was transferred to the prison and the building itself was finished that October. Newgate was sold for $100,000.

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