Lewis E. Lawes: warden of Sing Sing Prison

              LEWIS E. LAWES

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Warden of Sing Sing Prison

President Wardens' Association of America, 1922
President American Prison Association, 1923
International Delegate, Prison Congress, England 1925
Member of Advisory Board to National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement
Honorary President American League to Abolish Capital Punishment
Author, Man's Judgment of Death, Life and Death in Sing Sing

Lecture Dates Available

October - June

Address
354 Hunter St., Ossining, N. Y.





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Murder Is the Real Problem, Not the Murderer, Says Lawes




lewis e. lawes
NO one can speak with greater authority on crime than Warden Lawes.  He has had twenty-five years of practical prison experience, rising from guard to the wardenship of the world's best-known prison.  He has been Warden of Sing Sing since 1920 and his service there has made him an international figure in penological work.  He was president of the National Warden's Association in 1922, president of the American Prison Association in 1923, and U. S. delegate to the International Prison Congress held in London in 1925.

WARDEN LAWES explodes almost every popular notion about crime and criminals in this book, which is full of the dynamite of irrefutable fact.

He shows that criminals are average human beings, and do not belong to a special class with peculiar physical and mental characteristics.

He points out that harsh laws ruthlessly enforced instead of preventing crime actually increase it.

He demonstrates that murderers instead of being the most intractable of prisoners are the most amenable, and that if they do regain their liberty they are least likely to abuse it.

He points out that the death penalty, in which he firmly believed when he became Warden of Sing Sing in 1920 not only has no deterrent effect but appears to have exactly the opposite effect.

He describes the last words and death of many criminals, and gives a vivid picture of the ordinary and extraordinary life at Sing Sing.

Here is real light on crime—its cause, its prevention, and its punishment.




They Say of Life and Death in Sing Sing
A most admirable discussion … on the authority of long experience and deep study by the Warden of Sing Sing Prison.

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER President Columbia College.

The right idea on the question of crime solution.

HENRY FORD

Will challenge the attention of all authorities who have to do with penal matters.

GEO. W. WICKERSHAM


Extraordinary reading, a calm, clear view of what goes on beyond newspaper headlines.
TIMES MAGAZINE


260 pages of logical argument and analysis … as entertaining as most crime fiction … for it is real.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAM


A contribution to enlightened thinking.
NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE

The chapter describing the administration of the death penalty in Sing Sing is perhaps the most telling and vivid account of this vestige of savagery which is accessible in book form …

PROF. HARRY ELMER BARNES


No quantity of newspaper stories describing Sing Sing executions can detract from the absorbing interest of Lawes' chapter of Electrocution.
NEW YORK TELEGRAM


He reaffirms his belief in the futility of Capital Punishment and supports his contention by thumb-nail sketches drawn from the lives of the 114 men and one woman who have passed to death before his eyes.
NEW YORK WORLD


His conclusions seem to be measured, responsible result of thought nurtured on facts … Life and Death in Sing Sing becomes a bolt to shatter the glib generalities that are tossed back and forth as truths about crime.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW


Explodes almost every popular conception about crime and criminals.
WASHINGTON, D. C. TIMES


He has learned at the best school there is and his words sound exceedingly wise.
BOSTON TRANSCRIPT

It is one of the best things ever written upon capital punishment.  I don't believe any person can read it with an open mind without seeing the cruelty and uselessness of taking human life by the State as you depict it in the book.

CLARENCE DARROW