Thomas Mott Osborne

Thomas Mott Osborne
Thomas Mott Osborne circa 1910 at his desk (cropped).jpg
Osborne, c. 1910
Warden of Sing Sing
In office
December 1, 1914 – December 31, 1915
Appointed byJohn B. Riley
Preceded byGeorge S. Weed
Succeeded byGeorge Washington Kirchwey
Personal details
Born(1859-09-23)September 23, 1859
Auburn, New York
DiedOctober 20, 1926(1926-10-20) (aged 67)
Auburn, New York
Spouse(s)
Agnes Devens
(m. 1886; died 1896)
ChildrenCharles, David, Lithgow, Robert
Parent(s)David Munson Osborne (1822–1886) Eliza Lidy Wright (1822-1866)
EducationHarvard University (1884) Harvard Law School 1887

Thomas Mott Osborne (September 23, 1859 – October 20, 1926) was an American prison administrator, prison reformer, industrialist and New York State political reformer.[1] In an assessment of Osborne's life, a New York Times book reviewer wrote: "His career as a penologist was short, but in the interval of the few years he served he succeeded in revolutionizing American prison reform, if not always in fact, then in awakening responsibility.... He was made of the spectacular stuff of martyrs, to many people perhaps ridiculous, but to those whose lives his theories most closely touched, inspiring and often godlike."[2]

Biography

David M. Osborne (1822–1886), Thomas's father

He was born on September 23, 1859, in Auburn, New York, to David Munson Osborne (1822–1886) and Agnes Lithgow Devens (1822-1886.[1] Auburn was a center of progressive political activity, particularly anti-slavery activism before and during the American Civil War. His family included a number of eminent reformers, particularly his grandmother, Martha Coffin Wright and her sister, Lucretia Coffin Mott and his Uncle William Lloyd Garrison], who were organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention on women's rights, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in Seneca Falls, New York.

His grandmother, Martha Coffin Wright, and in succession her daughter and Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, and a niece, Josephine Osborne, oversaw the finances of Harriet Tubman, who spent her last half-century in Auburn. Martha's home in Auburn was part of the Underground Railroad where she harbored fugitive slaves. Both women frequented the Osborne household during Thomas Mott Osborne's upbringing. Thomas Osborne's aunt, Ellen, or as she is known to her descendants, Nella, married William Lloyd Garrison Jr., the son of the noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Thomas Mott Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, wife of David Munson Osborne, was also a feminist leader, though of lesser note.[citation needed]

Early years

Thomas Osborne attended Adams Academy[3] in Quincy, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University with honors in 1884, where he was among the founders of the Harvard Cooperative Society.

Upon David Munson Osborne's death in 1886, Thomas Osborne became president of his family's manufacturing company, DM Osborne & Co. He married Agnes Lithgow Devens in 1886. His wife died of cancer just a few months after giving birth to their fourth son on March 26, 1896.

Thomas Mott Osborne served on the Auburn School Board from 1885 to 1896, becoming the youngest chairman in its history. In 1896, he became a trustee on the board of the George Junior Republic, a self-governing youth colony, and soon its chairman, just in time to lead a campaign to prevent New York State from shutting it down.

At the New York state election, 1898, he ran on the Independent Citizens' ticket for Lieutenant Governor of New York.

Osborne was elected mayor of Auburn in 1902, serving two terms. He was known to disguise himself and visit local taverns to eavesdrop on conversations to get a sense of public opinion.[4]

By 1903 DM Osborne & Co. grew to become North America's third largest producer of agricultural implements. In 1903, the family sold the company to the International Harvester Trust, leaving Osborne to pursue social reform and public service. International Harvester took over management in 1905.

1905년 그는 도시의 지배적인 일간지인 오번 데일리 광고주에 대항하기 위해 진보적인 목소리로 일간지 오번 데일리 시티즌을 창간했다. 오스본 가문은 1836년 폐지 운동 때 처음 출판된 "The Nation"을 아직도 편집하고 소유하고 있다.

레포머

1907년 찰스 에반스 휴스 주지사는 오스본 주(州) 최초의 뉴욕 공공서비스위원회(New York Public Service Commission)에서 주(州)의 고위 위원장으로 임명했다. 어느 순간 철도가 그들의 제안대로 직원들을 안전하게 다듬을 수 있는지를 판단하기 위해 오스본은 호보 복장을 하고 레일을 탔고, 한때 뉴욕 시러큐스에서 검문 과정에서 경찰에 체포되기도 했다. 그러나 그가 위원회에 제출한 보고서는 철도 직원들에 대한 유지를 명령하도록 위원회를 설득하는 데 중요한 역할을 했다. 그러나 여러 가지 기묘한 변장을 하고 여행하려는 그의 성향과 오스본과 동성 연애설이 나돌았던 잡역부 루이 셰들린과의 친밀한 관계는 오스본의 향후 정치적 야심에 치명적으로 판명되었다.[5]

1910년과 1912년 사이에 오스본은 당시 뉴욕주 상원의원이었던 프랭클린 델라노 루즈벨트, 그리고 뉴욕주 민주당을 개혁하기 위한 노력에 실패한 루이 맥헨리 하우와 팀을 이루었다. FDR, Howe, Osborn은 Tammy HallWilliam Randolph Hearst뉴욕의 가장 잘 알려진 적이었다. 그러나 세 사람이 우드로 윌슨 대통령 지명을 위해 일했던 1912년 민주당 전당대회 이후 윌슨은 주 민주당 계파를 무시하고 대신 더 큰 민주당인 탐먼홀(Tammy Hall) 주도 세력을 선택해서 국가를 대표했다. 오스본은 혐오감을 느끼며 정치를 그만두었다.

1912년 병석에 누워있던 오스본은 캘리포니아의 전 산 쿠엔틴 교도소의 수감자였던 도날드 로리에 의해 '[6] 인생 감옥'을 읽도록 영감을 받았다. 이듬해 는 윌리엄 설저 뉴욕 주지사를 설득해 새 교도소개혁위원회 위원장을 임명했다. 그 해 위원회를 대표하여 그는 현재 오번 교도소인 오번 교도소에 수감되어 다른 죄수들처럼 취급되어야 한다고 정부에 주장했다. 9월 29일, 오스본은 "톰 브라운"이라는 수감자 33,333X로 6일간의 수감생활을 시작했다.[7] 그는 감옥에서 자신의 경험을 기록했다. 1914년에 출판된 이 책은 그를 당대 가장 두드러진 감옥 개혁 운동가로 만들었다.

Warden of Sing Sing

Osborne was appointed Warden of Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, on December 1, 1914, replacing Judge George S. Weed.[8][9][10] After addressing the prisoners in chapel, he undertook a week's stay inside the prison, again experiencing the prison from the prisoners' point of view. He next stunned the guards and prisoners by visiting the prison yard unarmed and unescorted. He established a system of internal self-rule called the "Mutual Welfare League" within the prison and quickly won enthusiastic support from both guards and prisoners.

His principal opponents were prisoners who had lived comfortably within the system before his reforms, by intimidating others or using their financial resources to bribe guards for privileges. One of these, a former Manhattan banker in prison for larceny, used his financial and political connections to instigate a rigged "investigation" of Osborne's administration. When he was indicted for perjury, neglect of duty, and "unlawful [sexual] acts with inmates," Osborne fought back with a speaking tour of the state. Carnegie Hall saw two mass meetings supporting his defense, one attended by the retired president of Harvard University Charles William Eliot. The prison guards wrote a letter in support as well. After the judge in the case directed a verdict of acquittal, Osborne returned to Sing Sing in triumph. The front page of the New York Times described the celebration at the prison: "Convicts' Carnival Welcomes Osborne; Prisoners, in Costume and Wild with Joy, Give Pageant for Him at Sing Sing, Hundreds of Spectators."[11][12]

He resigned his position as Sing Sing's warden later in 1916, tired of battling his superiors and New York State Governor Charles S. Whitman.

Commander at Portsmouth

Osborne (seated, center) with his four sons

In 1916 Josephus Daniels, the Secretary of the Navy at the likely suggestion of Assistant Secretary Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an ally of Osborne from his years in New York State reform politics, commissioned a report on conditions at the Portsmouth Naval Prison in Kittery, Maine. Osborne again investigated conditions by living inside the prison like any other inmate. He found a facility in desperate need of his reforms. In a speech at the Twentieth Century Club in New York City, he denounced "degrading" uniforms and "absurd" procedures: "When the men return from working on the seawall, a place where they could not possibly obtain anything but sand, boulders and seaweed, they are stripped and searched."[13]

In July 1917, now a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, he took up the position of commander of the Portsmouth Naval Prison, a post he held for two and a half years. It was during these years Osborne, as senior officer, met and mentored Austin McCormick. Austin MacCormick would continue after Osborne's death in 1926 to publish his seminal work, "The Education of Adult Prisoners" in 1931. MacCormick would also become Dean of Criminology at U.C. Berkeley and executive director of Osborne Association, a prison reform organization still active to this day.

Later career

His books, public speaking and notoriety helped end the so-called "rule of silence," floggings and other prisoner abuses common in U.S. prisons at the time. But Osborne's cherished prisoner self-government plan, the "Mutual Welfare League," vanished soon after his death in 1926. His initial experiments had been greeted by the press largely with derision, but over the course of his life he won grudging admiration from both the press and the public.

Death

He died on October 20, 1926, in Auburn, New York.[1] He was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn dressed in a Portsmouth prison uniform.

Legacy

In 1933, the Welfare League Association and several other organizations Osborne had created were merged and reorganized as Osborne Association.[14] The Association now works at every point of the criminal justice system, from arrest and "pre-entry," to programs in prison and in the community following release. True to Osborne's founding spirit, the Association's 25 programs are all designed to offer individuals the opportunity, the tools, and the support to build or rebuild their lives.

References

  1. ^ a b c "T. Mott Osborne, Reformer, is Dead. Body of Former Warden of Sing Sing, Heart Victim, Found in Auburn (N.Y.) Street. He Championed Prisoners. After Occupying Cell Himself, He Began Reform Drive. First Was Active in Politics". Associated Press in the New York Times. October 21, 1926. Retrieved 2011-05-04. Thomas Mott Osborne, noted prison reform advocate and former Warden of Sing Sing Prison, dropped dead on the street here tonight. ...
  2. ^ New York Times, July 8, 1934
  3. ^ New York Times, Oct. 21, 1926
  4. ^ Brian, 90
  5. ^ Fenster 2009, p. 56–58.
  6. ^ Mitchell Kennerley, 1912
  7. ^ "Who We Are". Osborne Association., accessed October 18, 2021
  8. ^ "T. M. Osborne To Be Warden At Sing Sing. Noted Prison Reformer Will Take Office on Dec. 1. Approved by Glynn and Whitman. Big Shake-Up Predicted. Warden-Elect Disapproves of Capital Punishment, but Would Make Executions 'Public Exhibitions". New York Times. November 20, 1914. Retrieved 2011-05-04. Thomas Mott Osborne of Auburn, N.Y., retired manufacturer, world traveler, lecturer, writer, and prison reformer, has accepted the offer of John B. Riley, State Superintendent of Prisons, of the post of the Warden of Sing Sing Prison. He will take office on Dec. 1, and will relieve ex-Judge George S. Weed, who was temporarily assigned to Sing Sing, when Warden Thomas J. McCormick was ousted on Oct. 30 as the result of the Sullivan scandal. ...
  9. ^ "Osborne In At Sing Sing. New Warden Outlines Plans. Makes C.H. Johnson Assistant" (PDF). New York Times. December 1, 1914. Retrieved 2013-12-15. Thomas Mott Osborne took formal charge of Sing Sing at midnight, relieving George S. Weed, who acted since the removal of Warden McCormack, Mr. Osborne came from Little Falls in an automobile with two other men, one of whom was Charles H. Johnson, who has been named by the Warden as his assistant.
  10. ^ Salman, Michael (2009). McCoy, Alfred; Scarano, Francisco (eds.). "The Prison That Makes Men Free": The Iwahig Penal Colony and the Simulacra of the American State in the Philippines, in Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. p. 118. ISBN 9780299231040.
  11. ^ New York Times, July 17, 1916
  12. ^ Brian, 83-110
  13. ^ New York Times, Dec 4, 1916
  14. ^ "Who We Are". Osborne Association.

Publications

Further reading

External links