Elam Lynds

Elam Lynds
Lynds circa 1820-1830
Warden of Auburn Correctional Facility
In office
1821–1825
Warden of Sing Sing
In office
1825–1830
Succeeded by Robert Wiltse
Personal details
Born 1784
Litchfield, Connecticut
Died 1855 (age 71)
New York City
Children Cornelia Lynds DeForest

Captain Elam Lynds (1784–1855) was the creator of the Auburn system starting in 1821 and was Warden of Sing Sing from 1825 to 1830.[1]

Biography

Elam Lynds was born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1784. His parents moved to Troy, New York, when he was an infant. He learned the hatter's trade and worked at it for some years. In the War of 1812 he held a captain's commission in a New York regiment. When the Auburn State Prison was opened in 1817, Captain Lynds was made the first principal keeper, and four years afterwards he became Warden of Auburn State Prison. He made many experiments with a view to furnishing better occupation and to improving the general condition of the prison. He devised the main features of what is now known as the Auburn System of imprisonment. When it was proposed to erect a new state prison at Mount Pleasant, New York on the Hudson River, Captain Lynds was selected to take charge of the enterprise. He began this work in 1823 and successfully prosecuted it for four years with prison labor, when the Sing Sing Prison was completed according to the original plan. After his retirement from the prison service he lived in New York City, where he died in 1855.[2]

References

  1. ^ Annual report of the Board of Managers of the Prison Discipline Society. Prison Discipline Society. 1827. http://books.google.com/books?id=Zf_SAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA179&dq=Elam+Lynda&hl=en&ei=BnjDTZDIDMOTtwfx34ybBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Elam%20Lynda&f=false. "Mr. Elam Lynds, the author of the Auburn system, and the founder of the establishment at Sing Sing ..." 
  2. ^ Charles Richmond Henderson (1910). Correction and prevention. http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=%22Elam%20Lynds%22%20dies&sig=wewHNc3KLO-gT-3AEUpYTFagJ5E&ei=70LETfDbFOXa0QHR-KX1Bw&ct=result&id=F4gbAQAAMAAJ&ots=Po52Jil_ad&output=text. 

Lynds · Wiltse · Seymour · Peck · Hiram P. Rowell (1845–1848) · Chauncey Smith (1848–1849) · Edward L. Potter (January, 1849) · Alfred R. Booth (July, 1849) · Munson J. Lockwood (1850–1855) · C. A. Batterman (1855–1856) · William Beardsley (warden) (1856–1862) · Gaylord B. Hubbell (1862-1864) · Thomas E. Sutton (1864-1865) · Stephen H. Johnson (1865–1868) · David P. Forrest (1868–1869) · Henry C. Nelson (1869–1870) · E. M. Russell (1870–1872) · Henry C. Nelson (1872–1873) · Gaylord B. Hubbell (1873–1874) · James Williamson (warden) (September 1874) · Alfred Walker (warden) (October 1874) · George R. Youngs (1876–1877) · Charles Davis (warden) (February 1877) · Benjamin S. W. Clark (March 1877) · Charles Davis (warden) (1877–1880) · Augustus A. Brush (1880–1891) · W. R. Brown (1891–1893) · Charles F. Durston (1893–1894) · Omar Van Leuven Sage (1894-1899)  · Addison Johnson (1899–1907) · Jesse D. Frost (1907–1911) · John S. Kennedy (1911–1913) · James Connaughton (warden) (June 1913) acting warden · James M. Clancy (1913–1914) · Thomas McCormick (June 1914) · George S. Weed (October 1914) acting warden · Thomas Mott Osborne (1914–1915) · George Washington Kirchwey (1915)  · Thomas Mott Osborne (July 1916)  · Calvin Derrick (October 1916) · William H. Moyer (1916–1919) · Edward V. Brophy (April 1919) · Daniel J. Grant (1919–1920) acting warden · Lewis E. Lawes (1920–1941) · Robert J. Kirby (1941–1944) · William F. Snyder (1944–1950) · Wilfred L. Denno (1950–1967) · John T. Deegan (1967–1969) · James L. Casscles (1969–1972) · Theodore Schubin (1972–1975) · Joseph Higgins (July 1975) acting warden · Harold Butler (warden) (October 1975) · William G. Gard (1975–1977) · Walter Fogg (August 1977) acting warden · Stephen Dalsheim (1977–1980) · Wilson E.J. Walters (1980–1983) · James E. Sullivan (warden) (1983–1988) · John P. Keane (1988–1997) · Charles Greiner (1997–2000) · Brian S. Fischer (2000–2007) · Louis Marshall (warden) (2007-)