Lewis E. Lawes

Lewis Edward Lawes (September 13, 1883 – April 23, 1947) was a prison warden and an outspoken proponent of prison reform.

Biography

Lawes was born on September 13, 1883, the only child of Henry Lewis and Sarah Abbott. His father worked as a prison guard at the New York State Reformatory, now called the Elmira Correctional Facility.

Lawes ran away at 17 and joined the United States Coast Artillery. Afterwards, he worked at an insurance company before beginning his prison career as a guard at Clinton Prison in Dannemora, New York on March 1, 1905. On September 30, 1905, he married Katherine Stanley. He subsequently worked at first Auburn Prison, then Elmira Reformatory. In March 1915 he was named Superintendent of the City Reformatory on Hart Island in New York City. Lawes became warden of the Massachusetts State Prison in 1918. New York Governor Al Smith asked him to take over as Warden of Sing Sing. Lawes took charge on January 1, 1920. He was featured on the cover and in an article of Time magazine issue of November 18, 1929. He remained at his post for twenty-one years, instituting reforms, until he retired in 1941. He was replaced as Warden of Sing Sing by Robert J. Kirby.

Lawes became the president of the Boy Rangers of America in 1941.^[1]

Lawes died in 1947 at age 63 and is interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Writings

Lawes wrote several books. Several of his works were made into films. His most famous book, Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing, was made into a 1932 movie under the same title, starring Spencer Tracy, and again in 1940 as Castle on the Hudson, featuring John Garfield. Invisible Stripes in 1939, with George Raft, was based on his novel of the same name, while Humphrey Bogart starred in You Can't Get Away with Murder in 1939, an adaptation of Chalked Out, a play Lawes co-wrote.

References

External links

• Lewis E. Lawes at the Internet Movie Database
• Lewis E. Lawes at Find a Grave