Lewis Edward Lawes

Lewis Edward Lawes (September 13, 1883 – April 23, 1947) was a prison warden and a proponent of prison reform. During his 21-year tenure at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, he supervised the executions of 303 prisoners.

Biography Lawes was born on September 13, 1883, in Elmira, New York.

Lawes ran away at 17 and joined the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps.

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 at Auburn Prison, then at 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.

Characters based on Lewis and Kathryn Lawes may be found in David Pietrusza's 2014 historical novel Dance Hall: A Novel of Sing Sing.

He served as warden of Sing Sing for twenty-one years, instituting reforms, until he retired on July 16, 1941.

Lawes died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 23, 1947, at age 63 in Garrison, New York. He was 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. Over the Wall was produced in 1938 based on the life of one of his inmates, Alabama Pitts. 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.

His papers are archived in the Special Collections of the Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Radio series From January 22, 1933, to April 21, 1939, Lawes narrated an NBC radio series (Red and Blue networks) which was also titled Twenty Thousand Years at Sing Sing and was based on his famous book. The show offered various stories based on the lives of the 2000 inmates at the prison, some with positive outcomes and others with negative results.