Auburn invents prison model

Story by Sadiya Kherani

Photo by Sky Zhuang

The Auburn Prison used to invite 50 to 100 people a day inside, charging 25 cents for a tour and a chance to gawk at inmates who were not allowed to look at or speak to the visitors. This venture into dark tourism in the 1830s and ’40s brought hundreds of dollars a year to the prison. 

Today, citizens are occasionally invited inside the walls of the Auburn Correctional Facility, often to speak to the inmates and learn about their experiences. Billye Chabot, executive director of the Seward House, had that experience, and it changed her attitude toward the maximum security facility.

​”It ​was ​just ​a ​big, ​scary ​edifice ​of ​scariness,” Chabot said of the prison, adding that she would try to avoid driving by it. But after her visit, her “​perspective ​has ​completely ​changed. ​So ​how ​people ​feel ​about ​(the prison) ​in ​the ​Auburn ​community, ​I ​think ​it’s ​a ​matter ​of ​perspective.”

At the time of vast economic growth and in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, two massive infrastructure projects were taking place in Cayuga County: the Erie Canal and Auburn Correctional Facility (at the time known as the Auburn Prison). The prison was such a success that state planners copied the Auburn facility in building another maximum security prison, Sing Sing Correctional Facility. In 1825, after the completion of the canal, 100 inmates from Auburn traveled by barge across the Erie Canal to Ossining to construct Sing Sing and become its first inmates. 

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Prisoners line up in their striped uniforms in the yard of Sing Sing Prison. The original Sing Sing inmates came from the Auburn prison and traveled to Sing Sing by canal boat. The striped uniforms themselves were invented in Auburn.

Auburn is the hometown of Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of state, William Seward; the resting place of Harriet Tubman; the place where adding sound to film was invented; and an important site in the women’s suffrage movement. But it is the prison — the oldest operating correctional facility in North America and the inspiration for the design of prisons in 20 states — that came to largely define the city, which locals often refer to as the “Prison City.” 

But whether the prison will endure another 200 years is an open question as the prison population in New York rapidly declines — a social good that nonetheless could threaten cities like Auburn that rely on the industry for jobs. The tension over this future is spilling into the open, as the state works to impose new controls after the death of an inmate at the hands of corrections officers in Utica. The officers are now pushing back through a series of work actions to demand better working conditions. 

Auburn Prison, constructed in 1816, was a reimagined version of Philadelphia’s Quaker prison system. The Quakers believed that incarcerated people were to seek penance with 24/7 solitude. If they ever saw anyone, it was a prison guard. They were completely cut off from contacting their families as well as other inmates. This was extremely harmful to their mental health. 

Scott W. Anderson’s book Auburn, New York explained that the cruelty of this forced detachment from socialization would take decades of research to understand. That’s how detrimental it was. 

When Auburn opened, it was also known for its solitary system, but the inmates were not alone 24 hours a day like in the Quaker system. 

“The Auburn system comes from this idea of giving people time to commit some sort of penance for a crime that was committed,” said Sumeet Sharma, director of the Correctional Association of New York. Part of that, he said, was the enforcement of “a code of silence and an atmosphere for reflection.”

The inmates at Auburn would sleep in solitary confinement and work together in a group setting, but they weren’t allowed to talk to each other. The prison had other methods of humbling or dehumanizing its inmates; this included the notable striped uniforms (an Auburn invention), mandatory labor and being forced to walk in military lockstep.

“New York state plays a very large role in establishing the concept of what a prison and a penitentiary is, and then exporting that concept to different places of the world,” Sharma said.

Sing Sing was the first of many prisons to follow the Auburn system. Soon, Connecticut and New Jersey copied Auburn. It then became a national model. Auburn also pioneered the electric chair, which was also adopted by Sing Sing and then the rest of the country. It’s use has declined since the introduction of lethal injection in the late 1970s. 

The contracting of the prison in Auburn alone drove $2 million into the local economy by 1823, according to Auburn, New York. The prison helped bring in local tradesmen, which tripled the population between 1816 and 1826. 

The city of Auburn continued to make vast amounts of money in the mid-to-late 19th century because of the prison’s leasing of inmate labor to local manufacturers. They were paid one-third of the wages that people outside of the wall would get. The prison deducted all costs of upkeep from the inmates’ wages. By the time inmates were released, they had no money to their names because of this system, but it ensured economic success in the city of Auburn. 

“​Auburn ​became (known as) ​recession-proof,” Jeffrey Ludwig, director of education at the Seward House, said. “​And ​the ​system ​of ​unfree ​labor ​that ​grew ​out ​of ​it ​would ​be ​something ​that ​caught ​the ​attention ​of ​the ​world.”

In the 19th century, prison labor — paired with the income of the prison guards and officials — fed money into the community. In the book Auburn, New York, it says that according to William H. Seward, governor and senator of New York in 1841, the prison made a $7,000 profit. In 1856, 554 inmates were employees for various industries, including cabinetmaking, boot and shoe manufacturing, and carpet production. 

“But in the modern prison industry, which is an industry, people work for the state,” said Haley Boothe, curator at Cayuga Museum of History and Art. “I think that the modern economy does not benefit from the prison in the same way that the economy did in the 1800s because it does not directly benefit community businesses.”

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Stereoscopic image showing an interior view along the prison cells of Auburn Prison (Auburn Correctional Facility), a maximum security state prison in Auburn, New York, circa 1895.

Prisons drive the economy of many cities in New York, not just Auburn. The city of Dannemora, home to Clinton Correctional Facility, practically wouldn’t have existed without the prison, according to Sharma. The same goes for Attica, Chabot said. 

But according to the Correctional Association of New York, prison populations have dropped significantly since 2014 with the system-wide population being 52,589 people at that time. By February 2025, the system-wide population was at 33,368 people. 

Along with these population declines, there are also ongoing protests and strikes by prison correctional officers. According to Corrections1, officers are striking at 25 New York prisons, including Auburn. These striking officers are making a handful of demands, including pay raises and changes to state regulations regarding the safety, punishment and rehabilitative programs for incarcerated people. 

The state has taken action against the striking officers by firing 10 of them. Starting Monday March 10, other officers who missed 10 days of work on the 11th day they were absent lost their health insurance and access to their state pensions . 

The family of Robert Brooks, the inmate who died after a beating from prison guards, called the prison system “dangerously broken” when speaking with Syracuse.com. Brooks’s murder has prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to seek $400 million in the next state budget to accelerate the installation of surveillance cameras across state prisons. Prisons face pressure from other groups, too, with the Alliance of Justice for Families circulating a petition called “Shut Down Attica.”

Auburn’s Seward House also has the future of the prisons on its mind, and considers the question in its current exhibit. 

“We ​have ​a ​whiteboard ​at ​the ​end ​of ​our ​exhibit, ​and ​one ​of ​the ​last ​questions ​we ​pose ​to ​visitors ​who ​come ​to ​do ​a ​guided ​house ​tour is, ‘​With ​the ​announcement ​of ​prison ​closures ​by ​Governor ​Hochul ​last ​year, ​what ​should ​become ​of former ​prison ​sites?’” Ludwig said. “​I ​think ​we ​join ​the ​public in ​having ​lots ​of ​thoughts, ​lots ​of ​concerns ​and ​lots ​of ​questions, ​but ​no ​real ​answers.”