Elam Lynds, Thomas Mott Osborne and Lewis Lawes are the three most famous wardens of the famous Sing Sing prison.Among these Lewis Lawes has the most realist vision about prisons.He even has the most realist vision for retribution, reformation, deterrence and incapacitation compared to the others.
Firstly it is a tribute to Lewis that he is the most succesful one.Osborne could only last as warden for several months.Lynds lasted long but he didn't have a good end.This is simply because of being logical.If Osborne was a little more political he wouldn't be hated by some others.This is not directly related with their visions but it gives us important opinion about them.If they knew the mechanism working inside and outside the prison well, then they would be more succsesful, and this is simply about their visions about prisons.
Retribution, deterrence and incapacitation are someway related but reformation is a more complicated problem about prisons and prisoners.You can whip them easily and you have all three of your golas but reformation of prisoners still stands, as a more difficult problem then before.All these three famous wardens had different thoughts about reformation, if we can say Lynds had a vision about it.Then normally their ideas about retribution, deterrence and incapacitation were different, too.
Lynds seemed to think that these three are most important in a prison but we can't find an idea of him about reformation, while Lewis and Osborne cared about reformation and left retribution, deterrence and incapacitation to the laws and prison itself.This is a logical and humane idea beacuse prison has enough suffery and incapacitation in its nature, if wardens don't make it bacome enjoyable and preferable places to live.Unfortunately some despots like Lynds don't find this suffery enough although mission of prisons is not cruelty.
.
"I do not think you can control a large prison without the use of the whip, whatever those may think who only know human nature from books" says former Army Captain Elam Lynds.
