During the mid-19^th century Sing Sing was a breeding ground for disease.  The close proximity of the prisoners hastened the spread of disease, as well as their malnutrition.  Sanitation standards were low and germs and impurities dominated the airspace.  The medical care in the prison was poorly funded and this generally prevented the sick from healing properly.  In 1851, the physician at Sing Sing reported an outbreak of dysentery and cholera at the prison, where 70 prisoners were moved to the hospital, and chapel.  The chapel was converted into a hospital as an overflow boarding area for sick inmates.  In total 19 inmates died.  This was actually a 30-50% increase in survivability from previous years, which is an indicator of just how poor the conditions were.²  They did not have nearly enough money to provide proper care to their patients, funding for the operation of the hospital was a fraction of the budget for the entire prison.  In addition, the allocated funds for the operation of the hospital were scarcely ever spent on medicine for sick inmates, but rather it was spent to feed them.  The Annual Report of the State Inspectors of 1848 states that medicine was purchased only twice that year, with no indication of what kind of medication or whether it was actually administered to patients.  All the other recorded hospital expenditures were on food, including milk, fresh meat, and tea with sugar, which none of the other inmates had access to.³  Not only was actual medication scarce, but qualified medical professionals were also few and far between.  The doctors they did have working in the hospital were often unable to distinguish between inmates who were legitimately sick and inmates who were seeking medical care in order to escape work.  A firsthand account of the incapable medical professionals was captured by W.A. Coffey, a man who was incarcerated at the time, who said,

“If there were no other requisite, should it not, think you, reader, be necessary, that a Resident Physician, should be able to distinguish, between sickness and health- to tell whether a convict, complaining of illness, were actually ill or not? Is there an extravagance in the making of such a qualification necessary?”¹   

Hospital staffing was also problematic in the sense that the nurses were inmates, who were exposed to the same infection and disease as all the other prisoners.  This meant that the men who were supposed to be taking care of ill prisoners had the same exposure to the disease they were meant to be treating.   The poor sanitary conditions of the hospital proved to be a major problem for the survival of the prisoners.  In the eyes of the prisoners, the hospital almost certainly meant death rather than life.

In addition to being a breeding ground for disease, the hospital was also a corrupt nightmare.  Frequently the physicians would actually experiment on the sick inmates, giving them medication to determine its effects on certain illness.  At times this experimentation resulted in adverse effects in the prisoners, including death.  Coffey describes this injustice,

“What wonder that a poor convict, writhing in the agonies of death, from the effects of a maddening poison administered unto him, by the way of experiment – with the demons of inhumanity, holding their vigils at his bed posts, and upbraiding the tardy flight of his soul to eternity – with the icy fingers of death, sending the life blood of his heart, and every thing, but sympathy, accompanying his torments – what wonder, I say, is it, that a convict in such a situation, and at such a moment, should lisp a curse on those who barbarously poisoned him…”¹  

This graphic account of the cruelty in the hospital at Sing Sing lends an insight to the dehumanization of prisoners.  Their lives were seen as expendable, which meant they were perfect subjects for experimentation.  The multitude of issues in the hospital contributed greatly to the high death rate at Sing Sing, and meant that even if a prisoner survived, he might never be healthy again.

Sources:

1. Coffey, W.A. Inside Out; Or, an Interior View of the New York State Prison. New York, New York: J. Costigan, 1823. 15, 171.

2. Prison Discipline Society. Twenty Third Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Prison Discipline Society. 708. Boston, Massachusetts: T.R. Marvin, 1848.

3. Smith, Chauncey. “Expenditures” In First Annual Report of the Inspectors of the State Prisons of the State of New York. 179-226. Vol. 1. New York, 1849.