The Auburn State Prison at the northern tip of Owasco Lake. The community within that town had developed around the Auburn State Prison, which was established in 1816.[1]The Auburn State Prison very much illustrates the marked differences between male and female convicts in institutions. At Auburn men were in completely separate cells during the night, and during the day they labored together in complete silence.[2]For men work was interrupted twice a day for meals which was located in the mess hall. During meal time guards supervised the prisoners closely and punished them harshly when rules were violated. Females on the other hand were crammed together in a single attic room which was located above the institutions kitchen. For many years they were given supervision but they had no matron. For women, food was sent up to them once a day, and then once a day the remnants of their food was removed. Women were not forced to exercise unlike the men.[3]The conditions of this prison were known to be extremely bad.“Auburn had devised a new system for the convicts who were not being subjected to complete isolation. This regime, which became world-famous, was now imposed upon all inmates without deviation.”[4]What this system did was it rejected all solitary confinement with the only exception being night time. It tried to attempt to stop convicts from communicating with each other at all times. In order for this new system to succeed it was necessary for prison officials to use elaborate techniques for surveillance such as using vast amounts of intimidation on the inmates. In its later years, in 1890 Auburn State prison was the first to introduce the electric chair. This prison stands today as maintaining one of the oldest functional prisons in the United States.

[1]PENNEY, SHERRY H., and JAMES D. LIVINGSTON. "Auburn." In A Very Dangerous Woman: Martha Wright and Women's Rights, 50-66. University of Massachusetts Press, 2004. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vk9hf.9.

[2]Rafter, Nicole Hahn. "Prisons for Women, 1790-1980." Crime and Justice 5 (1983): 129-81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1147471.

[3]Rafter, Nicole Hahn. "Prisons for Women, 1790-1980." Crime and Justice 5 (1983): 129-81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1147471.

[4]LEWIS, W. DAVID. "The Auburn System and Its Champions." In From Newgate to Dannemora: The Rise of the Penitentiary in New York, 1796–1848, 81-110. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1965. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv2n7jjx.9.