OSSINING, NY (May 12, 2025) — The Ossining Public Library will host a free public program on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 7:00 p.m., exploring the construction of Sing Sing Prison in 1825 and the legacy of its first warden, Elam Lynds. Co-sponsored by the Westchester County Historical Society, the Sing Sing Prison Museum, and the Ossining Public Library, the event marks the launch of Sing Sing Prison’s bicentennial year.
Anthony Czarnecki, retired Chief of Staff at the Westchester County Correction Department and a Sing Sing Prison Museum Board of Trustees member, will deliver a digital slide presentation detailing the prison’s early history. The presentation will focus on Elam Lynds, who, while serving as warden of Auburn Prison, was tasked with building a new state prison in Westchester County. Lynds arrived in the Village of Sing Sing on May 14, 1825, with 100 prisoners and 21 guards, using prisoner labor to construct an 800-cell facility on the Hudson River’s east bank over four years.
Czarnecki’s presentation draws from his article in the Spring 2025 issue of The Westchester Historian, published by the Westchester County Historical Society. The society, established in 1874, is the eleventh oldest county historical society in the U.S. and maintains a comprehensive collection of Westchester County historical materials at the Westchester County Records Center in Elmsford.
The program will also feature William “Easy” Waters, an award-winning poet formerly incarcerated at Sing Sing. Waters will share his 1994 poem, “Chronicling Sing Sing Prison,” published in the PEN American Center’s anthology Doing Time. A SUNY New Paltz graduate, Waters has worked with Citizens Against Recidivism and the Osborne Association, a nonprofit named after Thomas Mott Osborne, a reform-minded Sing Sing warden.
The event is open to the public and will be held at the Ossining Public Library, located at 53 Croton Ave., Ossining, NY.
This article was drafted with the aid of Grok, an AI tool by xAI, under the direction and editing of Robert Cox to ensure accuracy and adherence to journalistic standards.