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Your opinion about our work really matters! As the museum gears up to open in 2025, we want to always keep our audiences' experiences and perspectives front and center in our work. Further, funders are extremely interested in what you all think. Please participate by clicking here. Completing this survey is a kind of donation to our work. Thank you.
Sing Sing Prison Museum’s mission is to share stories of incarceration and reform, past and present, and bring people together to imagine and create a more just society. Our vision is a justice system dedicated to healing and rehabilitation and a society that respects individual humanity and dignity. Through our programs and exhibitions, we promote important conversations about the human impact of incarceration both inside and outside the walls of the prison. The criminal justice system is complex, and so are the stories we seek to tell through the people, places, and objects that illuminate the social, geographical, and material histories of Sing Sing Prison.
We understand that words are powerful. We have paid special attention to the language we use on this site to reflect our commitment to the humanity of all persons. We acknowledge that conversations about how society should treat people who commit crimes must center the voices of incarcerated people and returning citizens. We hope our discussions of criminal justice break away from political propaganda and stereotypes. Our goal is to deliver new ways of seeing, thinking, and understanding prisons in order to imagine and create a more just society.
We understand that words are powerful. We have paid special attention to the language we use on this site to reflect our commitment to the humanity of all persons. We acknowledge that conversations about how society should treat people who commit crimes must center the voices of incarcerated people and returning citizens. We hope our discussions of criminal justice break away from political propaganda and stereotypes. Our goal is to deliver new ways of seeing, thinking, and understanding prisons in order to imagine and create a more just society.
Justice Acknowledgment
Justice-impacted individuals include those who have been incarcerated or detained in a prison, jail, juvenile detention center, or any other carceral setting, those who have been convicted but not incarcerated, those who have been charged but not convicted, and those who have been arrested.
One in three Americans is justice-impacted. These are disproportionately people of color and poor people. And yet, this is not the entire story of their lives. When we look at incarceration as a window of time in someone’s life, we acknowledge that these are people with full lives, with bigger stories, with more humanity. We also acknowledge the larger population of justice-involved people, such as those who work in carceral settings, those who are victims of crimes, and the wider families and communities impacted by these issues. Our exhibit, Opening Windows, presents a selection of stories of the people, places, and objects that represent Sing Sing Prison throughout its history. We acknowledge that these stories are challenging, complicated, and compelling. |
Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge the Native American origins of the land upon which Sing Sing Prison was built, and the Munsee and Sintsink people whom its name was derived. We understand the non-Native occupation of this land within the larger context of the colonial conquest of Native American territories in the Hudson Valley from the 17th century through 19th century.
From land dispossession to resource extraction, from forced labor to incarceration, Sing Sing Prison's story is intertwined with the region's colonial legacy. We acknowledge our responsibility to tell the full history of this place and to foster dialogue and community action towards healing and reconciliation. |
Why Do We Have Prisons?
This question guides our study of incarceration and reform movements, past and present. So, as we acknowledge the often painful and problematic history of Sing Sing, including its role as a national center of capital punishment, we also value its contributions to current conversations about rehabilitation, about corrections administration and staffing, about the networks of family and community that support incarcerated individuals, and about the possible alternatives to incarceration that shape the future of prison reform.
Finally, we believe in the rights of those who have been affected by crime and violence, and acknowledge their loss. They, too, are central to our understanding of justice for all.
Finally, we believe in the rights of those who have been affected by crime and violence, and acknowledge their loss. They, too, are central to our understanding of justice for all.
