The Inspector of State Prisons was a statewide elective office created by the
New York State Constitution of 1846. At the
1847 New York state election, three Inspectors were elected and then, upon taking office, so classified that henceforth every year one Inspector would be elected to a three-year term. The Prison Inspectors appointed wardens and keepers and supervised the prison administration in general. They were required to visit jointly four times a year each one of the state prisons. Besides, each one of the Inspectors was allotted the special care to one of the then existing three state prisons (
Auburn State Prison
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility.
History
Constructed in 1816 as Auburn Pris ...
,
Sing Sing State Prison and
Clinton State Prison) where he had to attend to business for at least one week per month.
In 1876, a constitutional amendment abolished the office of State Prison Inspector, pending the appointment of a
New York Superintendent of State Prisons who would take over the duties of the Prison Inspectors. The first Superintendent was
Louis D. Pilsbury, appointed by Governor
Lucius Robinson
Lucius Robinson (November 4, 1810March 23, 1891) was an American lawyer and politician. He was the List of Governors of New York, 26th Governor of New York from 1877 to 1879.
Life
He graduated from Delaware Academy in Delhi (village), New York, ...
on February 17, 1877.
List of Inspectors of State Prisons
References
Further reading
''The New York Civil List''compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 45f; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
''The New York Civil List''compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough, Stephen C. Hutchins and Edgar Albert Werner (1867; pages 410f)
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History of New York (state)
Prisons in New York (state)
State constitutional officers of New York (state)
1848 establishments in New York (state)
1877 disestablishments in New York (state)