Lewis E. Lawes - Biography

Biography

Lawes was born on September 13, 1883, the only child of Henry Lewis and Sarah Abbott. His father worked as a prison guard at the New York State Reformatory, now called the Elmira Correctional Facility.

Lawes ran away at 17 and joined the United States Coast Artillery. Afterwards, he worked at an insurance company before beginning his prison career as a guard at Clinton Prison in Dannemora, New York on March 1, 1905. On September 30, 1905, he married Katherine Stanley. He subsequently worked at first Auburn Prison, then Elmira Reformatory. In March 1915 he was named Superintendent of the City Reformatory on Hart Island in New York City. Lawes became warden of the Massachusetts State Prison in 1918. New York Governor Al Smith asked him to take over as Warden of Sing Sing. Lawes took charge on January 1, 1920. He was featured on the cover and in an article of Time magazine issue of November 18, 1929. He remained at his post for twenty-one years, instituting reforms, until he retired in 1941. He was replaced as Warden of Sing Sing by Robert J. Kirby.

Lawes became the president of the Boy Rangers of America in 1941.

Lawes died in 1947 at age 63 and is interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.