The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Jennifer Sabin Poux

About Jennifer Sabin Poux

Jennifer Sabin Poux is a freelance journalist and writer who lives in Pocantico
Hills. For nearly two decades, she wrote and produced for ABC News. She has written nearly 50 opinion pieces on politics for Huffington Post, and her short stories, essays and articles can be found in Fiction, Kitchen Sink Publishing and The Hook.

A Conversation with Congressman Mondaire Jones

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Congressman Mondaire Jones   PHOTO BY Carolyn Simpson

Like other members of his Freshman class, Congressman Mondaire Jones was thrown into the fire before he’d had time to get acclimated to his new job. He was sworn in Sunday, January 3rd, and three days later spent much of the workday in fear for his life. The day of the Capitol insurrection was a hellish day for Congress in general. But for the congressmen and women, senators and their staffers who are people of color, it was acutely terrifying.

“As an African American in congress, I would have stuck out to those white supremacist domestic terrorists,” he said in an interview from D.C. 

The Congressman, who represents the 17th District that encompasses parts of Westchester and Rockland counties, was in the House chamber with Democratic House Leadership during the attack. As the House Democratic Freshman Class Leadership Representative, Jones is the only freshman of the 16-member leadership team. 

“Not only was the Capitol perimeter breached, but we were sieged in that chamber itself with very little security to protect us,” he says. “For me as someone who narrowly survived the insurrection, which was motivated by white nationalists threatened by my very existence as someone they see as a sort of bearer of change that this country does not need, holding the people responsible for that insurrection accountable, including the second impeachment of Donald J. Trump, was a no brainer.”

The insurrection has certainly been the most defining event of his early weeks and months on the job. But Jones is in D.C. to work. And he has already made a national name for himself as a leader and doer. He’s also made a number of appearances on national TV news shows to discuss the issues. He is outspoken and unafraid to call people out–both Republicans and Democrats–when he sees injustice.

“I am most focused on legislating, especially having taken back the United States Senate the day before the insurrection. We can actually get things done as a U.S. Congress if Democrats commit themselves to meeting this moment. I’m less concerned about House Democrats understanding that than I am concerned about a handful of Senators realizing that we need to, for example, repeal the filibuster, to enact the kinds of structural reforms that I ran on that the American people are going to need.”

He says this moment calls for other institutional changes, such as ending partisan gerrymandering and restoring the Voting Rights Act. And of course Jones is focused on his agenda–helping Westchester and Rockland families. He continues to champion universal childcare and Medicare for all, which he says would help lift children out of poverty. And he is committed to cancelling student debt, the kind of bold policy, he says, that President Joe Biden was elected to deliver. Jones calls student debt a racial justice issue

“Disproportionately, the people in this country who bear that $1.7 trillion dollars in student debt nationally are Black and Hispanic. Two thirds of the people who are crushed by student debt are women. And we know that with respect to the LGBTQ plus community, members of that community on average have $16,000 more in student debt than other people.”

One of the arguments heard in the halls of Congress and from critics is that if previous generations had to pay their students loans, this generation should suck it up and repay its own debt. But Jones says it’s simply not as easy to pay off that debt today as it was a generation ago.

“What I want people to understand is that this is not the early 90’s, or any time prior to the modern era where we have seen wage stagnation for decades. And the cost of a four-year college education has skyrocketed. We know that in the early 90’s the average debt for someone graduating college, a four-year college, was around $9,000. But here we are in 2021, where the average is closer to $37,000.”

It’s a matter of doing the math. “The rhetoric around this from critics sounds on its face persuasive to many people, but I submit if you just do some further analysis, a lot of those critiques just fall apart.”

For Westchester/Rockland residents wondering if there will be any changes to their tax bill now that the Democrats are in charge, Jones hopes so. He, along with Congressman Tom Suozzi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, introduced the SALT Deductibility Act to fully restore state and local tax deductions to bring financial relief to his constituents. “When that was capped at $10,000 by Donald Trump and Republicans in congress in 2017, that crushed families in Westchester and Rockland County.”

Jones says he sees many of these issues through the lens of personal experience. “On a day-to-day basis, my experience of being black and openly gay in this country, and also having grown up low income, gives me a sense of urgency on any number of policy issues that are deeply personal for me in a way that they are not, I think, for many people in congress. And at times, in parts of our district.”

Jones, who grew up in Spring Valley in Rockland County, was raised by a single mother and his grandparents. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in 2009, and his law degree from Harvard in 2013. Despite his education, he never thought election to national office was in the cards for someone like him. To grow up poor, Black and gay is to “feel completely unseen,” he said on the House floor in late February in a speech about the Equality Act, which includes the Juror Non-Discrimination Act, a bill he also introduced.

How does Jones feel now that he has won Nita Lowey’s former seat? “I am still getting used to something that I did not imagine was possible just a few years ago. I spent most of my life agonizing over my sexuality, and being so afraid people would find out. And here I am this gay, black political hero in some communities who is celebrated for this feat. And all I want to do is deliver for the people who got me here, the great people of Westchester and Rockland Counties.”

Congressman Jones has made it to Washington, and just a few months in, he is already digging in to deliver on commitments to his constituents in Westchester and Rockland, as well as the country at large. Check out his Twitter feed @RepMondaire to keep up with his work, events and media highlights. Also, visit www.Jones.house.gov

A Search for Joy in ‘Something New’

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Contemplating the Holidays Without My Extended Family

One of my brothers-in-law recently noted that the lack of family gatherings over the last seven months has thrown off his internal calendar. We have a large extended family–and it’s the celebrations and gatherings with those relatives that help mark the passage of time and distinguish one week, one month, one season from another.

If ever there was a time that we could benefit from the rhythm and joy of family gatherings, it’s now. And yet, if ever there was a time that we could benefit from staying away from each other, it’s now.

In past years: The author’s extended family at Christmas

So, what to do with the holidays? In normal years, we would host anywhere from 20 to 30-something on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Our mid-century modern house isn’t huge, but its open floor plan allows everyone to be together in the same space whether cooking or engrossed in conversation. On Thanksgiving, we drag extra tables and chairs up from the garage, and each individual family contributes dishes and their labor to the effort. On Christmas, the base of the tree is smothered in gifts we exchange through Secret Santa and a hilarious Yankee Swap. I love watching the cousins of my children’s generation curl up together on our wraparound sofa like one long genetic sequence.

We are lucky: there is no embarrassing drunk uncle disrupting dinner. I am lucky: I never feel burdened by the toll of the work because there are so many hands offering help. If it sounds nauseatingly civilized, I suppose it is. I embrace the winter holidays with a passion that would provoke eye rolling among cynics, an association to which I belong the other ten months of the year.

This year with the pandemic still raging and travel fraught with peril, some of our family members are spread far enough away that they might as well live on another planet. My daughter, who just graduated from college in May, will be spending Thanksgiving in Alaska where she currently lives, returning for a week or two at Christmas. My son, a sophomore in college, is not allowed to come home for Thanksgiving unless he stays here through Christmas and winter break. So, we will be empty nesters for the first time ever at Thanksgiving. My sister recently moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to be with her daughter. I have two sisters-in-law who, with their families, live flights away, one in Europe. They haven’t seen any of their siblings (there are seven) or their ninety-three-year-old dad in nearly a year.

We’ve had a few conversations about the possibility of mini gatherings of six-ten. We’ve also considered the question, could Thanksgiving be held outdoors? We bought a restaurant-grade deck heater that could warm a handful of guests. But what if it rains or snows? We’re fortunate that our kids will be able to return home for Christmas. But because one will have been on a plane, the other on campus, we will likely stay clear of our extended family in December.

None of this is tragic of course–we are healthy, for now. More intimate versions of yearly traditions are hardly a disaster. The upside: a reasonable size turkey, one less tray of stuffing and more in-depth conversation.

I’ve noticed that my family and friends are careful not to complain too much about their pandemic malaise, acutely aware of the kind of emotional, physical and economic suffering that plagues so much of the country. There is guilt attached to wallowing when others have it worse. But perhaps one holiday gift we can give ourselves and those in our orbit is the freedom to acknowledge how much this has impacted us–changed us–left us without many simple joys, like connecting over a turkey and stuffing, around a tree, or to light candles.

As anyone who has had a birthday in this pandemic season understands, our celebrations this holiday season will be different–or at least they should be. And while they will be stunted, we may find in them something new, and some familiar comfort in their rhythms and joy.

Heart to Heart with County Executive George Latimer

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Successes to Applaud… but also: ‘What Keeps Him Up at Night’

Latimer at one of his many summer press briefings which have been both livestreamed on Facebook and available for viewing on YouTube. Visit WestchesterGov.com to keep up with County updates and initiatives.

There’s something reassuring about talking to George Latimer. When we spoke on the phone in late July, the Westchester County Executive’s responses to my questions about Covid-19 were intelligent and thoughtful, qualities that the federal response has been sorely lacking.

Latimer doesn’t wear rose-colored glasses, but he is encouraged by the county’s response to date. “You hate to use that phrase cautiously optimistic, but we are in fact cautiously optimistic because the basic sense we have is that we’re doing ok with the strategies we’re using.”

Those strategies were tested in June with the Chappaqua outbreak during high school graduation season. The Westchester County Executive says Chappaqua was a cautionary tale, but overall, the system worked. “We’re not cocky about it, but the Chappaqua situation appeared to be handled well and while there were bumps along the road, nobody died, nobody was hospitalized, and we did not have an outbreak that reached triple digits.”

The rallies and marches following the murder of George Floyd were also a success story–over 30 of them in the county–all peaceful. And Latimer says most people wore masks at those events. The upshot? “We saw no spike that we could trace back to the rallies.”

Latimer finds hope in statistics as the county’s positive Covid-19 numbers flatten out, and in the behavior of his constituents. “I know mask wearing is not universal, but it’s more the norm than not. And I know that social distancing depends on the group and the circumstances, but we’re seeing better implementation of that.”

What keeps the man who oversees a county of close to one million residents up at night? Knowing that we can’t conquer the virus until we have a vaccine and anti-viral treatments. Until then, it’s going to be a challenge.

“We’re managing it as best as you can, but it can morph out of control at the snap of our fingers.”

George Latimer with Westchester County Health Commissioner Sherlita Amler, MD   Photo by Grace Bennett/Inside Press

Failure from the Top

And he has little faith in the White House, which he says never took control of the pandemic.

Latimer says there are thousands of things President Trump could have done but didn’t. He says sure, he’s a Democrat and the president is Republican, so there will be differences in approaches. But he says it’s a matter of practical government.

He points out that the governors of Vermont, Massachusetts and Maryland–all Republicans–have done the right thing. But he says now, because President Trump didn’t lay out a comprehensive national plan, “we’re fighting a rearguard action, each state doing their own thing, and we’re trying to do our best. We’re trying to put this thing in our rearview mirror.”

That’s going to be difficult as long as some states are doing as poorly as they have been this summer, Latimer is concerned about how the divide in attitudes in the U.S., a divide that is often along political lines, is impacting the country, and could send Westchester moving in the wrong direction.

“You know that there’s a certain mindset in parts of the country that says, I’m not wearing a mask. I don’t want to do it, it’s restrictive, I don’t believe in it philosophically.” He adds, “When you start listening to that kind of rhetoric, I do get concerned because it flies in the face of our experience.”

School Concerns

And then of course, there are the concerns about school. As of this interview, the county’s schools were beginning to unveil their plans for the fall, but as every parent knows, it’s a frustratingly fluid situation and nothing is certain. Although the decision on whether schools can open rests with Governor Cuomo, the county is helping superintendents prepare for the fall and devising protocols for reopening. Latimer says the schools are counting on county government to provide certain services such as contact tracing, when needed.

I asked him what he’s been hearing from parents and teachers on the subject. He says there are two distinct lines of thinking.

“I think you’ve got a number of people who want to see the schools resume, kids back in class. They see the problems of kids who aren’t in structured learning situations, the disadvantages which that creates for poor kids or disabled children.”

On the other hand, he says, “We’re very concerned, the virus is not in control. It can spread through children and of course it could spread through every household or many households in Westchester because of the universality of K-12 education. Both of those things work against each other, and I don’t know if it’s 50-50 in the community, but those two points of view are expressed by different people all the time.”

Small Business Outlook

I asked the County Executive what he thinks the retail, restaurant and overall economic situation in Westchester will look like in the near future. He says we’ve lost businesses, and we will lose more. The county has put together a small grant loan program–$10,000 grants, $25,000 loans–as they understand that restaurants and other small businesses run on a very small profit margin and can’t afford to lose business for even a few months. And they have been giving out free PPE to businesses in the county. Latimer hopes that as more commerce can reopen, they will be able to save more restaurants, stores and other businesses from going under. That is a process that is not only going to affect businesses, but the county as well.

“We’re not going to fully reopen until we’re comfortable. And we’re going to suffer. We lose sales tax revenue, we lose hotel occupancy tax revenue, we don’t maximize the kind of parks revenue that we would normally get. So as a government, we have a big budget hole as many local towns and villages do, and the state does.”

One of the bigger challenges the country faces in light of Covid-19 is the upcoming election in November, and Latimer looks at it from two angles: what he and his staff have to do to make it all work in the county, and his concerns about what happens on the national level.

“In the county, we have our work cut out for us,” he says.

The county is working with the Board of Elections to make sure there is additional staff to mail out absentee ballots and increase the number of polling inspectors. He also says county workers will have off Election Day so they can increase staffing to open as many polls as possible.

“The number of people coming out for this election is going to be phenomenal. This is one of the most compelling elections of my lifetime. It may be the most compelling one.”

And this is where his concerns come into play about the national election. “I take for granted that the strategy should be that the greatest number of people vote in order to get the greatest inclusion in the final decision. But there are people who believe, for their political gain, that they don’t want the greatest number people to vote. They want to suppress the vote.”

Latimer says there are a thousand ways to make it hard for people to vote. He says the deployment of troops to Portland could be a tactic used in November across the country.

“Are they going to be deployed on Election Day? Are they going to show up in front of the polls in areas where the president’s opposition might be strong and their presence there is meant to dissuade people from voting?”

Never one to mince words, Latimer had a great deal to say on this subject. He insists that this is not an election anyone can afford to miss, and he encourages Westchester residents to vote early, in October.

“I don’t want to write a Stephen King novel, but the bottom line is I think that Americans are concerned that we don’t get a fair, free opportunity to express our opinion.” As for the result, he says every president in U.S. history has accepted election results. But now President Trump says he doesn’t know if he’ll accept the country’s decision.

“I don’t want to hear anybody, certainly not this guy, say I don’t know if I’ll accept it. That is an anti-American dictatorship-type of response and there is no place for it in a democracy.”

Does George Latimer think democracy will survive this period of our history? “What happens in the next six months,” he says, “will tell the tale.”

Comedy in the Time of Corona

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“Mind if we watch another Curb Your Enthusiasm?” my husband asks at midnight. Nobody has to get up before 8:30 a.m., so why not? It’s become something of a ritual: we started watching the new season of Larry David’s sitcom a few weeks ago, and then returned to the early episodes when Larry was – gasp – younger than we are today. And slightly less prickly than Bernie Sanders’ doppelganger is now in his seventies, making him expendable for the sake of the economy, according to some politicians. Turning off Brian Williams and turning to comedy has become a way to mitigate the stress of anxiety-tainted days. We sleep better when the night’s last note is hilarity rather than foreboding.

Comedy television is no panacea for a world on fire, but it does provide temporary relief from the flames. Some mornings I wake up and feel the weight of all the generations of my immediate and extended family. The most difficult has been my older sister’s failing health, and the barrier that the coronavirus has erected between her and a safer, healthier day-to-day life. She and her husband, who has Parkinson’s, were planning to move from Rhode Island to an assisted living community in Wisconsin near one of her daughters, a herculean effort for some of us in the days leading up to the move. The complex went on corona lockdown fifteen hours before her flight was scheduled to take off.

There seemed to be no humor in that moment– just disbelief at the unluckiness of our timing.

But isn’t that where humor is often buried? In irony, in bad luck and misfortune? My friend Eileen, one of the funniest people I know, helped me laugh at the absurdity of the situation for the first time. If you Google humor quotes, you’ll find the inspirational words of everyone from Erma Bombeck to Langston Hughes. Some are more profound than others. I like these words from (the also expendable) Mel Brooks, “Humor is just another defense against the universe.”

We need all the defenses we can muster these days. Cue Curb Your Enthusiasm’s clownish theme song. Larry David’s petty grievances, politically incorrect rants and personal interactions are so ridiculous and cringe-worthy that my husband and I can’t help but laugh for the twenty-five – forty minutes that each episode lasts. It’s enough time to forget that our college senior didn’t get to finish her final year at the school she loves and will probably have a hell of a time finding a job; or that our college freshman wasn’t able to complete his first year of independence and is now stuck with us for at least six months. (There is a silver lining in having our adult children home a little longer.)

Some people will be unable to find any silver linings in this time of crisis. Too many have already have faced unimaginable tragedy and thousands more will follow. As another elder statesman of comedy, 98-year-old Carl Reiner recently tweeted, “For the first time in memory I see nothing in this world about which I care to joke.” Agreed. But it is precisely the time that we can look to the fiction of television and film comedy for the jokes, for the respite.

Maybe Larry David the TV character can worry so freely about life’s nothings because he has no kids to worry about, and enough money to be insulated against economic anxiety. Oh to be wealthy and frivolous enough to open a coffee shop just for spite. That was so 2019.

2020 will be a year of financial reckoning for many. There is someone in our extended family whose company is struggling for survival. Another two who have been looking for a job – that task will be more difficult now than ever. We have two young nurses in our midst – one waiting for the dreaded peak, the other at home with a ten-week-old – my grand-niece – worried about going back to work in this inhospitable climate. And there’s the patriarch of our extended family who is ninety-two and in relatively good health for his age. But he is ninety-two – one can’t help but worry about him and his peers.

This virus is a multi-generational scourge: it may prefer the elderly, but it does not discriminate against the young, as we have begun to learn. And as the long arm of its economic fallout reaches into the 401k’s of our retirees, it also empties the wallets of the working class, feeds the instability of our hourly workers and undercuts the fragile economies of our newly minted high school and college grads. Many of our waiters and service workers are young or supporting young children. And many are society’s most vulnerable members.

Humor will not play a part in the economic stimulus package, of course. But humor can provide an assist in our psychological recovery plans that reaches across generations. Fleabag, Veep, Big Mouth, SNL, I think You Should Leave, Barry, Schitt’s Creek – their comedic social commentary can help us get through the night and redirect us to a future when this virus is in our rearview. (Save too-close-to-home dramas like Years and Years for post-pandemic viewing.)

There should be no guilt in alleviating the darkness of the moment for a short while, especially in the hours before we sleep.

With every episode we watch of Curb Your Enthusiasm, I hope HBO does a coronavirus season next year. Just imagine Larry David fumbling with this crisis – infuriating people, saying and doing all the wrong things, paranoid about every sniffle and cough. They probably won’t touch the subject for good reason, but maybe David is just irreverent enough that he will. And maybe it will be the balm we need when this is all over.

Sing Sing Prison Acquires a New Story and Preps for Museum Opening

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Archival image of the Powerhouse Photos courtesy of Sing Sing Museum

In 1929, the New York Yankees played an exhibition game in an unusual location. It wasn’t a major league stadium or even a famous park. And Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and their teammates weren’t playing a team known for its athletic prowess.

That game on September 5th was between the Yankees and the Ossining Orioles. The venue? Sing Sing Prison.The Orioles were the best team in the Mutual Welfare League, a.k.a. a prison team.

The Yankees toured the prison before playing in their iconic pinstripes. One man who was incarcerated at Sing Sing was too ill to watch the game, so Ruth autographed his cell wall. Apparently, the Yankees signed a number of baseballs and handed them out. One ball from that momentous game, signed by Ruth and Gehrig, was acquired by Sing Sing Prison Museum just before this past New Year at an auction in Seattle.

The baseball signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig during a game between the Yankees and the inmates. The ball was recently acquired for the museum.
Photo Credit: MBA Auctions

Brent Glass is the Interim Director of the museum which will open in part in late 2020. He says that ball, which will be on exhibit along with its history, is significant to the museum because it connects several prison stories.

The ball will “help us tell the story of one approach…to try to encourage men who are incarcerated to partake in recreation, and to become integrated in society when they leave.”

It also helps tell the stories of Sing Sing in popular culture.

Glass says Warden Lewis E. Lawes, who was in charge of Sing Sing at the time of the game, implemented a progressive theory about the importance of rehabilitating the men under his watch in part by making life more interesting for them and giving them recreational and athletic opportunities. He was also connected to Hollywood; Lawes had written several screenplays including, “Over the Wall,” about a man incarcerated at Sing Sing of course.

Over the prison walls is where three Ruth homeruns landed that day in 1929. The Orioles wore hand-me-down NY Giants uniforms to face their professional opponents, but that didn’t help. No surprise– the game was a rout. The Yankees won 17-3. And they gave the men of Sing Sing a great show.

A rendering of the powerhouse
Photos courtesy of Sing Sing Museum

A New Cultural Institution

When we think about Westchester’s many cultural institutions, Sing Sing Prison does not come to mind. It doesn’t make any Hudson Valley must-see lists, yet. But that will change in this next decade, with the creation of the Sing Sing Prison Museum, opening in full in 2025. The museum’s founders are on a mission to make the museum one of Westchester’s great cultural tourism destinations.

You might go for the history, or you might go to gain a greater understanding of America’s prison complex. You might be interested in the more macabre aspects of the fabled penitentiary. Or you might go for the baseball.

The Sing Sing museum will be devoted to telling stories like the Yankees game, as well as the full story of the institution and its evolution. It will highlight stories of its brutal past and most infamous prisoners like Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and those of the ordinary men incarcerated there, as well as their families, and the rehabilitation work occurring there in the 21st century. And the museum’s installations will be designed to encourage visitors to examine the greater social justice issues of the prison system.

“That’s one of our major goals for the museum is to challenge people to reimagine the criminal justice system and to take action to create a more just society,” says Glass.

Glass, who is also Director Emeritus of Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, says all stakeholders will be included in the creation of the museum. “We want to tell the story of how incarceration has affected everyone at Sing Sing. We want to talk to the men who are incarcerated. What stories do they think are important to tell? We want to talk to people who have been victims of crimes. We don’t want to leave their stories out.” And he says the museum will include the stories of the people who have worked there over the years.

Why build a museum at Sing Sing now? Glass says, “Every chapter in criminal justice history has a few pages written at Sing Sing.” Unlike a popular museum like Alcatraz, Sing Sing is still operating. And he adds that its proximity to New York City and historic sites in the Hudson Valley makes it a perfect location. It will also bring tourism and millions of tourist dollars to Ossining. The museum founders estimate that 260 jobs in the museum and the wider community will be created, as well as 100 construction jobs.

The Sing Sing Prison Museum will open a preview center in 2020 at the Powerhouse on the prison campus. The Powerhouse provided electricity to the prison from the 1930’s to the 1960’s and will be repurposed with the construction of exhibition spaces, classrooms and a theater, as well as space for re-entry programs to help released prisoners acclimate to society.

When the full museum opens in 2025, Glass says visitors will be able to enter the historic cellblock. “We would break into the prison in effect through a secure corridor that would connect the Powerhouse to the historic cellblock which is about 100 yards south of the Powerhouse. The historic cellblock, built in 1825, would be the centerpiece of the visitor experience because it is an extraordinary ruin that nobody gets to see at this point.”

Sing Sing has a notorious past–including 614 executions in the 20th century–but it is working to bring a sense of humanity to its prisoners through a variety of arts and educational programs. Rehabilitation Through the Arts provides year-round theater workshops and performance to the prisoners of Sing Sing. They also run workshops in dance, visual arts, music and creative writing. Hudson Link for Higher Education provides college educational opportunities to prisoners through private funding. The correctional facility has a garden and a professional master gardener, Douglass DeCandia, who works with the prisoners. There are also programs for the families of prisoners.

Perhaps some of the families of early twentieth century prisoners might still have their signed baseballs from the 1929 game against the Yankees. Glass is hoping the museum might be able to acquire a few more. In the meantime, this one will be on view at Sing Sing’s new museum later this year, a wonderful testament to the idea that people who are incarcerated benefit from the occasional diversion and a reminder of what’s possible on the outside.

Six Tidbits About Sing Sing

  • The 1,200 cells in the historic cellblock built in 1825 were seven-feet long, six-and-a-half feet high, and three-feet, seven inches wide.
  • In the 19th century, some prisoners were subjected to punishments like the “shower bath,” similar to waterboarding.
  • David Berkowitz, aka “the Son of Sam,” was incarcerated at Sing Sing.
  • Some Hollywood movies filmed scenes at Sing Sing including “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
  • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing
  • Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Harry Houdini and B.B. King have all performed at Sing Sing