Background

Thomas Mott Osborne was born on September 23, 1859, at Auburn, New York. His father, David Munson Osborne, a manufacturer of agricultural implements, was descended from Richard Osborn of London, England, who, in 1634, settled in Hingham, Massachussets; his mother, Eliza (Wright), came of old Pennsylvania Quaker stock. The wealth of his family gave him an opportunity to travel and to receive the cultural education of the privileged few.

Education

Upon his graduation from Harvard cum laude in 1884 Thomas began an apprenticeship in his father's manufacturing establishment.

Career

After his father's death, Thomas Osborne was head of the firm until 1903, when it was absorbed by the International Harvester Company. Politics interested him early. As member of the Auburn school board, 1885-91 and 1893-95, and as mayor, 1903-06, he proved himself efficient and honest. He soon became recognized as a leader of the upstate Democrats, for short periods held appointive state offices, and served as delegate to the state and national conventions of his party. Osborne's untiring work for prison reform was his outstanding achievement. Soon after his wife's death in 1896 he became interested in the George Junior Republic, and served for many years as a member and, later, as chairman of its governing board. To this work may be traced his interest in prison administration. In 1906 he concluded an address to the National Prison Association with these words, "The prison must be an institution where every inmate must have the largest practical amount of individual freedom, because it is liberty alone that fits men for liberty. " These words of Gladstone thus became for him the guide to a better system of prison treatment.

His opportunity to test their validity came in 1913 with his appointment to the chairmanship of the newly created state commission for prison reform. He began his duties in a most unorthodox manner by "serving" a week's term in the Auburn prison; the graphic account of this experience may be found in Within Prison Walls (1914). As "Tom Brown" he sought to know how life in prison affected those subjected to it, and he emerged convinced that the conventional treatment crushed the individuality and destroyed the manhood and self-respect of the prisoners, the very foundation on which reformation must rest. During his confinement a prisoner had suggested to him a plan which took form in the famous Mutual Welfare League, through which Auburn prisoners, under sympathetic guidance, achieved a sense of corporate responsibility, which became a powerful force in refitting them for social life.

From 1914 to 1916, as warden of Sing Sing, and from 1917 to 1920, as commanding officer of the Portsmouth Naval Prison, Osborne used the Mutual Welfare League plan with conspicuous success. A splendid educational tool was in this way strikingly adapted to prison conditions, and even though the idea of self-government was by no means new, Osborne will probably be remembered as one of its conspicuous exponents, so far as its use in prison administration is concerned. In his two books, Society and Prisons (1916) and Prisons and Common Sense (1924), his penal philosophy is well presented, particularly in the former.

During his prison administration in Sing Sing, particularly, his unsparing criticism of political interference subjected him to the vilest abuse, which culminated in an indictment by the Westchester County grand jury, December 1915, on charges of mismanagement and immorality; the case never came to trial. After his resignation from Portsmouth in 1920, he spent the remaining years of his life lecturing and writing on prison reform. The finest monument to his memory is the "Tom Brown" house in New York City, headquarters of two organizations which he founded and which have recently been merged under the title "The Osborne Association. " One of these was the Welfare League Association, an aid society for discharged prisoners, and the other, the National Society of Penal Information, which on the basis of field studies of actual prison conditions, conducts an intelligent propaganda for prison reform. He died in Auburn, New York.

Achievements

• During his service at the State Commission on Prison Reform, Thomas Osborne spent six days at the Auburn Prison as "Tom Brown". He recorded his experiences in Within Prison Walls (1914). This served as the basis for his further prison reforms. Serving as a warden of Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York (1914-1916), Osborne established a system of internal self-rule called the "Mutual Welfare League" within the prison and quickly won enthusiastic support from both guards and prisoners. Osborne also took up the position of commander of the Portsmouth Naval Prison (1917-1918), while implementing reforms there. Thomas Osborne's literary works: Within Prison Walls (1914); Society and Prisons (1916); Prisons and Common Sense (1924).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Society and Prisons: Some Suggestions for a New Penology (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Society and Prisons: Some Suggestions for a ...)

  • Democracy and imperialism;

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • Prisons and common sense.

    ( The Making of the Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-192...)

  • Within Prison Walls being a narrative during a week of voluntary confinement in the state prison at Auburn, New York

    (HardPress Classic Books Series)

Membership

Thomas Osborne was a founding member of the Welfare League Association and the National Society of Penal Information, which later merged into the Osborne Association.

Personality

Osborne was a man of a singularly fine and upright character. Tall and athletic, he gave the impression of rugged physical strength, and equally strong was his passion for justice and fair dealing. His public life was consequently turbulent, for while he called forth a keen loyalty in most of those who learned to know him intimately, his intransigency and his intolerance of opposition also created for him vigorous enmities

Interests

• Osborne's avocational interests centered largely around music and dramatics, and he organized and directed in his home city both a symphony orchestra and a dramatic club. His talent as a pianist was particularly a source of enjoyment to himself and to his friends.

Connections

On October 27, 1886, Thomas Osborne married Agnes Devens of Cambridge. She died in 1896.

Father:

David Munson Osborne

He was a manufacturer of agricultural implements.

Mother:

Eliza (Wright) Osborne

Sister:

Helen (Osborne) Storrow

Sister:

Florence Osborne

Sister:

Emily (Osborne) Harris

Wife:

Agnes (Devens) Osborne

Son:

Charles Devens Osborne

Son:

Lithgow Osborne

Son:

Robert K. Osborne