To Honor Their Souls

Perhaps you have never heard of Katherine Lawes. Katherine was thenwife of Lewis Lawes, warden at Sing Sing Prison from 1920-1941.

Sing Sing had the reputation of destroying wardens. The averagenwarden's tenure before Lewis Lawes was two years. "The easiest way tonget out of Sing Sing," he once quipped, "is to go in as warden." Innhis 21 years he instituted numerous reforms - and an important part ofnhis success was due to his wife Katherine.

Katherine took seriously the idea that the prisoners are human beings,nworthy of attention and respect. She regularly visited inside thenwalls of Sing Sing. She encouraged the prisoners, ran errands for themnand spent time listening to them. Most importantly, she cared aboutnthem. And as a result, they cared deeply about her.

Then one night in October of 1937, news was "telegraphed" between thenprison cells that Katherine was killed in an accident. The prisonersnpetitioned the warden to allow them to attend her funeral bier. Hengranted their strange request and a few days later the south gate of
Sing Sing swung slowly open. Hundreds of men - felons, lifers,nmurderers, thieves - men convicted of almost every crime conceivable,nmarched slowly from the prison gate to the bier, reassembled at thenhouse and returned to their cells. There were so many that theynproceeded unguarded. But not one tried to escape. If he had, thenothers may have killed him on the spot, so devoted were they to
Katherine Lawes, the woman who daily walked into Hell to show the menna piece of Heaven.

Katherine's strength was to see the men less as prisoners and more asnindividuals. Thomas Moore has said, "We can only treat badly thosenthings or people whose souls we disregard."

To treat people well is to honor their souls. To honor their souls isnto understand what it means to love your neighbor.