Prisoners' Prisoner Free

After 21 years in Sing Sing, Warden Lewis E. Lawes this week announced that, like most of the prison's inmates, he now wanted to retire, "to devote myself to many causes which have long interested me." Among them will be more sound books (20,000 Years in Sing Sing) and articles on penology, perhaps a university job, social-service work among boys.

Humane boss of the most famed prison in the U.S., Lawes said with proper pride, when asked how his 2,500 inmates felt about his retirement: "Some of them will probably feel bad." Some famous Lawes charges: City Editor Charles E. Chapin, Richard C. Whitney, Nazi Fritz Kuhn, Tammany's Jimmy Hines.

One noxious duty Mr. Lawes will escape is witnessing the execution of two prisoners whose attempted escape last April was the first violent outbreak at Sing Sing since 1920. Required by law to witness executions, but a lifelong enemy of capital punishment, the Warden always turned his head, bowed it at the last moment.

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