“As a former officere looking back into Sing Sing’s history, I was struck by lost institutions of the old prison, such as the bands that played as prisoners marched to chow. Early in the twentieth century, inmates who prized special bars sewn onto their uniforms for time served were humiliated when, as punishment, these symbols of accomplishment were removed. During World War II there were wildly successful inmate blood drives–1,106 pints were donated in 1943. These all look like signs that inmates, though segregated in prison, still considered themselves a part of mainstream society in some way. As recently as twenty years ago, old-time officers told me, it would be exceptional to find more than ten B-block inmates on keeplock [forbidden from leaving their cells for more than a brief recreational period]. Nowadays, the number is nearer a hundred, and the Box [solitary] is always full.”

–Ted Conover, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (I wonder to what extent those blood drives were voluntary and to what extent they were tacitly or not-so-tacitly enforced–but his larger point stands)