Osborne, Thomas Mott (1859–1926)

US manufacturer and prison reformer. After selling his family's agricultural machinery firm to International Harvester (1903), and founding the Auburn Citizen (1905), a local newspaper, he devoted himself to Democratic politics on a state and national level. After becoming interested in prison reform, he was named warden of Sing Sing (1914–16). For fighting the corrupt New York prison system, he was indicted by the Westchester County grand jury on trumped-up charges (1915). The case was dismissed, but he resigned his post soon after to become commanding officer of the US naval prison, Portsmouth, New Hampshire (1917–20). The author of three books on prison reform, as well as international prison studies, he was also devoted to music and dramatics. He was born in Auburn, New York.