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.