Thomas Mott Osborne was the son of a wealthy manufacturer and worked for his father for many years. He served two terms on the Auburn school board and in 1903 he was elected mayor of Auburn, New York and served one term. In 1913 he was appointed chairman of a state commission on prison reform, which led to his work with prisons. According to the Osborne Association, Osborne was considered the "pioneer and prophet of prison reform". Osborne was very unique in his style of reform because he decided that to get a feel for what prisons were really like, he had to become a prisoner. So for a week Osborne was known as Tom Brown at Auburn Prison. His goal was to transform American prisons “from human dumping grounds into human repair shops.” Osborne worked for a time as warden of Sing Sing, a prison in Ossining, New York, where his goal was to return prisoners to society and hopefully never see them imprisoned again. After spending time in prison and working at Sing Sing, he worked with a former fellow inmate named Jack Murphy to form the Mutual Welfare League. According to the Osborne Association, the Mutual Welfare League "...was a system of self-governance, education and development programs for men living in Sing Sing with the aim of preparing individuals in prison to return to productive lives in the community.” The League was one of the ways in which Osborne contributed to the