Article

Greenwich Village, New York and Correction Commissioner Anna Moscowitz Kross

Black and white image of woman sitting at a desk with an open book.
Anna Moscowitz Kross seated at her desk as the Department of Corrections Commissioner.

Public Domain, City of New York Department of Corrections.

What buildings in your community are important to you?

The Women’s House of Detention, demolished in the mid-1970s, was a center of activity in historic Greenwich Village for decades. It opened in 1932 at 10 Greenwich Avenue near the Jefferson Market Courthouse and prison, a National Historic Landmark built in the 1870s. From the start the facility was cramped and understaffed. The Women’s Prison Association (WPA) started offering mental health services to inmates almost as soon as it opened its doors. Upon the demolition of the Women’s House of Detention, one lifelong resident of the neighborhood said, “The heart was torn out of Greenwich Village.” [2]  

In 1954, riots rocked the Women’s House of Detention. However, it took more than such protests to make change. It also took the efforts of reformers and public servants.

One such person was Anna Moscowitz Kross, a judge and New York City public official. Over the course of her fifty-four-year career (1912-1966) Kross worked to improve living conditions for people in the New York City prison system. Her obituary in The New York Times credits her with “wiping out many of the dungeon-like features of the prison system.” [3]

Kross’s legacy as Commissioner of Corrections was closely connected to the Women’s House of Detention. 

Early Life and Career

Anna was born on July 17th, 1891, in Neshves, Russia to Maier and Esther Moscowitz. At the age of two her parents brought her and her one surviving sibling to New York City. While she was in high school, she worked at a factory at night and taught English to help support her family. In 1907, at age sixteen, Kross won a scholarship to the New York University (NYU) law school. She earned her Bachelor of Law in three years and her Master of Law one year later. While studying law Kross learned about prison reform efforts, specifically those aimed at improving the quality of life for those in prisons. Though she graduated in 1911, she had to wait until 1912 to take the bar exam, since she was only 20 years old when she graduated.  

After graduating from NYU, Kross began working to reform New York City’s Women’s Night Court. This court was set up for women arrested after normal court hours so that women who could not afford bail could be arraigned more quickly.  The court was held at the Jefferson Market Courthouse and Prison.

The most common charge women faced in the Women’s Night Court was prostitution, a charge which did not have a uniform definition in New York City courts. A woman could be charged with prostitution for wearing men's clothing in public, while another woman in the same night could have the same charge for being too feminine in public without a man accompanying her.

In 1918 Kross won her first political appointment as the assistant corporation counsel for the city of New York and she was the first woman to hold the position. On December 30th, 1933 Kross became the third woman appointed city court judge by Mayor John P O’Brien.

 In 1934, as Magistrate, Kross published a “Report on Prostitution and the Women’s Court.”  The report analyzed the demographics of women charged with prostitution. Kross examined statistics for the number of cases seen by the court, the race of the women being charged, and the conviction rate compared to race. She found that in its first twenty-five years the court saw around 2,500 prostitution cases per year. The conviction rate was seventy five percent. The conviction rate for Black women was notably higher than their white counterparts facing the same charge.  

Kross’s conclusions about the Women’s Night Court were simple but damning:   

“No judicial institution has done more to destroy the public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary, of the police, [and] of our laws.”  [3] 

Drastic changes were needed in the city's prison system. Judge Kross sought out additional ways to improve the quality of life of the imprisoned population of New York City. When the opportunity presented itself, Kross accepted political appointment as the Commissioner of Corrections of the City of New York.    

Commissioner of Corrections Anna Moscowitz Kross  

Anna Kross became Commissioner of Corrections in 1953 and got to work. She understood the importance of data and documentation. Kross established annual reports published by the Department about the demographics of people arrested and held in NYC prisons.

Much of Kross’s attention was focused on improving quality of life for people in prison, including how to prevent them from ending up back in prison. A major focus was the creation of rehabilitation and jobs programs. Kross established token wages for specific jobs in NYC prisons. She also added training programs in baking, stenography, and woodworking. These training programs provided graduates with certificates of proficiency. They also helped in job placement once the graduate left the prison.   

About a year after Kross became Commissioner, there was a large-scale riot at the Women’s House of Detention. The prison had suffered problems of overcrowding since it opened in 1931. Since it was designed to only hold women awaiting trial, and not those who had been sentenced, there were limited recreational spaces. The building ended up housing both people awaiting trial and those who had already been sentenced. It also mixed adult and adolescent prisoners.  Overpopulation resulted in the conversion of the few recreational spaces into more sleeping areas. There were chronic understaffing problems at the prison. 

This was the first of many major riots and they had impact beyond the prison walls. It is not clear from remaining records what started the 1954 riot. The New York Times claimed it was to protest some guards’ treatment of an addict, but prison records from the night are incomplete [4]. What is certain is that the women held in the prison were screaming out of the windows. They were pounding objects on the bars of their cells, throwing lit cigarettes and breakable objects out their windows at passersby. At some point a fire was lit on the fourth floor, adding to the chaos. 

After this riot, Kross was able to use increased public pressure to get social workers added to staff at the House of Detention. She added thirty guards to the staff, bringing the prison closer to a safe ratio. Throughout her career Kross regularly argued that people who were not criminals could not be helped by the prison system. She argued that drug addicts or homeless people should not be held in prisons since that would not help them. She also pushed to get adolescents separated from adult populations, which was not common practice at that time.  

In an interview in 1959, Kross summarized her view:

“Unfortunately, when this administration took over, the Department of Correction was used as the only place in the city for unfortunate victims of drugs that were not prisoners they were just sick people, but no hospitals took them so they were sent to the Department of Corrections. In my opinion that was wrong from the beginning and I immediately started in trying to see what we could do to change that pattern.” [5.]

The House of Detention closed in 1971 after a women’s prison was constructed on Rikers Island. Quickly, people of higher economic classes, who had been buying property in Greenwich Village for years, began petitioning for the demolition of the Women’s House of Detention. They argued the building brought down real-estate prices and devalued their investments. Lifelong residents of the village, as well as multiple LGBTQ+ ran organizations fought back, arguing for the building’s importance in not only the history of the village but also in LGBTQ+ history. The Landmark Commission of New York City determined the building was not of enough historic significance to save. It was demolished in 1974.

From the Women’s Night Court to the Department of Corrections Kross advocated for incarcerated people to be treated as humans.  She had been able to make some, small quality of life changes for people imprisoned in New York City, but there was still much left undone. Anna Moscowitz Kross died on August 27, 1979 in the Bronx, New York after a short illness. She was survived by her husband, their two daughters, and six grandchildren. 

This article was researched and written by Alyssa Eveland, American Conservation Experience Fellow, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

Notes and Bibliography

Tags

Last updated: July 16, 2024