Step 1 : Introduction to the question "The term “going up the river” originally referred to which river whose banks host a famous prison?"
...The term “up the river” as most people know refers to going to prison. If you ever watch any gangster films from the 1930’s or 40’s, one of the lines of dialogue that always pops up is: “up the river.” So where did the saying come from? The expression "up the river" to describe someone in prison or heading to prison derives from the practice of sentencing people convicted in New York City to serve their terms in Sing Sing. The prison is literally up the Hudson River from the city. The expression was eventually applied to anyone being sent to any prison. The expression dates back to the late 1800s.
