Sanford Bates was born in Boston Massachusetts July 17, 1884. In his early years, Bates graduated from the Y.M.C.A. Evening Law School, now Northeastern University, and found a job as a clerk in the Boston Street Department. Bates was active in the local Republican party, a member of the Lincoln club, and the Republican club of Boston's Ward 24.

Sanford Bates' political career started in 1912, serving in both houses of the Massachusetts General Court, and representing the 24th Suffolk District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. A Massachusetts Constitutional Convention was called in 1917 in which Bates was elected to serve as a member of the Massachusetts Constituional Convention of 1917, representing the 19th Suffolk District. He was also a member of the Convention's Committee on Liquor Traffic.

Bates was appointed as the Commissioner of Penal Institutions in Boston on November 1, 1918, later appointed as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections in 1919 by then Governor Calvin Coolidge. In 1929, Bates became the first Superintendent of Prisons for the newly created Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, until 1937. He would go on to head the New Jersey Department of Corrections from 1945 until retiring in 1954.

During Bates' years as the Commissioner of Penal Instituitons in Boston, he introduced several key changes to the prison system such as bringing printing and foundry work, state wages, and university extension courses for prisoners. He also created the first crime prevention bureau connected with a prison department.

During Bates' tenure as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 15 instituitons were added to the system, one of them being the infamous Alcatraz, and numerous libraries, medical departments, bureaus of social work, and guard training programs.

Sanford Bates died September 8, 1972.