Northampton County Prison

Last updated
Northampton County Prison, 666 Walnut St. entrance. NorthamptonCountyPrison.jpg
Northampton County Prison, 666 Walnut St. entrance.

Northampton County Prison is a county-level prison located in Easton, Pennsylvania in the United States.

Contents

The prison is situated adjacent to the Northampton County Courthouse and consists of four inter-connected buildings. It contains 15 separate housing units and a community corrections facility (work release) with a capacity of 913 inmates.

History

The newly formed Northampton County built its first jailhouse in 1753. The building was located in Easton's Centre Square. The building was constructed from massive stone walls and served two purposes, to detain prisoners and to act as a safe house in the event of an attack from nearby Native American tribes.

In 1851 the jail was relocated to Sitgreaves Street. The new building contained 27 cells and was surrounded by 15-foot (4.6 m) high walls. In 1861 the Northampton County courthouse was built on its present site on Washington Street. The jail was too small at this time and offered an inconvenience in transporting prisoners to and from the courthouse.

In 1868 work began on a new prison adjacent to the courthouse. The building was completed in 1871 at a cost of $200,000. The building has undergone major renovation due to overcrowding. In 1909 an addition was completed and soon after a wall was erected to contain an outside recreation area to comply with state law. In 1993, two direct supervision units were added, soon followed by the freestanding Community Corrections Facility. In 2004, the Northampton County Council approved a $22.8 million expansion. The new expansion was completed in 2006 and consisted of two towers with three "podular"/direct supervision units, a new intake unit, and connection of the buildings.

Related Research Articles

Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) is a government agency of the State of Maryland that performs a number of functions, including the operation of state prisons. It has its headquarters in Towson, Maryland, an unincorporated community that is also the seat of Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, located north of Maryland's largest city of Baltimore. Additional offices for correctional institutions supervision are located on Reisterstown Road in northwest Baltimore.

Grafton Correctional Centre

The Grafton Intake and Transient Centre, formerly the Grafton Correctional Centre and the Grafton Gaol, is a heritage-listed medium security prison for males and females, is located in Grafton, Clarence Valley Council, New South Wales, Australia. The centre is operated by Corrective Services NSW an agency of the Department of Attorney General and Justice of the Government of New South Wales. The centre detains sentenced and unsentenced felons under New South Wales and/or Commonwealth legislation. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

Goulburn Correctional Centre

The Goulburn Correctional Centre, an Australian supermaximum security prison for males, is located in Goulburn, New South Wales, three kilometres north-east of the central business district. The facility is operated by Corrective Services NSW, an agency of the Department of Justice, of the Government of New South Wales. The Complex accepts prisoners charged and convicted under New South Wales and/or Commonwealth legislation and serves as a reception prison for Southern New South Wales, and, in some cases, for inmates from the Australian Capital Territory.

Bathurst Correctional Centre

Bathurst Correctional Centre, originally built as Bathurst Gaol in 1888, is a prison for men and women located in the city of Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, and operated by the Department of Communities and Justice. Bathurst holds inmates sentenced under State or Australian criminal law, along with a small number of remand prisoners.

Supermax prison Most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries

A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries.

Mount Eden Prisons

Mount Eden Prisons consists of two separate facilities in the Auckland, New Zealand suburb of Mount Eden — the Mount Eden Prison and the Mount Eden Corrections Facility.

Collins Correctional Facility is a medium security prison in Collins, New York in the United States. The prison is located in the south part of Erie County in the Town of Collins. It is adjacent to the Gowanda Correctional Facility, another medium-security prison. Both prisons are located north of the Village of Gowanda, at the southern end of Erie County.

Wende Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison located in Town of Alden in Erie County, New York, east of Buffalo. The prison is named for this region of Alden. The prison was formerly the site of a county jail operated by Erie County, New York, and sold to the state to further its need for a maximum security state prison. The Erie County Correctional Facility was built adjacent to Wende.

New Jersey State Prison

The New Jersey State Prison (NJSP), formerly known as Trenton State Prison, is a state men's prison in Trenton, New Jersey operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections. It is the oldest prison in New Jersey and one of the oldest correctional facilities in the United States. It is the state's only completely maximum security institution, housing the most difficult and/or dangerous male offenders in the inmate population. NJSP operates two security units and provides a high level of custodial supervision and control. Professional treatment services, such as education and social work, are a priority at the facility. The Bureau of State Use Industries operated the bedding and clothing shops that were once located in Shop Hall at the facility. These industries have been relocated to South Woods State Prison.

Cummins Unit Unincorporated community in Arkansas, United States

The Cummins Unit is an Arkansas Department of Corrections prison in unincorporated Lincoln County, Arkansas, United States, in the Arkansas Delta region. It is located along U.S. Route 65, near Grady, Gould, and Varner, 28 miles (45 km) south of Pine Bluff, and 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Little Rock.

Federal Detention Center, Philadelphia

The Federal Detention Center is a United States Federal prison in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which holds male and female inmates prior to or during court proceedings, as well as inmates serving brief sentences. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.

Lorton Reformatory United States historic place

The Lorton Reformatory, also known as the Lorton Correctional Complex, is a former prison complex in Lorton, Virginia, established in 1910 for the District of Columbia, United States.

New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYSDOCCS) is the department of the New York State government that maintains the state prisons and parole system.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Department of the government of Texas

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, and private correctional facilities, funding and certain oversight of community supervision, and supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision. The TDCJ operates the largest prison system in the United States.

St. Louis County Jail

The St. Louis County Jail is located inside the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton, Missouri at 100 South Central Avenue, about eight miles (13 km) from downtown St. Louis. The holding capacity of the facility is 1,400 male and female inmates. The St. Louis County Jail is a direct-supervision facility that detains adults and juveniles being tried as adults who are awaiting trial or serving county sentences and is the only jail in Missouri that holds an accreditation known as the ALDF from the American Correctional Association (ACA). Opened in March 1998, the center replaced both the jail in the 1949 St. Louis County Courthouse building and the Adult Correctional Building in Chesterfield, Missouri. The center was rededicated the "Buzz Westfall Justice Center" in 2004.

Marquette Branch Prison United States historic place

The Marquette Branch Prison (MBP) is located in Marquette, Michigan on the south shore of Lake Superior. The prison, which opened in 1889, is a facility of the Michigan Department of Corrections that holds about 1,100 inmates in maximum and minimum-security housing. The inmate population consists of adult males, aged eighteen and older. The prison was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as State House of Correction and Branch Prison on November 23, 1977.

The Central Mississippi Correctional Facility for Women (CMCF) is a Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) prison for men and women located in an unincorporated area in Rankin County, Mississippi, near the city of Pearl. The 171-acre (69 ha) prison is the only state prison to hold female prisoners in Mississippi, in addition to minimum and medium security male offenders. As such, it operates as the female death row of the state.

The Philadelphia Department of Prisons is operated by the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. The facilities are located on State Road in Northeast Philadelphia. Shawn Hawes is the public spokesperson for the Philadelphia Prison System. On April 14, 2020, Philadelphia Department of Prisons announced a 48-year-old woman had died from COVID-19 marking the first death of an inmate in the Philadelphia Prison System.

The Fresno County Jail is a detention center made up of three different adjacent complexes, located at 1225 M. Street, in downtown Fresno, California, operated by the Fresno County Sheriff's Department. The facility is made up of the Main Jail, the North Annex Jail, and the South Annex Jail and is connected by an underground system of tunnels providing easy and safe transportation of inmates. These tunnels also connect to the nearby Fresno County Courthouse. As of March 31, 2020, the Fresno County Jail had 2,746 inmates with 2,490 being male and 256 being female. The Fresno County Jail has recorded the highest number of deaths out of any county jail in California.

References

The Northampton County Prison Historical Review

Coordinates: 40°41′18″N75°12′59″W / 40.6882°N 75.2163°W / 40.6882; -75.2163