Taconic Correctional Facility

Last updated
Taconic Correctional Facility
Taconic Correctional Facility
Location250 Harris Road
Bedford Hills, New York
Statusopen
Security class medium
Capacity387 [1]
Population167 [1]
Opened1973
Managed by New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
DirectorEmily Williams

Taconic Correctional Facility is a medium/minimum security women's prison in Bedford, New York [1] [2] operated by the New York State DOCCS. [3] [4] Although the prison has a maximum 387-person capacity, the incarcerated population was under 170 as of November, 2021. [1]

Contents

Location

Taconic is located in Westchester County, approximately fifty miles north of New York City. It lies across the street from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a New York State maximum security women's prison. [5] Despite having a Bedford Hills postal address, the prison lies just outside of the Bedford Hills census-designated place. [6] Compared to most New York State prisons, Taconic and Bedford Hills are relatively accessible by public transportation: Metro North Railroad's Harlem line has station stops about 1.5 miles away, and the Westchester County bus system serves the area.

Incarcerated population

Taconic is a designated women's prison with about 170 people incarcerated in 2021, ranging from 20 to 74 years old. [1] Despite the designation as a women's prison, there are also nonbinary people and transgender men incarcerated there. [1] The population of 170 represents a steep decline from 2019, when there were almost twice as many as the present number, at a count of 315. [7] As of 2021, there were more staff at Taconic than people incarcerated New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, with at least 218 staff members in 2021. [1] This is highly unusual nationwide; New York State's ratio of prison guards to incarcerated people was highest among all fifty states in 2010. [8]

History

The facility opened in 1901 as the New York State Reformatory for Women for those ages 15 to 30. Its first director was Katherine Bement Davis, a progressive politician, prison reformer, and the first woman to earn a PhD in Economics/Political Science at the University of Chicago. [9]

The Department of Corrections took over the administration of the reformatory in 1926, and in 1933 it was merged it with the newly opened Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. For the next four decades, the reformatory operated as part of Bedford Hills, still the state's only maximum-security prison for females.

In 1973, Taconic began operations as an autonomous medium-security prison. During 1971 and 1972, Bedford Hills was a correctional facility with separate male and female units. In 1973 the male inmates were transferred before the unit closed in June; the unit reopened in December as the Taconic Correctional Facility. [10]

A cemetery on the prison's grounds has been in use since the 1920s, with about 100 graves, most of them infants and women who died at the facility. The graveyard has marked areas for Christian, Jewish and Muslim decedents. The most recent burials, in the 2010s, were for men who died while incarcerated at prisons where the graveyards had no more space for burials. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women</span> Prison in Bedford Hills, Westchester County, New York, US

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a women's prison in the town of Bedford, New York, is the largest New York State women's prison. The prison previously opened under the name Westfield State Farm in 1901. It lies just outside the hamlet and census-designated place Bedford Hills, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedford Hills, New York</span> "Hamlet with prisons in Westchester County"

Bedford Hills is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 3,001 at the 2010 census. Two New York State prisons for women, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women and Taconic Correctional Facility, are located in the hamlet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sullivan Correctional Facility</span> Maximum-security state prison for male prisoners, located in New York, US

Sullivan Correctional Facility is a New York State maximum security prison correctional facility for male prisoners located in Fallsburg, New York. It is operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Eric M. Smith is an American murderer who, at the age of thirteen, tortured and murdered four-year-old Derrick Joseph Robie, in Steuben County, New York, on August 2, 1993. Smith was convicted of second-degree murder in 1994 and sentenced to the maximum term then available for juvenile murderers: nine years to life in prison. Smith was granted parole in October 2021, after 27 years in prison. He was officially released in February 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinton Correctional Facility</span> Maximum-security state prison for men in New York, US

Clinton Correctional Facility is a New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision maximum security state prison for men located in the Village of Dannemora, New York. The prison is sometimes colloquially referred to as Dannemora, although its name is derived from its location in Clinton County, New York. The southern perimeter wall of the prison borders New York State Route 374. Church of St. Dismas, the Good Thief, a church built by inmates, is located within the walls. The prison is sometimes referred to as New York's Little Siberia, due to the cold winters in Dannemora and the isolation of the upstate area. It is the largest maximum-security prison and the third-oldest prison in New York. The staff includes about 1,000 officers and supervisors.

Albion Correctional Facility is a medium security women's prison in Town of Albion, Orleans County, New York, United States, that is operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services. The site was founded in 1894 as the Western House of Refuge for Women, then later the Albion State Training School. The prison is just outside the village of Albion.

Downstate Correctional Facility was a maximum-security prison in the Town of Fishkill in the Hudson Valley region of New York. It was located along the north side of Interstate 84, opening in 1979 and closing in 2022.

Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility is a minimum security shock incarceration prison in New York in the United States. The prison is located in the Village of Brocton, in Chautauqua County, New York. The facility provides special treatment for non-violent offenders.

Coxsackie Correctional Facility is a maximum security state prison in Coxsackie, Greene County, New York. It currently houses approximately 900 inmates. It is classified as a maximum security general confinement facility and detention center for men.

Fishkill Correctional Facility is a multi-security level prison in New York, United States. The prison is located in both the Town of Fishkill and the City of Beacon in Dutchess County. Fishkill was constructed in 1896. It began as the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

Taconic can refer to a location in the United States:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Concord</span> Prison in Concord, Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord (MCI-Concord) is a medium security prison for men located in Concord, Massachusetts in the United States. Opened in 1878, it is the oldest running state prison for men in Massachusetts. This prison is under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction. There are 570 inmates with a total capacity of 614 general population beds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision</span> Department of the New York State government

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYSDOCCS) is the department of the New York State government that administers the state prison and parole system, including 44 prisons funded by the state government.

Carolyn Warmus is an American former elementary schoolteacher who was convicted at age 28 of the 1989 murder of her lover's wife, 40-year-old Betty Jeanne Solomon. After a hung jury at her first trial in 1991, Warmus was convicted of second degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm at her second trial in 1992. She served 27 years for the murder and was released from prison on parole on June 17, 2019.

A prison nursery is a section of a prison that houses incarcerated mothers and their very young children. Prison nurseries are not common in correctional facilities in the United States, although prior to the 1950s many states had them and they are widespread throughout the rest of the world.

Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) was founded by Katherine Vockins in 1996 in Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, and now operates in six men's and women's, maximum and medium security New York State prisons: Sing Sing, Bedford Hills, Woodbourne, Green Haven, Fishkill and Taconic. RTA is the lead program of Prison Communities International, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. RTA brings art workshops in theatre, music, dance, visual arts, writing and poetry behind the walls to over 230 incarcerated men and women.

Sister Elaine Roulet was a Roman Catholic sister who created programs that connect incarcerated mothers and their children. She was instrumental in the prison reform movement and established the precedent of connecting imprisoned mothers with their babies that many United States prisons now use as a model.

Janet S. York Correctional Institution is Connecticut's only state prison for women, located in Niantic. The facility opened in its current form in October, 1994, and houses a maximum of 1500 at a range of security levels from minimum to super maximum.

The Greene Correctional Facility is a state prison for men located in Coxsackie, Greene County, New York, owned and operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">August Rebellion</span>

The August Rebellion was an uprising on August 29, 1974, at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a New York State prison in Bedford Hills in the Town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, United States. In August 1974, about 200 women imprisoned at Bedford Hills rebelled, taking over parts of the prison, in protest of the inhumane treatment of Carol Crooks. A subsequent civil-action lawsuit, ruled in the inmates' favor, led to greater protections of Fourth Amendment rights for incarcerated people.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PREA Facility Audit Report (Report). New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. 11 Nov 2021.
  2. ↑ "2020 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Bedford town, NY" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-08-22. Taconic Correctional Facility
  3. ↑ "Ny Doc Taconic Correctional Facility Bedford Hills NY | from GlobalTel". www.globaltel.com. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  4. ↑ McKinley, Jesse (31 August 2018). "The Prison Escape That Riveted the Nation: 5 Things We Learned From an Inquiry Into How It Happened". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 December 2018. ...inspections of two prisons — Taconic Correctional Facility, a medium-security women's prison in Bedford Hills...
  5. ↑ "Report on Conditions of Confinement at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility" (.pdf). correctionalassociation.org. Women in Prison Project, Correctional Association of New York. August 2007. p. 11 (13 .pdf). Retrieved 22 December 2018. ... women incarcerated at Taconic Correctional Facility are permitted to participate in the Family Reunion Program and use the trailers at Bedford Hills, which is located across the road from Taconic.
  6. ↑ "2020 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Bedford Hills CDP, NY" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau . Retrieved 2022-08-22. Taconic Corr Facility
  7. ↑ "Under Custody Report 2019". NYS DOCCS.
  8. ↑ "ASCA Responses: Staff to Inmate Ratio Survey (June 2010)" (PDF). Prison Legal News. June 2010. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
  9. ↑ Sample, Jason (7 Oct 2011). "Katherine Bement Davis - Bicentennial Biography 195" . Retrieved 6 Mar 2022.
  10. ↑ "Taconic Correctional Facility: NYCHS Excerpts of DOCS | Today Facility Profile". www.correctionhistory.org. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  11. ↑ Savayan, Tania (30 Oct 2017). ""The Prison Cemetery at Taconic Correctional Facility"". lohud. Retrieved 6 Mar 2022.

41°14′N73°41′W / 41.24°N 73.68°W / 41.24; -73.68


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.