Listed are excerpt presentations of Facility Profiles from on-line PDF format 2003 issues of DOCS|TODAY, the monthly publication prepared by DOCS' Office of Public Information, Room 203, Building Number Two, 1220 Washington Ave., Albany, N.Y. 12226-2050. Above is a reduced rendition of the cover of the January, 2003 issue showing State Correctional Services Commissioner Glenn Goord congratulating Sing Sing CO Erec B. Burgess on earning the 2002 International Association of Correctional Officers "Correction Officer of the Year Award." NYCHS gratefully acknowledges and appreciates DOCS permission to post these excerpts from the articles. All rights to the text and images remain with DOCS. NYS Correctional Facility Profiles: 2004 Click underlined article titles below to access their NYCHS excerpt presentations. Quensboro - Meeting many missions. DOCS|TODAY January 2004 Proud of an identity all its own Queensboro first opened in 1975 as a medium-security prison in Long Island City in the Borough of Queens. Over the years, the Gotham facility has been transformed several times to address a variety of missions. After meeting those Departmental needs, it is once again a general confinement facility – for now, at least. TO QUEENSBORO PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 5 IMAGES >>>   NYS Correctional Facility Profiles: 2003 Click underlined article titles below to access their NYCHS excerpt presentations. Wyoming - Proud of an identity all its own DOCS|TODAY June 2003 Proud of an identity all its own Officers staffing Attica’s towers are so close that they overlook this medium-security prison in western New York, one of the dozen “cookie cutter” prisons of identical design to be stamped out in the 1980-90’s to accommodate a burgeoning prison population. Opened in 1984 with a capacity for 550 inmates, it was repeatedly asked to expand to today’s 1,722 inmates in order to meet demand – representing only one of the challenges being met by facility staff. TO WYOMING PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 5 IMAGES >>>   Taconic - Taking on a life of its own DOCS|TODAY May 2003 Nestled in the affluent Westchester County community of Bedford Hills, Taconic has been assigned several varied but intertwined missions over the past century. Its roots date back to 1901 when it opened as the New York State Reformatory for Women between the ages of 15 and 30. In 1913, the Bureau of Social Hygiene established a laboratory next door, which evaluated reformatory residents for the investigation and treatment of what was then termed “feeblemindedness.” The then-Department of Correction took over the reformatory in 1926 and, in 1933, merged it with the newly-opened Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women. TO TACONIC PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 6 IMAGES >>>   Upstate - New concept in disciplinary housing DOCS|TODAY April 2003 In March of 1998, construction began on one of the most technologically advanced prisons in New York state. Appropriately called Upstate – this massive maximum-security prison in the town of Malone is a mere 10-minute drive from the Canadian border – the facility is unique among the system’s 70 prisons. Upstate has the capacity to house 1,500 inmates, 1,200 of whom are in disciplinary lookdown for 24 hours a day with the exception of one hour of court-mandated exercise, in 750 double-occupancy cells. TO UPSTATE PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 6 IMAGES >>>   Orleans - Inmate population reflects ‘right-sizing’ DOCS|TODAY March 2003 Built on a sprawling tract of 45 acres of land adjacent to the Albion prison for females near the Erie Canal in Albion, Orleans was opened as a 542-bed medium-security facility for male inmates in December 1984. Prior to the opening, a staff of five civilian employees reported to work at Albion to be paid out of a payroll labeled “Albion II.” Eventually they set up shop in a large warehouse in nearby Medina where they ordered supplies and equipment, receipting the inventory and ensuring that the facility would be ready to receive its first scheduled draft of inmates. Of these original five employees, one, John Gurney, continues to work in the Maintenance Department. Orleans currently has about 480 employees, about 75 of whom have been there since the facility opened. Talk about stability over the decades ... TO ORLEANS PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 7 IMAGES >>>   Wende - Multi-purpose facility DOCS|TODAY February 2003 Wende has been a maximum-security state prison for just 20 years. But this tract in western New York has penal roots that began growing before the Great Depression. Located in the town of Alden in Erie County, Wende was built on land originally purchased from the Holland Land Company by the locally-prominent Otto Wende family. The land was later donated to Erie County as a public park, later abandoned. The land was later operated as a farm to feed inmates in the Erie County Penitentiary on the west side of Buffalo. From those seeds sprouted the Erie County Penitentiary, precursor of today’s Wende prison. TO WENDE PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 7 IMAGES >>>   Collins - Myriad of innovative programs DOCS|TODAY January 2003 Situated on the grounds of the former Gowanda Psychiatric Center, which opened in 1898, Collins is located in an area of New York that is rich with long-time and diverse historical roots. This is an area where, many years ago, Indians roamed the terrain, as did Quakers looking to make a better life for themselves and others. But despite its pristine beginnings, it has its dark side; many are convinced spirits, former residents of the psychiatric center, are about. It is that kind of intriguing lore that continually drives Collins employees and other local residents to learn more about the place they call home. TO COLLINS PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 4 IMAGES >>>

NYS Correctional Facility Profiles: 2002 Click underlined article titles below to access their NYCHS excerpt presentations. Otisville - Offering rehab in Mount Hope DOCS|TODAY May 2002 A tuberculosis sanitarium, a training school for boys, a drug abuse treatment center and, for the past 26 years, a New York state correctional facility. Those are the many and varied faces of Otisville, a sprawling and mountainous 1,300-acre complex which eerily looks like it has been purposely carved into the side of a massive mountain in the small, rural town of Mount Hope in Orange County. TO OTISVILLE PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 5 IMAGES >>>

NYS Correctional Facility Profiles: 2001 Click underlined article titles below to access their NYCHS excerpt presentations. Mid-Orange - Aging facility, modern philosophy DOCS|TODAY August 2001 Mid-Orange, a medium-security prison housing 750 adult males, occupies 740 rolling country acres in the foothills of the picturesque Ramapo Mountains in southern Orange County, about 60 miles northwest of New York City. The property includes frontage on Wickham Lake, where employees often picnic. Laid out among bucolic wetland tracts and woods are more than 60 buildings. TO MID-ORANGE PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 5 IMAGES >>>

Listed are shortened but fully illustrated versions of Facility Profiles that first appeared in 1998 and 1999 issues of DOCS|TODAY, the monthly publication prepared by DOCS' Office of Public Information, Room 203, Building Number Two, 1220 Washington Ave., Albany, N.Y. 12226-2050. Above is a reduced rendition of the cover of the December, 1998 issue showing State Correctional Services Commissioner Glenn Goord presenting a Medal of Honor to Mohawk CO Joseph Griffith. NYCHS gratefully acknowledges and appreciates DOCS permission to post these excerpts from the articles. All rights to the text and images remain with DOCS. NYS Correctional Facility Profiles 1998/9 Albion - "To give (women) moral and religious training" DOCS TODAY September 1998 When Albion opened 105 years ago, its inmates dressed like ladies and were trained for service in the homes of real ladies. Today, they wear welder's helmets and work with steel in an industrial production shop. TO ALBION PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 3 IMAGES >>>   Elmira  - "Nation's first reformatory" DOCS TODAY October 1998When New York's Elmira Reformatory opened in 1876, it rejected 19th century penology's holy trinity of silence, obedience and labor. Elmira's goal would be reform of the convict, and its methods would be psychological rather than physical. TO ELMIRA PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 4 IMAGES >>>   Fishkill   - From madhouse to modern correctional facility DOCS TODAY December 1998For 80 years, Matteawan State Hospital was one of the nation's most famous institutions for the "furiously mad." It began to phase out in the 1960s when the courts restricted the state's power to imprison the mentally ill. . . . Finally, at the end of the 1970s, Fishkill emerged from the confusion. TO FISHKILL PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 2 IMAGES >>>   Clinton  - New York's "Little Siberia" DOCS TODAY January 1999 Clinton is the largest and third oldest of the state's 70 facilities. It opened 153 years ago in frontier wilderness as a mining prison. But it would become the site of some of the most creative programming offered within the Department of Correctional Services. TO CLINTON PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 5 IMAGES >>>   Wallkill  - Prison without a wall DOCS TODAY March 1999 The Roaring 'Twenties ended with a bang in 1929. The zany Jazz Age, with its flappers and bootleg booze, showed its underside -- Scarface Al Capone and a "crime wave." The stock market crashed. Suddenly impoverished speculators leaped to their deaths from skyscraper windows, while a series of prison riots, including three in New York state, swept the nation. From the market crash came the Great Depression. From the rubble of the riots came a new type of prison, unguarded by a wall or even a fence. TO WALLKILL PROFILE EXCERPTS PAGE WITH 4 IMAGES >>>

To NYCHS Home Page

To Bio Notes on DOCS Commissioners

To DOCS In Memoriam Listings

To Auburn&Osbsorne special section

To NYS DOCS|TODAY