Downstate Correctional Facility
Downstate Correctional Facility was a maximum-security prison in the Town of Fishkill in the Hudson Valley region of New York. Downstate is a maximum-security prison located along the north side (i.e. westbound) of Interstate 84. Downstate serves primarily as a classification center, as it is, along with Elmira Correctional Facility and Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (women), a reception facility for new inmates entering the New York State prison system. New inmates typically wait at Downstate for a few weeks before they are assigned to a permanent facility. The "permanent" prisoners—those who work in the  kitchens, laundry, etc., which those in transit cannot do—are referred to as the "cadre" and are all maximum-security prisoners (sentenced to seven years or more). As the vast majority of inmates in New York State come from New York City, the Town of Fishkill (in southern Dutchess County) was chosen as prison site due to its proximity to the greater New York metropolitan area. It opened in 1979. Cells in Downstate are organized into four wings around a large and exactly square room called The Square, which is the junction point for the four wings and contains  a staffed waiting room. Services such as Reception, Clothes, Pharmacy, Medical, with secure waiting area, and high-security beds, Commisary, Chapel, Mail, Packages, Visiting, and Cafeteria were centrally located, but there are small libraries in the wings. There is a softball field outside the prison building, used mainly by the cadre. Recreation can be an hour in a room with twenty other inmates and a television. Like all New York State prisons, there is a professional librarian, who supervises cadre workers at two locations, and a part-time rabbi. As with all maximum security prisons in New York State, inmate  movement is scheduled and tightly controlled. An inmate who needs to go to Medical has to be escorted by an officer. Shower opportunities are scheduled. Library visits are short, scheduled, and in groups. There are dropboxes in the wings where prisoners being moved out of the facility, as most soon are, can deposit library books they have checked out. Downstate is right across Interstate 84 from the state's former psychiatric hospital and since 1976 medium security Fishkill Correctional Facility. History. In 2016 Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, criminally charged three correctional officers  at Downstate with beating an inmate, and two other officers with filing false reports. On March 10, 2022, Downstate Correctional Facility was closed. Staff and inmates were transferred to other facilities within the system. The state estimated that the closure would result in a savings of $142 million.