The Eastern Correctional Facility is a state

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

for men in Napanoch,

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

. Eastern is one of the oldest prison facilities in the state. It has been a maximum security prison for men since 1973.

History

The site opened as the "Eastern New York Reformatory". Its imposing main building, with medieval-style turrets and long green copper roof, was designed by architect

John Rochester Thomas John Rochester Thomas (June 18, 1848 – August 28, 1901) was an American architect credited in his time with being the nation's most prolific designer of public and semi-public buildings. His work was characterized by originality, moderation a ...

, who had also designed Elmira. The site was chosen partly for its easily available stone, and the transport provided by the adjacent

Delaware and Hudson Canal The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which would later build the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Between 1828 and 1899, the canal's barges carried anthracite coal from the mines of northeaster ...

; able-bodied adult prisoners were imported for construction labor. In 1906 the adult prisoners were returned, replaced with juvenile offenders, and the reformatory officially began operation. Years later it achieved its capacity of 500 beds. In 1921 Eastern became the first of the

institutions for defective delinquents Institutions for Defective Delinquents (IDDs) were created in the United States as a result of the eugenic criminology movement. The practices in these IDDs contain many traces of the eugenics that were first proposed by Sir Francis Galton in the ...

in the United States. At various times the facility was designated as the "Institute for Defective and Delinquent Men at Napanoch", "State Institution for Male Defective Delinquents", and the "Catskill Reformatory". The state's Ulster Correctional Facility was built on Eastern's grounds in 1990.

References

External links

description of the 1902 Ontario and Western Railway Station and Museum
Prisons in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Ulster County, New York 1900 establishments in New York (state) {{NewYork-struct-stub