Green Haven Correctional Facility is a

maximum security Maximum Security may refer to: * Supermax, "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons * Maximum Security (comics), a comic book miniseries published by Marvel Comics * ''Maximum Security'' (Tony MacAlpine album), 1987 * ''Maximum Security'' ...

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 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The prison is located in the Town of Beekman in

Dutchess County Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later organ ...

. The

New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

lists the address as Route 216, Stormville, NY 12582. This prison housed New York's

execution chamber An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which capital punishment is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death ro ...

during the time the state briefly had the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

(but never used it) in the post-'' Furman'' era. It was originally a federal prison and now houses maximum security inmates. Green Haven Correctional Facility also operated a Hot

Kosher Foods Kosher foods are foods that conform to the Jewish dietary regulations of ''kashrut'' (dietary law). The laws of ''kashrut'' apply to food derived from living creatures and kosher foods are restricted to certain types of mammals, birds and fish m ...

Program; but no longer does as of 2020. However, because of this, the prison had a large Jewish population.

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

operates the Green Haven Prison Project, a series of seminars among Yale law students and Green Haven inmates on law and policy issues concerning prisons and criminal law.

Notable inmates

Andre Rand Andre Rand (born Frank Rostum Rushan; March 11, 1944, also referred to in the media as "The Pied Piper of Staten Island") is an American convicted kidnapper of two children and suspected serial killer, currently serving two twenty-five years to lif ...

, Thought to be the notorious madman “Cropsy” in Staten Island N.Y. He was convicted of the kidnapping of 12-year old Jennifer Schweiger in 1987 and the kidnapping of Holly Ann Hughes (a case 23 years old) in 2004. *

Charles Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumenta ...

, known as Lucky Luciano, founded the modern

Cosa Nostra The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...

. He spent a brief period here in 1936 before his deportation to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. *

Arthur Shawcross Arthur John Shawcross (June 6, 1945 – November 10, 2008), also known as the Genesee River Killer, was an American serial killer active in Rochester, New York from 1972 through 1989. Shawcross's first known murders took place in his hometown ...

, an American serial killer who served 15 years in Green Haven from 1972 to 1987. *

Ronald DeFeo Jr. Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. (September 26, 1951 – March 12, 2021) was an American mass murderer who was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters in Amityville, Long Island, New York. Conde ...

, tried and convicted of killing his parents and four siblings at their home in

Amityville, New York Amityville () is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village, village near the Babylon (town), New York, Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, on the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island, in New Yo ...

. The case inspired

Jay Anson ''The Amityville Horror'' is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, b ...

's novel ''

The Amityville Horror ''The Amityville Horror'' is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, b ...

''. *

James McBratney James McBratney (November 17, 1941 – May 22, 1973) was an Irish American gangster, believed to have been involved in the 1972 kidnappings of Emanuel "Manny" Gambino (nephew of Carlo Gambino) and Lucchese crime family caporegime Francesco ...

, a convicted

bank robber Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank Branch (banking), branch or Bank teller, tell ...

kidnapped

Emanuel Gambino Emanuel may refer to: * Emanuel (name), a given name and surname (see there for a list of people with this name) * Emanuel School, Australia, Sydney, Australia * Emanuel School, Battersea, London, England * Emanuel (band), a five-piece rock band fr ...

, the son of

Thomas Gambino Thomas Francis Gambino (; born August 23, 1929) is an Italian-American New York City mobster and a longtime caporegime of the Gambino crime family who successfully controlled lucrative trucking rackets in the New York City Garment District. He ...

and nephew of

Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...

patriarch

Carlo Gambino Carlo Gambino (; August 24, 1902 – October 15, 1976) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Gambino crime family. After the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission o ...

and murdered by

John Gotti John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 (, ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American gangster and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss ...

Angelo Ruggiero Angelo "Quack Quack" Ruggiero Sr. (; July 29, 1940 – December 4, 1989) was a member of the Gambino crime family and a friend of John Gotti's. Once Gotti became leader of the family he made Ruggiero a caporegime. Although he showed little orga ...

and Ralph Galione in a highly publicized mob execution. *

Robert Golub The murder of Kelly Ann Tinyes /TIN-uhs/ occurred on March 3, 1989. Tinyes was a thirteen-year-old Valley Stream, New York resident who was strangled, stabbed, and mutilated. Her body was discovered in the basement of her neighbor, twenty-one-yea ...

, convicted for the murder of 13-year-old Kelly Anne Tinyes, who lived five doors away from his home. She was killed inside his home in Valley Stream, New York, on March 3, 1989. On March 3, 2009, this case was reopened. *

John Giuca The murder of Mark S. Fisher occurred in the early morning hours of October 12, 2003. The college student was brutally beaten, shot five times, and left on Argyle Road in Prospect Park South, Brooklyn. He was 19 years old. On October 19th, 2005 ...

, whose trial has been the subject of intense media attention following his mother's undercover operation to expose

juror misconduct Juror misconduct is when the law of the court is violated by a member of the jury while a court case is in progression or after it has reached a verdict."USLegal Definitions" Misconduct can take several forms: * Communication by the jury with tho ...

. *

, (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American

mobster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

who became the

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

of the Gambino

crime family A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime and especially in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activit ...

in New York City. Gotti and his brothers grew up in poverty and turned to a life of crime at an early age. Operating out of the Ozone Park neighborhood of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, Gotti quickly rose to prominence, becoming one of the crime family's biggest earners and a protégé of Gambino family

underboss Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The underbo ...

Aniello Dellacroce Aniello John "Neil" Dellacroce (March 15, 1914 – December 2, 1985) was an American mobster and underboss of the Gambino crime family. He rose to the position of underboss when Carlo Gambino moved Joseph Biondo aside. Dellacroce was a mentor to ...

. *

Nicky Barnes Leroy Nicholas Barnes (October 15, 1933 – June 18, 2012) was an American crime boss, active in New York City during the 1970s. In 1972, Barnes formed The Council, a seven-man African-American organized crime syndicate that controlled a signi ...

is an American former criminal

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly ...

and

crime boss A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, Don, gang lord, gang boss, mob boss, kingpin, godfather, crime mentor or criminal mastermind, is a person in charge of a criminal organization. Description A crime boss typically has absolute or nearl ...

. *

Joey Gallo Joseph Nicholas Gallo (born November 19, 1993) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Do ...

(April 7, 1929 – April 7, 1972), also known as "Crazy Joe" and "Joe the Blond", was a celebrated

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

gangster for the

Profaci crime family The Colombo crime family (, ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and is the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was duri ...

, later known as the

Colombo crime family The Colombo crime family (, ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and is the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was du ...

. Gallo initiated one of the bloodiest mob conflicts since the 1931

Castellammarese War The Castellammarese War () was a bloody power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia that took place in New York City, New York, from February 1930 until April 15, 1931, between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salv ...

and was murdered as a result of it. *

Daniel Genis Daniel Genis (born August 2, 1978) is a Russian-American Journalist, Writer, and media person. Early life and career Daniel Genis was born in New York City to Alexander and Irina Genis, only a few months after their emigration from the Sovie ...

, journalist and writer, spent three years in Green Haven and often writes about it. *

Willie Sutton William Francis Sutton Jr. (June 30, 1901 – November 2, 1980) was an American bank robber. During his forty-year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escape ...

Bank robber who escaped from this prison in the 1940s *

Mark David Chapman Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955) is an American man who murdered former Beatles member John Lennon in New York City on December 8, 1980. As Lennon walked into the archway of his apartment building at The Dakota, Chapman shot Lennon from a ...

, the man who murdered John Lennon in 1980. Chapman was transferred from

Wende Correctional Facility 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 an Erie County jail, and was sold to ...

to Green Haven in 2022. *

Waldo Grant Waldo Grant (born November 3, 1946) is an American serial killer who murdered four young gay men in New York City between 1973 and 1976. He later confessed to the killings after being questioned by police about his fourth murder, and was subsequ ...

, a serial killer who murdered four gay men in Manhattan between 1973 and 1976.

Correction officer deaths

There have been at least two deaths of correction officers in the line of duty. The first was of

Donna Payant Donna Payant née Collins (March 22, 1950 – May 15, 1981) was a New York state corrections officer who was murdered while on duty at Green Haven Correctional Facility. She was one of 50 women serving as a Correction Officer at Green Haven Cor ...

on May 15, 1981, who disappeared while working at the prison. Her body was later found in a garbage dump 20 miles away, sexually violated and strangled, similar to the bodies of victims of serial killer

Lemuel Smith Lemuel Warren Smith (born July 23, 1941), is an American convicted serial killer who was the first convict to kill an on-duty female corrections officer. Smith was already in prison for the murders of at least five people when he murdered prison ...

, an inmate at the prison. A bite mark on Payant's chest also matched Smith's tooth pattern. It was determined that Smith had sexually assaulted and strangled Payant in the prison chaplain's office before putting her body in a trash bag and throwing it out with the trash. On January 31, 2007, a correction officer in Tower One was found dead due to an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Fire and police were dispatched around 10:30 p.m., when they found the hatch to the ladder blocked, they used a Beekman Fire Department ladder truck to break in and get access. The tower was closed for investigation, and the death was deemed a

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

Previous death house facility

In the early 1970's, New York's electric chair "

Old Sparky Old Sparky is the nickname of the electric chairs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Old Smokey was the nickname of the electric ...

" was moved here from

Sing Sing Correctional Facility Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...

. Capital punishment was reinstated in New York in 1995 when Governor George Pataki signed a new statute into law, which provided for

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

. On June 24, 2004, in the case ''

People v. LaValle ''People v. LaValle'', 3 N.Y.3d 88 (2004), was a landmark decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the U.S. state of New York, in which the court ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because of ...

'', the

New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...

struck down the statute as unconstitutional under the

New York Constitution The Constitution of the State of New York establishes the structure of the government of the State of New York, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of New York. Like most state constitutions in the United States, New York's constituti ...

(at the time, only two individuals were under a sentence of death). Although seven individuals were sentenced to death, no one was executed, and the Court of Appeals later commuted the sentence of the final individual under a sentence of death in New York on October 23, 2007, in the case ''People v. John Taylor''. In July 2008,

Governor David Paterson David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...

issued an executive order requiring the disestablishment of death row and the closure of the state's execution chamber at Green Haven Correctional Facility.

Inmate resources and services

Inmates at Green Haven Correctional Facility can get jobs through the NYSDOCCS Correctional industries. The jobs they can receive are, working in an upholstery shop as well as furniture manufacturing. Inmates incarcerated at this facility can also receive vocational training such as, barbering, building maintenance, computer information and technology, computer operator, computer repair, custodial maintenance, electrical, painting and decorating, printing and finally, small engine repair. Inmates may also earn GEDs or college education. Prisoners will also receive counseling as well as drug and alcohol treatment.

Successes

The

Alternatives to Violence Project The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is a volunteer-run conflict transformation program. Teams of trained AVP facilitators conduct experiential workshops to develop participants' abilities to resolve conflicts without resorting to Psychologi ...

was conceived at the prison in 1975 as a workshop.

Bard Prison Initiative

The

Bard Prison Initiative The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) is a program of Bard College that provides college education to people in prison. Currently operating in six prisons across New York State, BPI's academic programs engage students in the full breadth of liberal stud ...

, which seeks to reduce rates of recidivism and offer prisoners college education and tutoring, operates at multiple prisons including Green Haven.

In the media

Inmates and correctional officers at Green Haven were featured in the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

Frontline Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield. Front line, front lines or variants may also refer to: Books and publications * ''Front Lines'' (novel), young adult historical novel by American author Michael Grant * ''Frontlines ...

'' program '' A Class Divided''.''A Class Divided''
transcript The Facility is made reference to in the film ''

Carlito's Way ''Carlito's Way'' is a 1993 American crime drama film directed by Brian De Palma, based on the novels ''Carlito's Way'' (1975) and '' After Hours'' (1979) by Judge Edwin Torres. The film adaptation was scripted by David Koepp. It stars Al Pacin ...

''. It is also featured in the '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''

season 17 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...

episode "Nationwide Manhunt" which features an elaborate prison break.

References

External links

PrisonPro.com: Green Haven Correctional Facility
{{Authority control 1949 establishments in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Dutchess County, New York Capital punishment in New York (state) Execution sites in the United States Law enforcement in New York (state) Prisons in New York (state)