Taconic Correctional Facility is a medium/minimum security
women's prison
This article discusses the incarceration of women in correctional facilities. As of 2013 across the world, 625,000 women and children were being held in penal institutions, and the female prison population was increasing in all continents. in
Bedford, New York operated by the
New York State DOCCS. Although the prison has a maximum 387-person capacity, the incarcerated population was under 170 as of November, 2021.
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
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women a women's prison in the town of Bedford, New York, is the largest women's prison in New York state. The prison previously opened under the name Westfield State Farm in 1901. It lies just outside ...
, a New York State maximum security women's prison. Despite having a
Bedford Hills postal address, the prison lies just outside of the Bedford Hills
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...
. 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
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
bus system serves the area.
Incarcerated population
Taconic is a designated
women's prison
This article discusses the incarceration of women in correctional facilities. As of 2013 across the world, 625,000 women and children were being held in penal institutions, and the female prison population was increasing in all continents. with about 170 people incarcerated in 2021, ranging from 20 to 74 years old.
Despite the designation as a women's prison, there are also
nonbinary
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typicall ...
and
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
men incarcerated there.
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.
As of 2021, there were more staff at Taconic than people incarcerated
, with at least 218 staff members in 2021.
This is highly unusual nationwide; New York State's ratio of
prison guards
A prison officer or corrections officer is a uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation of prisoners. They are responsible for the care, custody, and control of individuals who have been ...
to incarcerated people was lowest among all fifty states in 2010.
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
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
.
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.
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.
See also
*
References
External links
NY State Dept. Of Corrections - Facility Listing13 photographs of the New York State Reformatory for Women, c.1901 - Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Prisons in New York (state)
Women's prisons in New York (state)
New York (state)
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
Buildings and structures in Westchester County, New York
1973 establishments in New York (state)
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