AN OVERVIEW OF NYC DOC FACILITIES

The average daily inmate population of New York City Department of Correction (DOC) fluctuates between 13,000 and 18,000. This is more than the prison population of many state correctional systems. On a typical weekday, the Department logs more than 3,000 miles transporting inmates to courts in the five boroughs and to medical and other jail or prison facilities throughout the city and state.

Through sanitary landfill, the once 90-acre Rikers Island was enlarged to more than 400 acres. Its 10 major jails have a combined capacity of nearly 17,000 inmates. Among the Rikers facilities are a jail for sentenced males, another for sentenced and detainee females, and a detention center for adolescent males (ages 16 to 18). The seven other jails on the Island house adult male detainees. Other Island features include a bakery, central laundry, tailor shop, print shop, maintenance and transportation divisions, K-9 unit and a power plant. The Department also operates four borough facilities, 16 court detention facilities and three hospital prison wards.

The borough jails in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx - have a combined capacity of approximately 3,000 detainees facing or on trial. The court pens are located in the Criminal, Supreme and Family Court buildings in each borough. In Manhattan, an additional court pen is operated in the special Narcotics Court. These courthouse facilities hold inmates scheduled for the day’s proceedings. A portion of the West Facility on Rikers Island contains specialized housing units for inmates with tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.

Seriously ill inmates and those requiring intensive psychiatric observation are held in prison wards that the Department operates in Elmhurst General Hospital and Bellevue Hospital. The North Infirmary Command on Rikers Island houses detainees with less serious medical problems and persons with AIDS not requiring hospitalization, as well as high security inmates.

Opened in 1972, the facility houses -- in separate quarters -- adolescent male detainees (ages 16-18) and adult male detainees in modular dormitories, Sprung structures and cells. The jail was formally dedicated the Robert N. Davoren Center in May 2006  in honor of the former Chief of Department.

Originally opened in 1971 as the Correctional Institution for Women, the jail became a male detention center with the 1988 opening of the Rose M. Singer Center for women and was renamed in memory of a 17-year veteran Correction Officer fatally shot in the line of duty.

Built in 1964 and expanded in 1973, EMTC houses adolescent and adult male inmates sentenced to terms of one year or less. Most of its housing is dormitory style. Able-bodied sentenced inmates are required to work and provide Rikers Island with its grounds crews, facility maintenance and industrial labor force. The facility, previously designated the Correctional Institution for Men, was renamed on July 14, 2000, in honor of retired Chief of Department Eric M. Taylor.

Completed in 1978, and named for the DOC’s second female commissioner, AMKC houses male detainees in 40 housing areas spread over 40 acres. It includes a Methadone Detoxification Unit for detainees and DOC’s Mental Health Center established in 1962.

Opened in June 1988 as an 800-bed facility for female detainees and sentenced inmates. Subsequent additional modular housing has increased capacity to its present level. In 1985, the Department opened the nation’s first jail-based baby nursery at the old Correctional Institution for Women. The new jail features an expanded 25-bed baby nursery. It was named for an original member of the New York City Board of Correction set up by Mayor Robert F. Wagner in 1957. The board is the Department’s oversight agency.

Opened in June 1985, it was completed in less than 15 months using modern design and construction methods. OBCC has dormitory and cell housing and includes the Department’s 400-bed Central Punitive Segregation Unit. The jail was named for its second warden who was in command at the time of his death.

Opened in 1991 as an 850-bed facility for detainees, the facility was named after a deceased retired Chief of Department and Acting Commissioner. A 500-bed addition opened at GRVC in 1993.

Formerly the House of Detention for Men, this 1,200-bed, all-cell jail, was renamed in honor of the Department’s first African-American warden. Built in the early 1930s as Rikers Island’s first permanent jail, it originally was called the Rikers Island Penitentiary. In 1980, a Federal court order capped the jail’s capacity at 1,200. JATC is a maximum security single-cell facility for male detainees.

Opened in the fall of 1991, it was designed to be an 940-bed facility constructed of Sprung Structures- rigid aluminum framed structures covered by a heavy-duty plastic fabric. Part of the West Facility was converted into the Department’s Contagious Disease Unit (CDU) center in which 140 specially air-controlled housing units are reserved for male and female inmates with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis. With the exception of the CDU, West Facility is operationally off-line and in reserve status at present.

Consists of two infirmary buildings, one of them the original Rikers Island Hospital built in 1932. The facility has 153 beds for housing infirmary care inmates and 263 beds -- in specialized units -- for inmates who require extreme protective custody because of their notoriety or the nature of their cases, and for inmates with HIV and AIDS-related conditions.

Built on Atlantic Avenue in 1957, the single-cell jail can house 815 adult males, most undergoing the intake process or awaiting trial in Kings County (Brooklyn) and Richmond County (Staten Island) courts.

This lower Manhattan command consists of two buildings designated the North and South Towers, connected by a bridge. The North Tower was opened in 1990. The South Tower, formerly the Manhattan House of Detention, or the “Tombs,” was opened in 1983, after a complete remodeling. The complex houses male detainees, most of them undergoing the intake process or facing trial in New York County (Manhattan).

A five-story jail barge built in New Orleans to DOC specifications, the facility houses medium to maximum security inmates in 16 dormitories and 100 cells. Opened in the Fall of 1992, it is named for a well-liked warden who died in a car accident. It serves as the Bronx detention facility for intake processing.

Built in 1961, this jail houses male detainee inmates,  most of them undergoing the intake process or facing trial in Queens County.

The Department maintains secure facilities in two City hospitals:

Elmhurst Hospital Prison Ward, Queens-for female inmates requiring acute psychiatric care.

Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward, Manhattan-for male inmates requiring psychiatric or medical treatment.

Hart Island (off City Island, Bronx): The 101-acre island is the site of the City’s Potter’s Field. City-sentenced inmates transported to and from Rikers Island are assigned to work details clearing fields or burying the indigent at the City Cemetery that has been located on Hart Island since 1869.

The Transportation Division operates a fleet of 543 vehicles and is staffed by 438 uniformed and civilian employees.  Annually, the Division transports more than 2.5 million riders (inmates, staff, visitors).  Besides moving inmates to and from courts, the Division also transport inmates to/from hospitals as well as significant family events such as funerals and to state prisons.

The Correction Academy traces its roots to the Department’s Prison Keepers School begun in 1927, the first in the nation. Currently located in Rentar Plaza at 66-26 Metropolitan Ave., Middle Village, it provides both in-service and pre-service training to uniformed and civilian staffers in such subjects as security, investigations, fire response, use of force, interpersonal communication, health matters, substance abuse, first aid, sign language, chemical agents, and human relations skills.