With so many people traveling yesterday and the weekend behind us, I thought it would make an interesting story to learn more about the Great Meadow Correctional facility in Comstock, which you can see from Route 4.
Great Meadow is an all male, maximum security, NY state prison. As of September 3, 2008 it was home to 1,663 inmates. When Great Meadow opened in 1911 it was the fourth prison for adult males constructed in the state of New York. The postcard below dates from the 1950’s.
Until the Great Meadows Correctional facility was built, New York prisons had been named after the places where they were built. No one knows how Great Meadow got its name, but it may have been named after the huge plot of land that the prison sits on.
In 1924 construction of a 3,000-foot wall was begun by the inmates. Four years later, they successfully finished walling themselves in. The wall encloses just over twenty-one acres. With the completion of this wall, Great Meadow became a maximum-security facility.
The wall has a moat/pond on one side and dense forest on the other, so if someone gets over or under the wall, it’s no easy escape into the surrounding area. The courtyard is always lit and guards always man the watchtowers.
Some other facts about life inside include:
Visitors go through the main doors with the flags in front. You will be buzzed through another door into the waiting area. You fill out the usual paperwork and present your id. If it is your first visit to a NYS prison, you will have to fill out a personal info sheet. You then take a seat in the room. The room has restrooms and its own vending machines. From there you will be allowed to enter.
There are two industries at Great Meadow. Metal Furniture Manufacturing, where office furniture, beds and security screens are manufactured. The other is Cleaning and Personal Care Products Manufacturing.
All prisoners there are felons, and most are serving sentences for violent crimes.
A prisoner can buy a small black-and-white television from the prison commissary and then pay for a very basic cable television connection. They can only listen to music through headphones.
The inmates can have 2 visitors on weekends at once – 4 per inmate during the week.
There are 717 employees and the cost of care is approximately $56.89 per day
Inmates spend a good portion of their day in a 5-foot-by-8-foot cell. Some are double-bunked, two to a cell.
Prisoners are given permission to go to work, school or the infirmary. As they move from cell block to cell block or pass the central rotunda, they flash their passes to show they can be out of their cells.
Correction officers only carry weapons in very extreme cases, and for the most part are unarmed.
Cameras and personal items are not allowed inside so you won’t see any pictures of inside the prison.
While NY has the death penalty there has not been an execution since 1976. There is currently a court ordered moratorium in effect. Many of the prisoners are serving life sentences there.
It certainly is the type of place that you’d see in the movies, except it’s a lot more ominous in person.
