The Original Tombs Prison, Lower Manhattan. 1896
The word infrastructure usually conjures up images of roads, highways, bridges and mass transit. One thing that Kate Ascher taught me is that the really interesting stuff is what you don’t see. The idea for her captivating book, The Works, came while observing the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks. All of a sudden the mechanisms that made New York work were exposed to the surface: steam pipes, sewage systems, telecommunication cables, stormwater management and more. The more she dug, the more interesting it got. Mail used to be sent in underground pneumatic tubes! Do those crosswalk buttons work? Answer: only 25% of the time!
Today’s post is about prisons, something that the average city dweller doesn’t think about. But what is fascinating is that many of New York’s prisons are right in our midst – we walk and drive by them without noticing. Prisons used to be organized along district lines, particularly before the 1898 consolidation of the five boroughs. They were attached to or near the courts and were little more than holding cells. These included the famous Tombs (still in use), the Jefferson Market Prison in the West Village (now the landmarked Jefferson Market Library), the Essex Market Prison in the East Village, the Yorkville Prison at 57th and Lexington, the West Side Prison at 53rd and 8th Avenue, the Fordham Prison and the Harlem Prison. The average daily inmate population of the New York City Department of Corrections fluctuates between 13000 and 18000, more than the prison populations of many states.
Today, there are 7 city prisons, 6 state prisons, and 2 federal prisons in New York City. Find a prison near you!
Manhattan
Manhattan Detention Complex (MDC) 125 White Street, Lower Manhattan: City jail commonly known as “The Tombs,” houses detained male adults. The original design was based on an engraving of an ancient Egyptian mausoleum, and this facility has been torn down and rebuilt three times.
New cage being built on the Bayview Correctional Facility in 2008, as Nouvel's luxury condo goes up next door (Source: Curbed)
Bayview Correctional Facility 550 W. 20th St: Medium security women’s state prison across from Chelsea Piers and next to a luxury condo by architect Jean Nouvel.
Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) 150 Park Row: Federal prison, housing those appearing before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Famous inmates: Bernie Madoff, John Gotti, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who has declared that the United States will “certainly kill me in” jail.
Lincoln Correctional Facility 31 W 110th St.: State prison
Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward (BHPW) 462 1st Avenue at 26th St: City prison, houses males requiring psychiatric or medical treatment.
Edgecombe Correctional Facility 611 Edgecombe Avenue, Harlem: State prison
Queens
Rikers Island Aerial View (Source: Flickr User FTO170)
Rikers Island: New York City’s main jail complex, in the East River between Queens and the Bronx. It technically belongs to the borough of the Bronx, but is part of Queens Community Board 1 and has a Queens zip code. Comprised of 10 jails, its total capacity is nearly 17,000.
Queensborough Correctional Facility 4704 Van Dam St., Long Island City: State prison.
Elmhurst Hospital Prison Ward (EHPW) 79-01 Broadway: City prison, houses females requiring acute psychiatric care.
Queens Detention Complex (QDC) 126-01 82nd Street, Kew Gardens: City prison.
Bronx
Fulton Correctional Facility 1511 Fulton Avenue: State Prison.
Entrance to the Vernon C. Bain Center, the floating barge prison
Vernon C. Bain Center (VCBC) 1 Halleck Street, Hunts Point: 5-story floating city prison barge, houses detained male adults
Brooklyn
Metropolitan Detention Center 100 29th St. Sunset Park: Federal Bureau of Prisons with a nice view of the waterfront and the Statue of Liberty. Someone from a local Sunset Park community organization has cited that despite initial protesting over the prison location in their neighborhood, some residents are finding it very convenient to visit their incarcerated relatives.
Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park on the right, between the waterfront and the Gowanus Expressway (Photos by Michelle Young)
Brooklyn Detention Complex (BKDC) 275 Atlantic Avenue: City prison, nestled between a police building and a shopping center. In the end of a political power struggle, soon to be ex-city comptroller Bill Thompson finally approved a $34 million renovation/expansion plan for the prison, supposedly cutting a deal with City Hall to drop a lawsuit against him in return for his cooperation.
Brooklyn House of Detention (Source: Brownstoner)
Staten Island
Arthur Kill Correctional Facility (Source: Emilio Guerra)
Arthur Kill Correctional Facility 2911 Arthur Kill Road: State Prison, formerly a drug rehabilitation center, featured in the film Tenderness with Russell Crowe and Laura Dern.
Just in case I get arraigned on taking pictures of prisons, here is Section 51.16(b) of the New York State Codes, Rules and Regulations: “Photographs of facilities will be allowed, providing no identifiable inmate is shown in any of the photographs.”
For more detailed history on NYC prisons, check out this brief written by NY Correction History Society general secretary.
[...] This post was Twitted by untappednewyork [...]
As Hawthorne wrote, a prison is the “black flower of a civilized society” — an inevitable and necessary weed growing through the crevices of our social order.
I think that contemplating the idea of a prison shows that the sculptural aspect of architecture cannot be divorced from the functional; that aesthetic value derives from the purpose of a building. A building is not beautiful if you cannot leave it.
thank you alex! i had been trying to figure out how to connect the idea of prisons to architecture and planning, as this is probably one of the most factual posts i’ve written. you make an excellent point – the only building i could think of that could possibly be beautiful while being a place of incarceration is the fictional rapunzel’s castle, but it’s because we always visualize it from the perspective of the prince!
I used to walk past the Lincoln Correctional Facility almost every day when I lived in East Harlem. It’s surprisingly inconspicuous – I didn’t even realize at first that it was a prison. It looks like a typical Beaux-Arts apartment building, blending in with the others that line Central Park along 110th St. The only telltale signs are the blacked-out windows, a battery of security cameras, and an ominous metal cage perched above the cornice.
What surprised me the most about this prison is its park-front location. This real estate might not have been very desirable in the ’70s when the city acquired this property and converted it into a pen. But the new luxury tower half a block away, at the corner of 110th and Lenox, speaks to changing times. I’m sure the inmates’ views from the top are just as spectacular — except for that cage!
I found some photos here:
http://harlemhybrid.blogspot.com/search/label/Lincoln%20Correctional%20Facility
thanks david! i think odd juxtapositions are what makes new york city so endlessly fascinating. robert venturi talks about that in his 1966 book complexity and contradiction in architecture, saying that most of the interesting juxtapositions have come from pure accident (trinity church amidst wall street, for example) but that urban planners should think about that when planning. he made sure to always connect his theories on architecture to the cityscape, predicting that urban planning was going to be come more and more relevant.
Good points, I think I will definitely subscribe! I’ll go and read some more! What do you see the future of this being?
I really liked reading your post!. Quality content.
[...] missed this first one when it was new, but here’s a tour of prisons in all 5 boroughs. Follow it up with a tour of public restrooms. I’d like to dedicate the first link to [...]