Cape Vincent Correctional Facility

"I'm not used to seeing this much land without a jail on it." So mused New York City Correction Commissioner Richard J. Koehler as he took in the breathtaking vastness of upstate New York's scenery. It was a late summer day in 1988, and Koehler had just stepped off a plane at the small Watertown International Airport. With 60 shacked men in tow, he now boarded a bus for Cape Vincent, where a new prison had just been built. The 60 men would be the first inmates to pass through the gates of the Cape Vincent Correctional Facility.

Today, Cape Vincent is a standard medium-security facility in the New York state system. But 11 years ago, it was anything but standard. Though staffed by DOCS personnel, Cape Vincent was not even part of the state system. It opened as a local jail - "local" at a distance of nearly 300 miles - whose inmates were sentenced to short terms in the custody of the New York City Department of Corrections.

In search of alternate correctional facilities

The city, like the state, was experiencing a prisoner population boom. Its plan to erect a string of detention centers on Staten Island and the other boroughs had been scrapped in a concession to community feelings. Instead, construction was underway on another 800-bed facility on Rikers Island, the city's giant correctional complex on the East River. Where would the prisoners be put in the meantime? Almost 400 prisoners were housed on the Bibby Venture, a barge docked in Manhattan down-river from Rikers. But this was merely a band-aid and, before long, the barge also would be sunk by citizens' safety concerns.

Local opposition is only one of the problems in siting a correctional facility in a major metropolitan area. Suitable acreage is hard to flnd, and real estate and construction costs are high. So why not follow the example of the state, and try a rural site? For years, the state had been building prisons in northern New York. The upstate region did not present NIMBY ("not in my backyard") difficulties. The smooth and incident-free operation of new facilities in Ogdensburg and elsewhere had satisfactorily answered residents' questions about safety. Besides, upstaters needed jobs and tended to welcome new prisons; in fact, they went so far as to lobby for them as "clean industry." The city approached the state in 1987. At the time, DOCS was at-ready looking at properties in Jefferson County near Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway. An agreement was reached providing that the Department would build two prisons. One would be in Cape Vincent and the second, Riverview, would be constructed in Ogdensburg. DOCS would lease these facilities to the city corrections department for up to 10 years. Legislation was enacted to permit the operation of "alternate correctional facilities." The city would pay building and operating costs, and the state would provide the personnel.

State-city cooperation in housing prisoners was not a new idea. Before Albion and Bedford Hills opened in 1893 and 1901, respectively, the state routinely farmed its' women prisoners to the city at per annum rates. Then, starting in 1969, excess city inmates were housed in sections of Clinton and Bedford, and the city occupied all of Eastern from 1970 to 1973.

Air Rikers

Cape Vincent opened August 30, 1988; Riverview opened a week later. Each would hold 742 men, legally in the custody of the city corrections department, serving misdemeanor jail sentences of one year or less.

The only drawback to the arrangement was the distance. The upstate prisons were almost 300 miles from Rikers Island. To transport inmates, the city chartered Emerald Air DC-9's for about $2 million a year, cheaper by about $150,000 than buses. Family and friends did not have access to "Air Rikers," as officers and inmates called the travel arrangement, and faced an 18-hour round-trip to visit. This was a hardship, to be sure, but it was of short duration for the city inmates: a few months, as compared to years for state-sentenced inmates.

The large Rikers jets were something new for the Watertown airport, which chiefly served small commuter planes. Cape Vincent offered firsts to the inmates, as well. For many, it was their first airplane flight and the farthest they had ever been from home. Surprisingly to state officials, it was also the first time most of these men had been in a state prison. Only eight percent had served state sentences, though many had done jail time.

The city inmates adjusted well. Neither the tight state management style, nor the distance from home, nor the North Country weather seemed to trouble them. Cape Vincent was roomier than Rikers Island, and probably felt safer, too. Early on, DOCS had secured authorization to administer "good time" on the city's behalf, so as to make credible the threat of delayed release for misbehavior. Officers supervised inmates closely. Flareups were less likely because Cape Vincent afforded more personal space, with less jostling and confusion in crowded corridors and noisy mess halls. As one inmate said, "You don't get the kind of rowdy stuff here you get at Rikers." Comparatively speaking, the Cape was relaxed. Expansive grounds and widely spaced buildings invited outdoor strolls on grass, an alien life-form at Rikers.

On arrival, the inmates underwent an abbreviated reception and testing program and were placed in day and evening programs: work assignments, academic and vocational classes,alcohol and substance abuse treatment, pre-release programs and recreation. In essence, they were the same programs offered to state inmates, with only minor modifications for the short sentences.

Gridlock ... rerouting the traffic

The alternate correctional facilities at Cape Vincent and Riverview worked well, but by the end of 1991, the situation in the city had changed. Additional cells had opened at Rikcrs. Arrest rates had declined, meaning there were fewer pretrial detainees in the city system: There were also fewer sentenced inmates. But, demonstrating the interconnectedness of the city and state correctional systems, this ordinarily fortunate happenstance did not spell relief for Rikers.

The reduction in commitments to Rikers was not because accused offenders were being released to the streets. On the contrary; tougher judges were using tougher laws and sending convicted offenders all the way to the state prisons instead of the city jails. The prisons could not take all the new prisoners at at once, and what ensued was gridlock. Rikers was clogged with as many as 3,000 "state-readies,"men sentenced to prison who could not be moved because there was no room upstate.

It was time to rethink the agreement. The Empire State and Big Apple concurred that both their systems would benefit if Cape Vincent and Riverview were redesignated for state use. The state-readies at Rikers and the city men upstate could simply switch places, everybody going where they were supposed to be. And because the state was authorized to double-bunk, whereas the city was prohibited by the State Commission of Correction from doing so, the overall capacity of the coombined systems would be enlarged immediately.

In April, 1993, Cape Vincent accepted its first state inmates. The dormitories were double-bunked in phases, increasing the institution's capacity to its present 1,302 beds.

The institution

Cape Vincent is set back off a road on the outskirts of town. The institution is in the heart of the Thousand Islands district near Canada, a few hundred yards from where the St. Lawrence River widens to merge into Lake Ontario. Summer tourism is a staple of the local economy, as are the broad, flat dairy farms surrounding the prison. A major area employer is Fort Drum, a U.S. Army base outside Watertown where Arctic training is conducted. The opening of the new prison added nearly 400 stable civil service jobs to the region. Double-bunking raised the number of officers and civilians to 535.

Approximately 100 acres of farmland and gravel-pit were purchased for the prison. Eighty-two acres are enclosed by two rows of wire perimeter fencing topped with coiled blades of barbed razor ribbon. Microwave sensors and an array of cameras increase the difficulty of escape.

The facility is one of nearly 30 prisons opened by the state of New York during the 1980's in one of the greatest building campaigns in the history of corrections anywhere. Architecturally, Cape Vincent is identical to a dozen or so other medium security institutions. They're all built to the same design and specifications, of the same colors and materials, and grouped in standard configurations. Housing is in one-story buildings, walled down the middle to make two 50-bed dormitories each with its own entrance, day-rooms and offices. The new facilities also have a 32-cell special housing unit and a small infirmary. The "prototype" design (quickly dubbed "cookie cutter") was developed by DOCS Division of Facilities Planning and the state Office of General Services to speed construction to hold the skyrocketing prison census. Building to a time-tested prototype guaranteed a workable facility, while shaving years off the lengthy and expensive process of drawing plans, evaluating bids and getting approvals.

Inmate programming

The switch from city to state inmates did not appreciably alter the makeup of the population. As of this writing, only one of Cape Vincent's inmates is from Jefferson County. Most, as before, are from the downstate metropolitan area (about 83 percent). The only difference is they have heavier rap sheets.

Just over 42 percent of Cape Vincent's inmates are serving time for violent felonies and other coercive crimes, and 45 percent are in for drug offenses. Facility activity accordingly focuses on problems of aggression and impulse control, along with treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. To overcome educational deficiencies, there are also strong academic and vocational training programs.

Cape Vincent ran substance abuse programs for the New York City inmates. The treatment focus continued when state inmates came in. Cape Vincent became a Comprehensive Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment (CASAT) center. CASAT consists of six months of institutional treatment (Phase 1)followed by formal treatment in the community while on work release or day reporting status (Phase II).

Within a couple of years, CASAT numbers statewide began to drop. In fulfillment of his pledge to enhance public safety, Governor Pataki had prohibited the participation of violent felons in temporary release. Since inmates must be on temporary release during Phase II, the narrowed temporary release eligibility criteria eliminated a large class of inmates from the CASAT pool. The program was scaled down, and CASAT was discontinued at Cape Vincent in December, 1998. For Cape Vincent, that meant the modification of the treatment program, not its termination. The core of the current program is ASAT, the Department's standard Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment modality. Cape Vincent's ASAT program, one of the largest in the state, treats about 400 participants at a time. Since the 330-hour curriculum takes six months on average, more than half the population can complete it every year and, ideally, every inmate can be reached over the course of a two- year stay. In reality, inmates are frequently transferred to other facilities for a variety of reasons, but the modular ASAT format permits resumption of treatment almost anywhere they might be sent.

Counselors hold sessions every weekday in the ASAT therapeutic community dorms. On completion, inmates receive continued support in weekly meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Usually sponsored by outside volunteers, AA and NA groups help inmates stay focused on recovery for the remainder of their incarceration. They also familiarize inmates with the AA and NA culture and routines, so that they will be more comfortable later about joining groups in their home communities.

Cape Vincent also runs a program for incarcerated veterans. Just as in ASAT, the 30 or so participants all bunk together. The veterans are enrolled in standard facility programs, but receive special counseling in areas such as stress and anger management. The federal Department of Veterans Affairs assists facility staff, particularly in discharge planning. Staff feel the common bond of military experience makes for a fellowship, where participants encourage each others' programs of recovery, education, and personal growth.

The community

After the Revolutionary War, French-speaking people from Canada settled both sides of the St. Lawrence to harvest timber, floating it down-river to Montreal and on across the Atlantic to Europe. The region was strategically important during the War of 1812, and the islands are sprinkled with historic forts built by the opposing American and British forces. Soon after, when Napoleon was defeated and imprisoned, relatives and sympathizers fled France for Cape Vincent. Thinking he was sure to escape, they built the "Cup and Saucer House" as his refuge. But the Emperor never made it to the New World: he died on the South Atlantic island of St. Helena in 1821. French influences and surnames still pervade the town of Cape Vincent and neighboring villages. A French Festival is held every July on the Saturday closest to Bastille Day.

The new correctional facility is very much a part of the community today. An active Community Advisory Board helps the facility to select deserving projects for its outside inmate crews. The crews, under Correction Officer supervision, paint and do repairs to local fire halls, churches and libraries. They help local highway departments with brush removal and related activities. They also work regularly in five state parks, including Cedar Point State Park which occupies the strip of land between the prison and the St. Lawrence.

Inmates also serve the community from inside the fence. Vocational horticulture shop students provide flowers to brighten the main streets of the local villages. Other inmates build picnic tables and make posters and signs. And in a cops-and-robbers game with a twist, inmates make and paint the blue barricades used by the New York City Police Department to block off parade routes and crime scenes. This job was first given to prisoners during Cape Vincent's alternate correctional facility days.

In 1998, the facility's staff and inmates were honored with a Community Service Award presented by the Cape Vincent Chamber of Commerce. An ice storm in January of that year created havoc through a swath of land extending from Lake Ontario north and east into Maine and Canada. Northern New York was declared a disaster area by the state and federal governments. Cape Vincent was one of many DOCS facilities and divisions that stepped in to help the state's citizens to survive and recover from the storm, which had made roads impassable and cut off access to power, heat, food, and medical services.

Despite the personal toll and hardship that the storm wrought on the facility's employees and their families, they worked overtime to assist neighbors in need. Employees contributed almost 4,000 hours in storm relief duties, and inmate hours were nearly 30,000. They assisted highway departments to get services back on line; provided blankets, linens and towels to local senior citizens' centers and emergency shelters; provided an emergency generator to a senior citizens' center and performed laundering services for the American Red Cross.

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