Eastern New York Correctional Facility

The Eastern New York Reformatory was established by a law of 1892 (Chapter 336). The reformatory was to be located in Ulster County and to provide for the custody, care, and reform of male convicts. The governor was to appoint three commissioners to choose a site for the reformatory. In 1894 (Chapter 299), the governor appointed three building commissioners to acquire the land chosen for the reformatory and to obtain building plans and estimates. When the State Board of Charities approved the plans, construction could begin. The building commissioners were in charged of the facility until 1900. They reported to the legislature. A law of 1900 (Chapter 348) put the superintendent of state prisons in control of the reformatory. When construction was completed, prisoners were to be transferred from the New York State Reformatory at Elmira to relieve the overcrowding there. Prisoners could also be transferred from any of the state prisons. In 1921, an amendment to the Prison Law and the Mental Deficiency Law (Chapter 483) converted the reformatory to an institution for the custody, care and training of male mental defectives over age 16 who had been charged with or convicted of a crime. Commitments could also be made by transfer from a state prison. Commitments were for an indefinite length of time. The institution was to be under the control of the Commission for Mental Defectives, which reported to the legislature and the commissioner was to give the institution a new name describing its functions. The facility became known as the Institution for Defective Delinquents at Napanoch. In 1926 (Chapter 584), an amendment to the State Departments Law assigned this facility to the Department of Mental Hygiene and directed the governor to appoint a seven-member board of visitors ot manage the institution. A superintendent was to be appointed by the Commissioner of Mental Hygiene subject to the board's approval. In 1927 (Chapter 426), the institution was reassigned to the Department of Corrections but remained subject to visitation by the Department of Mental Hygiene. An amendment to the correction law in 1958 (Chapter 370) renamed the facility the Eastern Correctional Institution, one part of which was to be maintained as the Institution for Male Defective Delinquents. Convicts of below-normal or borderline-normal intelligence could be transferred here. Another amendment in 1966 (Chapter 819) again renamed the facility, this time to Catskill Reformatory. The law authorized but did not mandate the continuation of a division for male mental defectives, which was to be known as the Eastern Correctional Institution. This law (270 of the Correction Law) was repealed by a law of 1970 (Ch. 426). The facility at Napanoch, a maximum/medium security facility is now known as the Eastern New York Correctional Facility.