Taconic Correctional Facility

Taconic Correctional Facility

Location	250 Harris Road Bedford Hills, New York
Status	open
Security class	medium
Capacity	502
Opened	1973
Managed by	New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

Taconic Correctional Facility is a medium security women's prison in Bedford Hills, New York that is operated by the New York State Department of Corrections. It is associated with the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum security women's prison. In 1901 it opened as the 'New York State Reformatory for Women' between the ages of 15 and 30. The then Department of Corrections took over the administration of the reformatory in 1926 and, in 1933 it was merged it with the newly opened 'Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women'. For the next four decades, the reformatory operated as part of Bedford Hills, still the state’s only maximum-security prison for females. In 1973, Taconic began operations as an autonomous medium-security prison. During 1971 and 1972, Bedford Hills was a correctional facility with separate male and female units. In 1973 the male inmates were transferred before the unit closed in June; the unit reopened in December as the Taconic Correctional Facility.

Educational programs

Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, a not-for-profit organization was founded to provide college education to incarcerated people in an effort to help reduce recidivism and poverty, while strengthening families and communities. In 1998, as part of the get-tough-on-crime campaign, state and federal funding for college programs inside prison was stopped. Understanding the positive effects of education in the transformation and rehabilitation of incarcerated people, inmates at Sing Sing Correctional Facility reached out to religious and academic volunteers to develop a college-degree granting program. Under the leadership of Dr. Anne Reissner, Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison was founded to restore college education at Sing Sing through private funding. Hudson Link now runs pre-college and college degree programs at Fishkill, Greene, Sing Sing, Sullivan, and Taconic Correctional Facilities.

External links

• NY prison information
• 13 photographs of the New York State Reformatory for Women, c.1901 - Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick