Green Haven Correctional Facility is a
maximum securityprison in
New York. The prison is located in the
Town of Beekman in
Dutchess County. The
New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision lists the address as
Route 216, Stormville, NY 12582. This prison housed New York's
execution chamber during the time the state briefly had the
death penalty (but never used it) in the post-Furman era.[2][3] It was originally a federal prison and now houses maximum security inmates. Green Haven Correctional Facility also operated a Hot
Kosher Foods Program;[4] but no longer does as of 2020. However, because of this, the prison had a large Jewish population.[5]Yale Law School operates the Green Haven Prison Project, a series of seminars among Yale law students and Green Haven inmates on law and policy issues concerning prisons and criminal law.[6]
Francisco Acevedo, serial killer who murdered three women in New York between 1989 and 1996.[7]
Andre Rand, thought to be the notorious madman "Cropsy" in Staten Island, New York. He was convicted of the kidnapping of 12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger in 1987 and the kidnapping of Holly Ann Hughes (a case 23 years old) in 2004.
Charles Luciano, known as Lucky Luciano, founded the modern
Cosa Nostra. He spent a brief period here in 1936 before his deportation to
Italy.
Arthur Shawcross, an American serial killer who served 15 years in Green Haven from 1972 to 1987.
John Freeman, convicted for the 2012 murder of Isabella Tennant.[8][9]
Robert Golub, convicted for the murder of 13-year-old Kelly Anne Tinyes, who lived five doors away from his home. She was killed inside his home in Valley Stream, New York, on March 3, 1989. On March 3, 2009, this case was reopened.
John Giuca, whose trial has been the subject of intense media attention following his mother's undercover operation to expose
juror misconduct.
John Gotti (1940–2002), an American
mobster who became the
boss of the
Gambinocrime family in New York City.[10] Gotti and his brothers grew up in poverty and turned to a life of crime at an early age. Operating out of the
Ozone Park neighborhood of
Queens, Gotti quickly rose to prominence, becoming one of the crime family's biggest earners and a protégé of Gambino family
underbossAniello Dellacroce.
Waldo Grant, a serial killer who murdered four gay men in Manhattan between 1973 and 1976.[15][16]
Correction officer deaths
There have been at least two deaths of correction officers in the line of duty.
The first was of
Donna Payant on May 15, 1981, who disappeared while working at the prison. Her body was later found in a garbage dump 20 miles away, sexually violated and strangled, similar to the bodies of victims of serial killer
Lemuel Smith, an inmate at the prison. A bite mark on Payant's chest also matched Smith's tooth pattern. It was determined that Smith had sexually assaulted and strangled Payant in the prison chaplain's office before putting her body in a trash bag and throwing it out with the trash.
On January 31, 2007, a correction officer in Tower One was found dead due to an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Fire and police were dispatched around 10:30 p.m., when they found the hatch to the ladder blocked, they used a Beekman Fire Department ladder truck to break in and get access. The tower was closed for investigation, and the death was deemed a
suicide.[17]
In the early 1970's, New York's electric chair "
Old Sparky" was moved here from
Sing Sing Correctional Facility.[18] Capital punishment was reinstated in New York in 1995 when
Governor George Pataki signed a new statute into law, which provided for
execution by
lethal injection. On June 24, 2004, in the case People v. LaValle, the
New York Court of Appeals struck down the statute as unconstitutional under the
New York Constitution (at the time, only two individuals were under a sentence of death). Although seven individuals were sentenced to death, no one was executed, and the Court of Appeals later commuted the sentence of the final individual under a sentence of death in New York on October 23, 2007, in the case People v. John Taylor. In July 2008,
Governor David Paterson issued an executive order requiring the disestablishment of death row and the closure of the state's execution chamber at Green Haven Correctional Facility.[19]
Inmate resources and services
Inmates at Green Haven Correctional Facility can get jobs through the NYSDOCCS Correctional industries. The jobs they can be assigned to include working in an upholstery shop, as well as furniture manufacturing. Inmates incarcerated at this facility can also receive vocational training, such as barbering, building maintenance, culinary arts, carpentry, computer operator, computer repair, custodial maintenance, electrical, painting and decorating, printing, and auto technology. Inmates may also earn GEDs or college credits. Prisoners also receive counseling as well as drug and alcohol treatment.
The
Bard Prison Initiative, which seeks to reduce rates of recidivism and offer prisoners college education and tutoring, operates at multiple prisons including Green Haven.
^"
Inmate 99-B-0067".
New York State Department of Correctional Services. Saturday January 16, 1999. Retrieved on September 2, 2010."Monroe County Sheriff's Department officers transported Mateo at 4:45 a.m. today to the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora in Clinton County, location of the Unit for Condemned Prisoners (UCP) who are male[...] The UCP at Clinton has been physically operable for use since August 31, 1995, the day before the death penalty law took effect, as has a similar three-cell UCP for females at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County plus the single-cell death house at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville in Dutchess County. Neither of the two latter units will be staffed until there are inmates on them."
^Scott, Brendan. "
Gov Pulls Switch on Death CellArchived 2012-11-04 at the
Wayback Machine" (
Archive). Daily News (New York). July 24, 2008. Retrieved on September 2, 2010. "The Department of Correctional Services has quietly struck from the books a 40-year-old rule that designated the upstate Green Haven Correctional Facility the state's "Capital Punishment Unit."[...] Although seven defendants were sentenced to death after then-Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, signed the law, the death house has never hosted an execution.[...]"
^Scott, Brendan. "
Gov Pulls Swith on Death CellArchived 2012-11-04 at the
Wayback Machine" (
Archive). New York Daily News. July 24, 2008. Retrieved on September 2, 2010. "The Department of Correctional Services has quietly struck from the books a 40-year-old rule that designated the upstate Green Haven Correctional Facility the state's "Capital Punishment Unit."[...] Although seven defendants were sentenced to death after then-Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, signed the law, the death house has never hosted an execution.[...]"