Coxsackie Correctional Facility

Coxsackie Correctional Facility is a maximum-security facility for adult male inmates that is located in Coxsackie, New York. This facility opened in 1935 and is operated by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. It has a maximum inmate capacity of approximately 1,000.

Originally, this facility was known as the New York State Vocational Institution and it was designed by architect Alfred Hopkins. The first inmates at the institution, known as “Coxsackie” were older inmates from the New York House of Refuge, which was a juvenile reformatory that was closing. 

The facility served as a reformatory, providing inmates with education and vocational training, and continues to do so today with a variety of inmate programs.

Prison Insights

Visiting Hours and Rules

Visiting hours at Coxsackie Correctional Facility are seven days per week (including holidays) from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. You must arrive by 2:25 to visit with your inmate.

Special Housing Unit Visiting Days & Hours (Inmates in SHU custody are allowed one non-legal visit within a seven day period) are also between 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, seven days a week with a weekend rotation based on last name.

The maximum number of visitors an inmate is allowed from Monday through Friday is four per visit. On the weekends, the maximum number is two, with children under three not counted.

For more detailed visiting information, click here.

Visitor Checklist

To make sure you are prepared for your visit, please look over the following checklist:

• Confirm that the inmate has not been transferred and has visitation privileges.
• Bring current photo identification.
• If you have made special arrangements with the facility, call before leaving to ensure that plans for your visit have been made and are in place.
• Check clothing and jewelry for compliance with visiting regulations.
• If you are bringing a child and you are not the legal guardian or parent, be sure you have a notarized statement from the child’s parent or legal guardian.
• Before leaving home, check your vehicle for contraband and/or hazardous items and be sure to remove these items before entering prison grounds.
• Double check the visiting schedule, so you arrive on the designated day during proper visiting hours.
• Leave purses, wallets, and electronic devices in the glove compartment or in the trunk of your car.
• Do not leave minor children waiting in the car or your visit will be ended.
• Do not have any contraband on you when you enter the facility.
• Do not bring anything into the visiting room to give to the offender. Offenders are not permitted to take anything from the visiting area.

How to Call an Inmate

How to Send Money

Programs For Inmates

Coxsackie Correctional Facility offers a variety of programs and services for inmates, including: 

Adult Basic Education

The Adult Basic Education Program provides individualized instruction. This is provided to meet the needs of incarcerated individuals who have reading and math scores below the sixth grade level on the Department's selected standardized test in reading, mathematics, and language arts in the context of real life adult problems and situations.

The goal of this program is to provide individuals with skills or competencies necessary to function successfully in contemporary society and to enable the participant to function at the sixth grade reading and mathematics level.

College Program

Through the Bard Prison Initiative, the NYDCCS transfers eligible inmates to Woodbourne to complete an Associate’s degree or to Eastern to complete an Associate’s or Bachelor’s Degree.

The goal of college programs is to enable incarcerated individuals to continue education beyond high school and work toward earning a college certificate or degree.

Special Education

The Special Education Program provides intensive one-on-one and small group instruction to students under 21 years of age identified as having a disability. Instruction may be provided in a self-contained Special Education class, resource room or through the consultant teacher model.

The goal of this program is to tailor learning activities to the diagnosed needs of students with a disability to enable them to achieve learning objectives and, where appropriate, to successfully participate in the regular academic program.

Aggression Replacement Training (ART)

A cognitive behavioral intervention program designed to assist individuals in improving social skills, moral reasoning, coping with and reducing aggressive behavior through the use of self regulating exercises and mindfulness.

ART consists of three coordinated interventions: anger control training, structured learning, and moral reasoning. The program consists of five modules with 32 sessions.

Participants will learn to understand what causes them to feel angry and act aggressively, as well as techniques to reduce anger/aggressive behavior, self-regulate to stop "automatic" aggression, and to build skills that help make better choices.

Building Maintenance

The Building Maintenance program provides students with fundamental skills required to make minor repairs in carpentry, masonry, electricity, plumbing, and weatherization. This course prepares the student with entry-level skills as a building superintendent.

Compadre Helper Program

The Compadre Helper Program is a peer counseling course designed to provide incarcerated individuals with the opportunity to acquire skills necessary to help their peers and themselves cope with the psychological aspect of personal development based on Maslow’s self-actualizing philosophy. This program is offered in English and Spanish.

Program goals include:

• assisting participants in adjusting to the environment by supporting them in the process of self-inventory.
• teaching participants four basic helping skill clusters, including Attending Skills Cluster, Adding Skills Cluster, Confronting Skills Cluster, and Problem Solving Skills Cluster.

Computer Operator

This course introduces students to the hardware and software components of computers. The main focus of the program is the operation of software, which includes word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and presentations.

The goal of the Computer Operator course is to provide students with entry level skills to operate computers and work with software programs. Coding for web design is offered to advanced students.

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certifications in Excel, PowerPoint and word processing from Certiport; Internet and Computing Core certification (IC3) from Certiport; and Web Design Specialist certification from Computer Visions, Inc. is available.

Culinary Arts

Students are instructed in baking bread and pastry, preparing all types of foods, kitchen sanitation and the proper procedures and techniques used in serving food. The goal of this course is to provide students with entry level skills in the food trades.

Custodial Maintenance

The Custodial Maintenance Course emphasizes custodial services, including floor care, carpet and fabric care, upholstery care, window care, restroom care, and the safe use and operation of power cleaning equipment and sanitation chemicals.

During this class, students will learn entry level skills in commercial, institutional and industrial cleaning, and maintenance. 

Energy Technology

The focus of the Energy Technology course is on energy efficient practices that include wind and solar power. Students develop entry level skills in roofing, plumbing, and electrical with a focus on electrical theory, circuitry wiring, and the importance of weatherization. They also learn to use power tools and to follow general safety procedures.

The goal of this course is to provide students with entry level skills for a position as a solar photovoltaic installer or an electrician's helper, which include roofing, plumbing, and electrical skills. 

Electrical Trades

This course provides instruction in basic electricity with emphasis on installing and servicing of all types of residential and commercial wiring systems. Skills taught include code interpretation, installation and servicing of circuits and controls, use of testing equipment, reading of architectural drawings, and wiring schematics.

The goal of the Electrical Trades course is to provide students with entry level skills as an apprentice or electrician's helper. 

Garment Shop

The Garment Shop instructs participants in the use of sewing machines in the fabrication of garments. Garments produced are underclothing, shirts, trousers, and other articles. The participants learn to read manuals related to the use of sewing machines, and are required to repair the equipment used.

Students are provided an opportunity to acquire job skills and acceptable work habits by participating in a production oriented environment, operating equipment, and meeting production schedules and quality standards. Efficiency and quality are stressed in all shops.

High school diploma or equivalency is required to be admitted.

Incarcerated Veterans

The Incarcerated Veterans Program is designed to address the readjustment and reentry needs of veterans returning to society following a period of incarceration. All facilities in New York provide Level I services, but Coxsackie also provides Level II. 

Level I services ensure that veterans obtain a copy of their DD214 Military Discharge papers and that appropriate referrals are made through the Veterans Administration (VA) for ongoing treatment, vocational training, education, housing, and employment when the veteran is released from incarceration. 

Level II services include a Veterans Inmate Organization that meets on a regular basis providing education, camaraderie and support to each other. There is often a community group involved, such as an American Legion or a VFW Post. There is a Veterans’ Day Recognition Ceremony and Banquet to honor their service to their country.

Masonry

Students in masonry are taught the fundamentals of wall construction, mixing mortar, learning to work with brick, cinderblock, cement blocks, and concrete. Students must also learn blueprint reading and trade mathematics.

The goal of the Mason Shop course is to provide students with entry-level skills as a bricklayer or a mason.

Painting and Decorating

Students in this program learn techniques of paint application to both interior and exterior surfaces. Skills taught relate to preparation of the surface, and application of stains, clear finishes and pigmented paint. Students learn techniques of wallpapering, and wood refinishing. Instruction is given in safety procedures in handling paints, ladders, and scaffolding.

Plumbing and Heating

Students in Plumbing and Heating Course learn the installation of water, gas, waste disposal systems, and heating units in buildings and homes. This program covers basic instruction in plumbing, including code restrictions, blueprint reading, fixtures for domestic and commercial establishments, as well as oil burner repair and servicing.

Welding

Students are taught various techniques of arc, oxyacetylene, tungsten inert gas (TIG) and metallic inert gas (MIG) welding and cutting. They learn control of equipment in the various positions of welding, as well as many types of joints, beads, welds, and braces. This course includes blueprint reading and working from layouts and diagrams.

The goal of the Welding Course is to develop students' entry level skills as a welder.

Pictures of Coxsackie Correctional Facility

Careers at Coxsackie Correctional Facility

If you are interested in a career with the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and would like to work at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility, you can find out more information by clicking here.