Downstate Correctional Facility

Downstate Correctional Facility is a maximum-security facility for adult male inmates that is located in Fishkill, New York. Operated by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, this facility can house approximately 1,200 inmates. 

This facility is one of New York’s reception and diagnostic centers, so inmates are usually housed at Downstate for less than 30 days before being transferred to their permanent facility. The purpose of Downstate is to receive, diagnose, and classify incoming inmates via testing, but there are a few general population inmates known as the “cadre” who are housed at Downstate permanently to work at the facility.

Prison Insights

Visiting Hours and Rules

Visiting hours at Downstate Correctional Facility are every day (including holidays) from 8:30 am to 3:15 pm. They do not process visitors between 11:15 am and 12:45 pm or after 2:15 pm. 

Special Housing Unit Visiting Days & Hours are also between 8:30 am and 3:15 pm. Inmates in SHU custody are allowed one non-legal visit within a seven-day period.

General population inmates are allowed an unlimited number of visits, and the visiting week is counted as Monday through Sunday. A maximum of three adult visitors are allowed per visit, and there is no limit on children.

All visitors are photographed. 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.

Dress Code

Visitors should wear clothing that enhances a family atmosphere, including complete attire with appropriate undergarments, comfortable footwear (bare feet are not allowed), and weather appropriate attire when necessary. Inappropriate clothing will result in being denied entry into the facility. 

Please be sure to understand the dress code for visitors. It will help to have a change of clothing with you if you have any reservations about the clothing you are wearing.

The following clothing is prohibited in the visiting room:

• See-through (sheer) clothing, bare midriffs or backs
• Plunging necklines, short shorts or athletic shorts, low tops, backless tops or dresses.
• Shorts or skirts shorter than mid-thigh are not allowed.
• Bathing suits
• Attire displaying obscene/offensive, derogatory language or drawings, or promoting illegal activity.

Be aware that some head wraps may have to be removed in order for you to pass through the metal detector successfully.

Jewelry may make the detector go off. You should remove anything questionable and carry it with you into the processing area and put it back on later. Hair pins may also cause metal detectors to go off. In this instance, you will be asked to remove them in order to have your visit. 

Please be advised, bras that set off the metal detector will have to be removed and/or the individual will be searched by an officer. 

Zippers, metal studs, and decorations can set the detector off. If this happens, you may be asked to go into the bathroom, take off the clothing, put on alternative articles of clothing provided by the Department and kept there for those purposes. You will go through the detector again until you make it through successfully. It is best to wear simple clothing so that you can become accustomed to the procedures at the correctional facility.

If in doubt, you should not wear questionable items of clothing. Under no circumstances will visitors be allowed into the facility dressed inappropriately.

How to Call an Inmate

How to Send Money

Programs For Inmates

Because it is a reception and diagnostic center, Downstate Correctional Facility offers fewer programs and services for inmates compared to the “permanent” facilities. However, there are a few education and treatment programs available. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Family Reunion Program

The Family Reunion Program (FRP) provides approved incarcerated individuals and their families the opportunity to meet for a designated period of time in a private home-like setting.

The goals of the program include:

• Preserving and strengthening family ties that have been disrupted as a result of incarceration.
• Fostering positive and responsible conduct.
• Facilitating post-release reintegration into the family and community, thereby reducing the likelihood of recidivism.

Puppies Behind Bars

Puppies Behind Bars trains incarcerated individuals to raise puppies as service dogs for wounded war veterans, as well as explosive detection canines for law enforcement and first responders. The puppies live with the puppy raisers for the duration of the basic training of commands and routines. The puppy raisers learn to groom, feed, water, exercise, and train the puppies. 

Staff from a community organization, Puppies Behind Bars, teaches the coursework and they can also get involved as weekend puppy sitters. Puppy raisers who successfully complete the training receive the job title of Animal Caretaker on their permanent file, as well as a certificate of completion from Puppies Behind Bars. 

Qualified individuals in the Puppies Behind Bars program can participate in a distance learning veterinarian assistant course funded by the Puppies Behind Bars organization. The goal of the program is to provide guide dogs for blind people and to teach incarcerated individuals the skills to become animal caregivers.

The program runs for 16 months, and testing is conducted by the Puppies Behind Bars organization. To participate, staff considers the inmate’s education level, the nature of their crime, the medications they take, their disciplinary record, and how much time they have left in the facility until they are paroled.

Pictures of Downstate Correctional Facility

Careers at Downstate Correctional Facility