Upstate Correctional Facility

Upstate Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison for high-risk male inmates that is located in Malone, New York. This facility can house approximately 1,350 inmates and is operated by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

The majority of inmates at Upstate Correctional Facility have a history of violent, combative behavior and are considered “difficult” to manage. The level of treatment and programming the inmate can be involved in is based on their behavior. 

Prison Insights

Visiting Hours and Rules

Visiting hours at Upstate Correctional Facility are on weekends and holidays from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM. You must arrive by 2:00 PM 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): 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Weekends and Holidays. The latest arrival time is 2:30 PM. The SHU/Long Term Keeplock Schedule is Sunday through Saturday.

PIMS Level 3 inmates are allowed two non-legal visits per week. 

A maximum number of four visitors is allowed to visit an inmate at one time. For more detailed visiting information, click here.

Visitor Checklist

To get ready for your visit with an inmate at Upstate Correctional Facility, please go over the following checklist:

• Confirm that the offender has not been transferred and has visitation privileges.
• Bring valid 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 correctional facility grounds. 
• 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. 

Dress Code

Visitors should wear clothing that enhances a family atmosphere. The dress code requires visitors to wear complete modest attire with appropriate undergarments and comfortable footwear (bare feet are not allowed).

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 clothes you are wearing.

Inmate mail may include personal letters (a maximum of five pages per envelope) and photographs. However, you are not allowed to send: nude photographs, Polaroid photos, postage stamps, and letters from other people, except children.

Inmates are allowed two food packages per month, and the combined weight cannot exceed 35 pounds. Food items must be commercially or hermetically sealed and contain no alcohol. For exceptions, please review the list of allowable items. You can also send packages containing non-food items like clothing and tobacco.

How to Call an Inmate

Inmates at the Upstate Correctional Facility can’t receive incoming calls, but they do have access to phones during daytime hours to make outgoing calls.For complete details on how to call an inmate in New York, please click here.

How to Send Money

Programs For Inmates

The inmate programs at Upstate Correctional Facility include:

Adult Basic Education

The Adult Basic Education Program 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.

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.

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.

Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment

Intensive, structured substance abuse treatment employing elements of the Therapeutic Community model. General population participants progress through the early stages of recovery with the potential for continued treatment upon release. 

Confinement Program Plan

The Confinement Program Plan provides cell study for incarcerated individuals identified with an educational, substance abuse treatment, or aggression replacement training need, or desire to continue with post-secondary education.

The goal of the substance abuse treatment component is to reduce the use of drugs within the prison system. Participants are seen for an out-of-cell interview during admission, as well as quarterly during PIMS Level I-III and monthly during PIMS Level IV participation.

Pictures of Upstate Correctional Facility

Careers at Upstate 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 Upstate Correctional Facility, you can find out more information by clicking here.