Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women

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Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
LocationBedford Hills, New York
StatusOpen
Security classMaximum
Capacity921[1]
Opened1901
Managed byNew York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the only maximum security prison for women in the State of New York.

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a prison in Bedford Hills, New York, is the largest women's prison in New York state, and has hosted many infamous prisoners. The prison previously opened under the name Westfield State Farm in 1901.

Bedford Hills is one of several New York facilities exclusively for women, the others being Albion Correctional Facility, and Taconic Correctional Facility (the latter being a medium-security prison directly across the street from Bedford Hills).[2] Its family-centered program, founded by Sister Elaine Roulet, has served as a model for other prison programs in the United States and is considered the standard for innovative family-centered programs.[3]

In August 1974, the prisoners briefly took over parts of the prison in reaction to a prison organizer's assault at the hands of guards in what came to be called the August Rebellion.[4]

In the post–Furman v. Georgia period and prior to the 2008 repeal of the death penalty in New York, this prison was designated as having the state death row for women.[5]

Facilities[]

The prison nursery, located in the Infant Development Center on a single floor of a building, was established in 1901. The prisoners there are separate from the general population. Eligible prisoners did not have involvement with child welfare authorities, and the program does not accept those convicted of violent crimes. Children are kept in the nursery until 12 months (one year), although this can be extended up to 18 months (1 1/2 years) so the mother can be released with her child. As of 2015 it is the prison nursery in the U.S. that has been in operation for the longest period.[6]

Notable inmates[]

  • Kathy Boudin,[7][8] convicted in 1984 for her involvement in the 1981 Brinks robbery that resulted in the murder of three people. She was sentenced to life in prison, became a public health expert while in prison, and was released on September 17, 2003, after serving 22 years. After her parole she accepted a job in the HIV/AIDS Clinic at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center.
  • Stacey Castor,[7][8] wife who was charged in 2007 with second degree murder, second degree attempted murder, and offering a false instrument in the first degree. She was found guilty of intentionally poisoning then-husband David Castor with antifreeze in 2005 and attempting to murder her daughter Ashley Wallace. In addition, she was suspected of having murdered her first husband, Michael Wallace, whose grave lay next to David Castor's. After an autopsy performed on Michael Wallace's body found traces of antifreeze and rat poison in his remains, the medical examiner ruled the death a poisoning homicide. Castor was found dead in her cell on June 11, 2016 as a result of a heart attack.
  • Judith Alice Clark,[8] convicted in 1983 for her involvement in the same 1981 Brinks robbery as Kathy Boudin. Was not represented by counsel at trial and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences at Bedford Hills. She was granted parole on April 17, 2019 after spending 38 years in prison. She co-founded the AIDS Counseling and Education (ACE) program at Bedford Hills, which has been emulated in prisons nationwide, and was instrumental in establishing a college program at Bedford Hills that has helped more than 100 prisoners earn college degrees.[9]
  • Amy Fisher,[7] famously nicknamed "The Long Island Lolita" by the press, she was convicted of the 1992 shooting of the wife of her lover Joey Buttafuoco, with whom she began an affair as a 16-year-old student. She served seven years in prison and was released in 1999.
  • Jean Harris[7][8] murdered her ex-lover, Dr. Herman Tarnower, who was a cardiologist and author of the best-selling book The Scarsdale Diet. Eleven years after Harris's conviction,[10] Governor Mario Cuomo commuted the remainder of her sentence on December 29, 1992, as she was being prepped for quadruple bypass heart surgery. She was released from prison by the parole board after serving 11 years and later moved to the Whitney Center, a retirement home in Hamden, Connecticut.[11] She died on December 23, 2012, aged 89, at an assisted-living facility in New Haven, Connecticut.
  • Donna Hylton, was convicted of second degree murder and two counts of first degree kidnapping. She was sentenced to concurrent indeterminate prison terms of 25 years to life.[12][13] She served 27 years in prison. After prison, Donna Hylton wrote the memoir A Little Piece of Light and founded a non profit with the same name which helps individuals who are directly impacted by trauma and involvement in the criminal justice system.[14]
  • Barbara Kogan;[7][8] in October 1990, her husband George was shot on an Upper East Side Manhattan street. Kogan immediately became a suspect but was not convicted for nearly two decades, after she accepted a plea bargain admitting to conspiring to hire a hit man to kill her husband of 24 years because of a lengthy, acrimonious divorce.[15][16]
  • Reminisce Mackie, a rapper known as Remy Ma, got into an altercation with a friend inside a vehicle parked outside a club, when Mackie fired two shots in the woman's stomach. Mackie later turned herself in, and was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to eight years. Mackie was released on parole July 31, 2014.
  • assisted in the escape of inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt, and was sentenced to 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison. She was released on February 5, 2020.[17]
  • Joy Powell was charged with felony assault and burglary, though she claims the accusations are fabricated and politically motivated. She will be eligible for parole in the year 2045, when she is 84 years old.
  • Nixzaliz Santiago,[8] convicted of manslaughter in connection with the death of her daughter, Nixzmary Brown, and sentenced to 43 years in prison. Nixzmary's stepfather Cesar Rodriguez tortured Nixzmary (by binding her, duct-taping her mouth, and beat her), and her mother allegedly ignored this and didn't contact authorities in time to save her daughter's life.
  • Pamela Smart,[7][8] a former media services consultant found guilty in March 1991 for conspiring with her underage lover, William Flynn, and his three associates to kill her 24-year-old husband, Greggory Smart, in Derry, New Hampshire. She was transferred to Bedford Hills from the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in March 1993, because New Hampshire lacked a secure enough facility to house her. The higher security was necessary due to the high-profile nature of her case.[18] She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.
  • Lacey Spears, serving 20 years to life for the murder of her son Garnett.
  • Marybeth Tinning,[8] serving 20 years to life in prison for the murder of several of her children. She was denied parole in March 2007 after serving 20 years in prison. Released from prison on August 21, 2018.
  • Carolyn Warmus,[8][19] former teacher convicted for the murder of Paul Solomon's wife Betty Jean to get closer with him. Warmus and Solomon were both teachers at the same school, and Warmus frequently visited the Solomons' house. Her first trial was a mistrial, but a new piece of evidence linked her to the murder, and Warmus was found guilty at her second trial. She faced the minimum of 15 years, but Judge Carey sentenced her to the maximum of 25-years-to-life in prison.
  • Anna Sorokin, known by the alias Anna Delvey, is a Russian-born fraudster. She moved to New York City in 2013 and created the fictitious identity of Anna Delvey, pretending to be a wealthy German heiress. In 2019, she was convicted of multiple counts of attempted grand larceny, theft of services and larceny in the second degree for scamming New York City hotels and wealthy acquaintances.
  • Blanche Wright, convicted of murder, as a hitwoman accomplice of The Council's contract killer Robert Young aka Miguel Sanchez's, and sentenced to Bedford Hills on November 11, 1980.[20][21][22]
  • Sammie (Samantha Stone) and Julie Werkheiser, The Werkheisers are New York State's first mutually incarcerated and also legally married lesbian couple in the NYS DOCCS. However, Sammie Werkheiser won two appeals in both 2015 and 2017, and was released on February 22, 2019 from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Her conviction was overturned and indictment dismissed by the Supreme Court of New York’s Third Judicial Department. She is a Co-Founder of Mothers On the Inside, a grassroots activist group, which advocates for women who are pregnant and incarcerated in the state of New York. Sammie gave birth to twins in 2013 during her 12 Years to Life Sentence. Only the couple's son survived, and their daughter lived only 22 minutes. Both Werkheisers have maintained their innocence throughout all legal proceedings and three public trials. Sammie's ex-husband plead guilty in the year 2000 to sexually abusing her in Broome County, New York.(on public record.) This pertinent fact of motive was never heard in any of the three trials due to the information not being allowed into any of the women’s trials. Currently, Julie is waiting for the decision on her 440 Motion as of November 2020. She is serving (2) 11 to Life Sentences, concurrently. She is represented by civil rights litigator Mr. Arthur Larkin of Hale and Monico in NY, NY, who pushes for her freedom from wrongful incarceration.[citation needed]
  • Nicole Addimando, found guilty of second-degree murder of her boyfriend Chris Grover. She was sentenced to 19 years to life.[23]

See also[]

  • Flag of New York.svg New York (state) portal

The Bedford Hills Correctional Facility participates in the program Puppies Behind Bars. PBB trains prison inmates to raise service dogs for wounded war veterans and first responders, as well as explosive-detection canines for law enforcement. These select inmates are given the opportunity to learn what it means to contribute to society. [24] [25]

References[]

  1. ^ "Bedford Hills Correctional Facility" (PDF). Correctional Association of New York. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 13, 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  2. ^ New York State Department of Corrections Facility Listing Archived September 23, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
  3. ^ Encyclopedia of American Prisons, by Marilyn D. McShane, Franklin P. Williams
  4. ^ http://newpol.org/content/nor-meekly-serve-her-time-riots-and-resistance-womens-prisons
  5. ^ "Repeal of Death Sentence Regulations (Section 103.45 of 7 NYCRR)" (). New York State Department of Correctional Services. Retrieved on September 2, 2010. "Repeal regulations requiring death sentence warrants to be provided to the Commissioner and persons sentenced to death to be delivered to Clinton and Bedford Hills Correctional Facilities (death row)[...]"
  6. ^ Yager, Sarah (July 2015). "Prison Born". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Silver, Kate. "How Mya Saved Jacob Archived August 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine." Spirit Magazine. Retrieved on January 15, 2011.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i New York State Department of Corrections Inmate Population Information Search Archived April 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
  9. ^ Robbins, Tom (January 12, 2012). "Judith Clark's Radical Transformation". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  10. ^ "The Jean Harris Case". TruTV Crime Library. Archived from the original on April 3, 2014. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  11. ^ Berger, Joseph (January 24, 1993). "January 17–23: Former Headmistress Freed; Jean Harris, 69 and Frail, Paroled for 1980 Murder". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  12. ^ The case is People v Hylton, 564 N.Y.S. 2d 746 (lst Dep't 1991).
  13. ^ "Crime and Punishment". Psychology Today. July 1995.
  14. ^ [USDC Southern District of New York, Case 1:07-cv-03835-RPP Final Order on Appeal https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxE8KfVPjYF4eFVHbjcteG9ZODA/view]
  15. ^ "Black Widow Barbara Kogan's 'Sentencing Delayed So Son Can Finally Face Mom in Court'". DNAInfo.com. May 19, 2010. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011.
  16. ^ Scott, Cathy. The Millionaire's Wife. MacMillan. Archived from the original on May 4, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
  17. ^ https://www.abcnews.go.com/amp/US/joyce-mitchell-set-prison-release-years-helping-convicted/story%3fid=68789748
  18. ^ "Woman in Plot to Kill Husband Shifts Prisons". The New York Times. March 12, 1993. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  19. ^ Singleton, Don (June 18, 1995). "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO. . .? THE ART OF DOING TIME". New York Daily News. Retrieved July 8, 2011.[permanent dead link]
  20. ^ Wilson, Michael (April 26, 2019). "Her 'Prince Charming' Turned Out to Be a Crazed Hit Man on the Run". The New York Times. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  21. ^ "Hired Killer Sentenced". The Evening Press. Binghamton, NY. November 11, 1980. p. 7–A.
  22. ^ "'Hitwoman' charged in 6 slayings". Pacific Stars and Stripes. Japan. UPI. February 16, 1980. p. 7.
  23. ^ Ali, Saba; Wilson, Geoffrey (November 20, 2020). "Nicole Addimando murder case to be featured on CBS' '48 Hours' Saturday". Poughkeepsie Journal. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  24. ^ https://www.puppiesbehindbars.com/mission-history/
  25. ^ https://www.puppiesbehindbars.com/files/pdfs/raising_the_bar.pdf

External links[]

Coordinates: 41°14′19″N 73°40′51″W / 41.23861°N 73.68083°W / 41.23861; -73.68083

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