Wende Correctional Facility

Wende Correctional Facility

Location	3040 Wende Road Alden, New York
Coordinates	42°55′49″N 78°32′32″W / 42.93036°N 78.54221°W / 42.93036; -78.54221Coordinates: 42°55′49″N 78°32′32″W / 42.93036°N 78.54221°W / 42.93036; -78.54221
Status	Operational
Security class	Maximum/Supermax
Capacity	961
Opened	1923 (as county jail) 1983 (as state prison)
Managed by	New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

Wende Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison located in Town of Alden in Erie County, New York, east of Buffalo. The prison is named for this region of Alden. The prison was formerly the site of a county jail operated by Erie County, New York, and sold to the state to further its need for a maximum security state prison. The Erie County Correctional Facility was built adjacent to Wende.

History[]

The state of New York announced its $48 million purchase of the prison on March 24, 1983. At the time of the sale, the facility housed 592 prisoners.^[1]

COVID-19[]

Like other prisons, Wende was a vector in the COVID-19 pandemic. As of November 6, 2020, 31 prisoners have tested positive for COVID-19; one of the first confirmed infections was that of recently sentenced movie executive Harvey Weinstein.^[2][3] According to a March 31, 2020, statement by the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, 135 correctional officers at Wende were in quarantine, and 6 had tested positive for the virus.^[4]

Controversies[]

David McClary, convicted of murdering police officer Edward Byrne, spent three years in solitary confinement while at Wende. In 1999, a federal jury granted him $660,000 in damages.^[5]

In 2003, Wende officers ordered that Muslim prisoner Darryl Holland produce a urine sample in a three-hour window for a drug test. Holland, who was fasting for Ramadan, refused and was placed in solitary confinement for 77 days. While Judge Michael Anthony Telesca of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York granted the prison summary judgement in 2013, a panel of judges from the Second Circuit ruled that Holland could still sue on First Amendment grounds.^[6][7]

Notable inmates[]

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• Jack Abbott - criminal and author. He committed suicide at Wende in 2002.^[8]
• Jimmy Burke - mastermind of the Lufthansa Heist. Burke was imprisoned in Wende until his death in 1996.
• Robert Chambers - the "Preppie Killer." He was imprisoned in Wende in 2008 and later transferred to Sullivan Correctional Facility.
• Mark David Chapman - the man who murdered John Lennon in 1980. Chapman was transferred from Attica Correctional Facility to Wende in 2012.
• David Gilbert - participant in the 1981 Brink's robbery and murders. He is currently incarcerated at Wende.
• Kendall Francois - serial killer
• David Sweat - a man who killed a Broome County sheriff's officer and then led an escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015. He was transferred to Wende in April 2018. In January 2019, Sweat was transferred to Auburn Correctional Facility.
• Maksim Gelman - perpetrator of a 28-hour stabbing spree lasting from February 11 to 12, 2011, in New York City, which involved the killing of four people and the wounding of five others.
• Harvey Weinstein - former film producer and convicted sex offender serving a 23-year sentence. He is awaiting another trial in Los Angeles.

References[]

External links[]

• Development of Wende

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