Five Points Correctional Facility
Five Points Correctional Facility[1] (FPCF) is a maximum security state prison for men located in Romulus, New York, and operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Five Points is known as a supermax prison.[2]
| Location | State Route 96 Romulus, New York |
|---|---|
| Status | Operational |
| Security class | Maximum / Supermax |
| Capacity | 1550 |
| Opened | 2000 |
| Managed by | New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision |
History edit
The prison was built in 2000 with a capacity of 1,500 inmates, as well as a Special Housing Unit (SHU) for up to 50 inmates in disciplinary confinement. Five Points was originally named for the five points that are seen from above, showing each housing block location. As of 2008, 71% of the inmates were convicted of a violent crime and 16% of the inmates were being treated for mental health issues.
FPCF's academic courses included Adult Basic Education (ABE) and Pre-High School Equivalency (Pre-HSE), and High School Equivalency (HSE). Vocational courses included building maintenance, custodial maintenance, painting/decorating, computer operator, electrical trades, horticulture/ agriculture, small engine repair, masonry, and plumbing/heating. The library contained approximately 3,000 books and periodicals.
Notable inmates edit
- Demetrius Blackwell – Convicted of First Degree Murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2017 for the murder of New York City Police Officer Brian Moore in Queens Village, NY on May 2, 2015 (Moore survived the shooting, but died two days later). Moore was posthumously promoted to the rank of Detective, 1st grade by New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton at his funeral.
- Willie Bosket – Adult repeat offender who, in 1978, received the maximum five-year sentence for multiple murder as a (fifteen-year-old) juvenile, causing New York to become the first state to change its laws so that juveniles as young as 13 could be tried as an adult for murder.
- Peter Braunstein – former journalist, writer, and playwright dubbed the "Halloween rapist"
- Lemuel Smith – Serial killer and rapist. Convicted of killing six people between 1958 and 1981, including the first ever murder (1981) of an on-duty female corrections officer by an inmate at a prison.
- David Sweat – Transferred there after 2015 escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York[3]
- Manuel Rivera- Bronx trinitarios gang member serving 23 years to life. Convicted of 1st degree murder for participating in the murder of Lesandro Guzman-Feliz. Rivera was the youngest of the gang members being 18 at the time. Transferred to Great Meadow Correctional Facility in March 2021.
- Jamir Thompson-Thompson, of Yonkers, has been sentenced to nine years to life in state prison. Thompson pled guilty on July 8 to Murder in the Second Degree, a felony, for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Marilyn Cotto-Montanez.
Educational program edit
Five Points is most famous for its educational program that it established with its prisoners. Five Points Correctional Facility and Cornell paired together to be able to help the prisoners get college-level education.[4] This program is called the Cornell Prison Education Program or CPEP, in which a facility pairs with Cornell’s partner Cayuga Community College. On May 24, 2018, the first class was able to graduate in Romulus, New York (the city where Five Points is located). This class contained sixteen graduates overall, as they all received their Associate of Arts degrees surrounded by all of their families.[5]
The people who taught these classes were teaching assistants and faculty from the colleges of Cornell, Cayuga CC, Hobart and William Smith, Ithaca College, the University of Rochester and Keuka College. The liberal arts certificate, which was made up of 18 credits of work and was made especially for the Prisoner Education Program, to appeal the best to them. This program has been considered by many to be successful, as Senior Program Officer Eugene Tobin’s has an article on the Mellon Foundation talking about how successful the program was.
References edit
- ^ "Prison Website".
- ^ Grondahl, Paul (24 July 2015). "Prison escapee David Sweat severely isolated, controlled in". Times Union.
In corrections parlance, Five Points is known as a "super-max." It was built 15 years ago and the modular cell units were hauled to the rural prison site two at a time on flatbed trucks and bolted together end-to-end to form a cellblock.
- ^ "Inmate lookup: Sweat, David". New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
- ^ Aloi, Daniel. "Prison Education Program Graduates 16 at Five Points". Cornell.edu. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
- ^ Tobin, Eugene. "Higher Education Has Given Me My Humanity Back". Mellon.org. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
External links edit
- NY prison information 2016-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
- The Correctional Association of New York: Five Points Correctional Facility