Research: Topics: Genealogy: Department of Corrections: Description: Institutional Records

C. INSTITUTIONAL RECORDS

WOODBOURNE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

Woodbourne Correctional Facility is located at Woodbourne, Sullivan County. It functions as a medium security correctional facility for males 16 years of age and older. At present, approximately 800 inmates are confined at Woodbourne. The Woodbourne Institution for Defective Delinquents was established in 1934 (Chapter 150) as a medium security transfer prison for male defective delinquents. It was established largely to relieve overcrowding at the Institution for Male Defective Delinquents at Napanoch. Inmates sent to Woodbourne were those who had the greater chance for parole, while Napanoch retained inmates with longer prison terms and who needed closer supervision. Woodbourne received its first inmates from Napanoch when it opened on November 21, 1935.

Despite its creation as an institution for defective delinquents, overcrowding within the corrections system soon forced Woodbourne to accept inmates of normal intelligence and of all ages. Inmates of normal intelligence and defective delinquent inmates were housed in separate sections within the prison. From its beginning, Woodbourne offered relatively few programs for its special inmate population. There was little in the way of education, and as late as 1950, there was no teacher on the staff. There was no industrial equipment at the institution and vocational training consisted principally of routine maintenance work. In part, the lack of training programs was due to the fact that most inmates were confined at Woodbourne for a short period of time. More extensive education and vocational training programs were established instead at Napanoch which held defective delinquents for longer periods of confinement.

Beginning in 1947, Woodbourne no longer received inmates of normal intelligence. Instead, it was designated as a medium security reformatory for inmates from 16 to 21 years of age deemed to be of borderline or dull normal intelligence (i.e. those having an IQ of 71 to 85). Defective delinquent inmates were gradually transferred to other institutions. By 1950, the defective delinquent inmates had been transferred and the institution was renamed the Woodbourne Correctional Institution. In 1967, the Narcotics Addiction Control Commission received control of the facility to use as a residential treatment center for court-convicted drug addicts. The Department of Correctional Services regained custody of Woodbourne in 1975 and made it into a minimum-medium security facility for offenders of all ages and all IQ levels. The institution was renamed the Woodbourne Correctional Facility.

14610-89A. Inmate case files, 1930-1970 (bulk 1935-1968). R 315 cu. ft.

Approximately 4,900 case files relate to inmates confined at Woodbourne from 1935 to 1968. They reflect Woodbourne's function in handling both defective delinquent and normal/borderline inmates. Because it has served as a transfer institution, Woodbourne's case files contain inmate records from several different institutions within the corrections system. The files are divided into two portions. 3,700 case files relate to either normal inmates confined from 1935 to 1947 or borderline inmates confined from 1947 to 1968. These 3,700 case files relate to inmates with numbers between #52 and #8232. The other 1,200 case files relate to defective delinquent inmates confined from 1935 to 1950, with inmate numbers between #4 and #2560. Case files for these defective delinquent inmates contain a number of detailed records used in the process of psychiatric and intelligence level classifications and vocational education. Many of the classification records were prepared at the Institution for Male Defective Delinquents at Napanoch where most of Woodbourne's defective delinquent inmates were initially confined.