By Julia Marnin
The Charlotte Observer
FISHKILL, N.Y. — A 19-year-old visiting an abandoned prison to take photos needed rescuing when he “became trapped in a cell” at the former New York correctional center, authorities said.
After calling for help, state troopers and firefighters who arrived at the old Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill at about 12:04 a.m. on June 14 found him stuck in the cell and helped him out, according to a New York State Police news release issued that day.
Troopers then arrested the 19-year-old Argyle resident on a third-degree criminal trespassing charge, police said.
Information on his legal representation was not immediately available.
The man had illegally accessed the shuttered state prison by “crawling through a hole” in a fence surrounding the Downstate Correctional Facility, about a 75-mile drive north from New York City, according to state police.
Now facing a misdemeanor trespassing charge, he is due in Fishkill court at a later date that wasn’t specified, police said.
History of the shuttered prison
For more than 50 years, the Downstate Correctional Facility housed inmates at maximum security, the Times Union newspaper reported.
It was one of six prisons that shut down in March 2022, according to the newspaper. Its closure was related to a drop in the state’s incarcerated population.
In June 2024 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a plan to redevelop the prison into an affordable “mixed-income housing and community space” with nearly 1,300 units.
The proposal to refurbish the site includes plans to build a playground, a walking trail and other amenities for residents, Hochul’s office said in a news release issued last summer. The plan would provide about 200 construction jobs.
The former prison is in Dutchess County, located in New York’s Hudson Valley region.
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