Forwarded for a friend, Tom McCarthy, who is wrestling with the devils of
"rejection-for-nonrecognition-of-sender". - David Minor
=====
A history of Dannemora & its prison yard inmate-"owned" patios A New York
Correction History Society web presentation about Clinton StatePrison at
Dannemora, NY's largest and third oldest state penitentiary, hasbeen
unveiled and can be accessed from its own "Dannemora Yard Dens" icon onthe
NYCHS home page at www.correctionhistory.org
The presentation points up interesting NYC angles.
The icon title refers to an anomaly in American Correction, a unique
featureof the recreation yard at the mountainside prison -- a vast
sectionresembling a hillside makeshift "hobo" village or shantytown of
terracedopen-air dens or patios that inmate co-op groups "own," build,
maintain andenjoy. There they cook, eat, play cards and board games,
"farm," garden,chat and relax.
The 115-file presentation -- 32 HTML pages and 83 images -- is a
webtranscription of two parts drawn from a 350+page 1972 report on the
prison:an 11-page summary of its then 125-year history and a 55-page study
of itsrecreation yard open-air dens or patios that the inmates and staff
call "thecourts."
NYCHS is pleased and honored that architectural sociologist Dr. Ron
Roizen,author of those two parts of the 1972 report, provided us with an
original1972 printed copy for the purposes of this presentation.
Illustrating thepresentation are various relevant maps and photos from the
1972 report. The Roizen historical summary opens by
spotlighting 19th Century NYC artisans' organized support for
setting up Dannemora penitentiary as an iron mining prison near the
border with Canada.
The Roizen study of Clinton prison yard "courts" discusses,
among other aspects, the contrast between howthey were viewed by
long-term state prison inmates and howthey were viewed by New York City
jail inmates serving misdemeanor sentencesof much shorter length at
Dannemora under special arrangements to alleviateovercrowding in the city's
correction system.
A transcription of a 1969 NYC DOC annual report description of those
specialarrangements is provided through pop-up windows in the presentation
at thepoint of discussion and can also be accessed via the NYC DOC shield
icon onthe society's home page at www.correctionhistory.org
NYCHS is a nonprofit Regents-chartered historical society formed in
July1999 by current and former correctional agency officials, officers,
civilianstaffers, monitors and advocates as well as historians and other
scholarsinterested in pursuing, preserving and promoting the history of
correctionalservices -- state, city, county, and community -- in New
York. Itswww.correctionhistory.org site -- with more than 3,000
files andsite-specific search capacity -- is believed the single largest
resource onthe Internet for New York correction history.
Thomas C. McCarthyNew York Correction History SocietyGeneral
[log in to unmask] York City
Dept. of CorrectionDirector of Historical Services66-26 Metropolitan Ave.
(Correction Academy)Middle Village, NY
[log in to unmask](718) 417 2315 (voice mail)(718) 417-2326
(fax)
David Minor
Eagles Byte Historical Research
Pittsford, New York
585 264-0423
[log in to unmask]
Visit the Canal Society of New York State page at http://www.canalsnys.org/
To be put on the mailing list for the weekly TimeMaster radio scripts
(WXXI-FM 91.5), as well as a Quote of the Week and a URL of the Week,
e-mail me at the address above.
http://home.eznet.net/~dminor
includes NYNY, a series of timelines covering New York City and State, from
approximately 1,100,000,000 BC to 1991 AD.
"I would undertake to supply your demands if your generosity is equal to them."
-John Bartram, U. S. naturalist
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