Adirondack Correctional Facility

But not all visitors to the Adirondacks are tourists or convalescents. Alongside the bubbling Ray Brook, midway between Saranac Lake and  Lake Placid, there reside 700 men who did not come for the air or the breathtaking scenery. These men are kept here by uniformed officers and a security fence topped by razor ribbon. They are serving time at the medium-security Adirondack Correctional Facility.

That we should find a correctional facility in the mountains is not surprising: prisons have often been located in out-of-the-way places. That it is in the heart of a resort area may be somewhat unusual, but it did not start out as a prison, and Ray Brook was not always a resort area. Owing to the quality of the mountain air, private sanatoriums began to appear in the Adirondacks more than a century ago. When the state acquired land for a tuberculosis hospital, it was just another entry in the local economic and cultural scheme. When medical advances tamed tuberculosis and the sanatorium closed, the state continued to conform to the local treatment tradition ion, converting the site to a treatment center for female drug addicts. The drug rehabilitation center was really a prison in disguise, so its transformation a few years later to a minimum-security correctional camp was not a violent break with custom. The upgrading of the camp to the present medium-security facility came as a natural progression.

The White Plague

Tuberculosis, an infectious disease spread primarily by coughing and sneezing, has been with mankind for thousands of years. It reached epidemic proportions with the increasingly congested living and working conditions brought about by the Industrial Revolution. By 1900, it was the leading cause of death for all age groups in the United States; in the first two decades of this century, TB killed over 100,000 people and sickened another million. Until recently, tuberculosis was known as "consumption," a horridly graphic description of a horrid disease. It was also called the White Plague, partly by contrast with the Black Death that wiped out a third of Europe in the Middle Ages and partly because the skin of tuberculosis victims could develop a death warrant pallor.

Desperate people will try anything: before modern medicine, there was magic. The ancient Romans ate wolf's liver boiled in wine or drank elephant's blood. Weasel's blood and pigeon dung were prescribed in the 14th Century. The King's touch was sought by sufferers for 700 years, up into the 18th Century, and folk healers in the 19th Century attached a live trout to the patient's chest. In China into our own century, the blood of executed criminals was used as a salve.

In the early 1800's, some physicians began to recommend retirement to a warm climate, such as the Mediterranean Sea in Europe or, in America, the southwestern states. Later, the medical profession shifted to advocacy of cool mountain air.

In I859, a German physician established the first mountain sanatorium and, in 1884, a young physician named Edward Livingston Trudeau opened the first American sanatorium in Saranac Lake. Initially, the sanatorium regime included horseback riding and other open air exercise; later experience showed that rest was more effective. Until the 1940's, the only treatment was complete bed rest, with bedpans and spoon-feeding for up to a year. Patients spent their days in rows of chairs and cots, bundled in blankets against the cold, on the sanatorium's vast verandas and porches.

Sixteen years after the opening of Trudeau's sanatorium, the legislature provided for a state tuberculosis hospital to be built in the Saranac Lake area. In 1902, ground was broken on a 529-acre site. The Ray Brook Sanatorium accepted its first patients in July of 1904.

The Sanatorium consisted of one permanent structure (the present "B" Building) and a camp of 2O tents, each sleeping two patients. that were used seasonally until 1920. In 1911, the sanatorium capacity was doubled with the addition of two wings to "B" Building. The following year, "C" Building was erected to provide staff housing, and an annex was built in 1913. Over the next few years, cottages for medical staff were built. In 1939, an infirmary was constructed with a modem operating suite for major thoracic and other surgery in what is now called "A" Building; additional activities in 1939 included building a nine-hole golf course and a large ballfield.

In the mid-I 930's, researchers achieved hopeful results with drug treatment and, in 1943, streptomycin was discovered and the first tuberculosis cure was effected at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.. Over the next decade, other chemicals were developed. With other advances - x-ray and other detection methods, improvements in hygiene cite, development of a vaccine and milk pasteurization  it appeared that tuberculosis had at last been vanquished. The Trudeau Institute closed in 1954. The State Sanatorium at Ray Brook began to phase out in 1965.

Tuberculosis would later show itself diabolically effective at evolving immunities to drugs. For a while, simultaneous treatment with several drugs in combination was able to stay ahead of the bacterial evolution, but a multi-drug resistant strain would emerge in the 1980's, creating  new fears of the epidemic spread of the disease.

When the sanatorium closed, the property was transferred from the Department of Health to the new  Drug Addiction Control Commission (DACC), a combination enforcement and treatment arm of Governor Rockefeller's anti-drug program. The Ray Brook Rehabilitation Center opened in June 1971 as a drug treatment center for 70 to 130 women ad-diets, some with criminal sentences and others under civil commitments.

Treating drug addiction

With the change in function, did the locals rush out to upgrade their locks? Hardly. Essex County had for generations coexisted with institutions such as the state sanatarium, the Trudeau Institute, the Will Rogers Hospital and the Marcy State Hospital. '"Treatment" was a staple of the local vocabulary. A rehabilitation center, especially one with a non-threatening female clientele, was well within the community's comfort zone.

Before opening, William Quick (Ray Brook's first director) met with the Chamber of Commerce to a warm reception. Quick says that the clearest signal of public welcome came the very next winter, when a float obviously entered by the Rehabilitation Center - its African-American riders were conspicuous in the overwhelmingly white North Country crowd - was awarded first prize at the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival.

The Ray Brook Rehabilitation Center functioned very much like the Department's CASAT facilities of today, offering individual and group therapy together with a program of education and recreation. Many residents were permitted to go into the community where they held jobs in the private sector.

The facility was in operation for less than five years. The idea of involuntary treatment under conditions of incarceration had been undertaken in a desperate effort to "do something" about the drug problem. Though officials struggled a while "in denial," they eventually had to quietly admit that the experiment ment was a failure. DACC shifted its emphasis to community treatment, often contracting with private providers. The Ray Brook Rehabilitation Center closed in March of 1976. So did a great many other DACC facilities, such as Edgecombe, Fulton, Queensboro, Parkside, Arthur Kill, Bayview, Lincoln and Woodbourne, together with DACC units at Greenhaven, Fishkill, Great Meadow and Albion. Every bed would be absorbed by the corrections system.

New York's first adult correctional camp

As another step in the growing diversification of the correctional system, correctional camps were authorized in New York State in 1955 for youthful offenders aged 16 to 21. They were intended to foster responsibility while contributing to the conservation and preservation of State forest lands. Camp Pharsalia opened in 1956, followed by Monterey, Summit and Georgetown. Believing that the camp program would also be suitable for more mature inmates, New York established Camp Adirondack on the grounds of Clinton in Dannemora in I 972.

Simultaneously with the phasing out of DACC residential centers, the mental health system was also in the process of deinstitutionalization. It is no coincidence that the correctional system now began a rapid escalation in population growth. DOCS seized the newly-available sites, including Ray Brook. The Ray Brook facilities and spacious grounds were ideal for a correctional camp, whereas the Dannemona location could more advantageously be used for higher security programming.

So in September 1976, an initial gang of about 40 Camp Adirondack inmates was brought down to set up and open Ray Brook some 45 miles away; the remaining inmates followed shortly after. Several of the staff came with them, and were joined by a number of DACC holdovers. The move from Dannemora to Ray Brook is the only known instance in New York of the relocation of an entire institution.

Again, the local community extended a welcoming hand. Residents were assured that prospective "campmen" would be screened to rule out violent criminals. 'The Department suggested the formation of a Community Advisory Board. Cornmunity leaders responded, and the board played an active role in planning and coordinating activities. Furthermore, the campmen quickly demonstrated their value to the community. Working closely with the Department of Environmental Conservation, campmen were engaged in logging, sawmill and wood treatment operations; wildlife preservation and stocking of lakes and streams; construction and maintenance of campsites and boat landing sites; maintenance of marine navigational aids; construction and maintenance of snowmobile and cross-country ski trails and construction of a toboggan run at the Mt. Pisgah ski area. The camp also annually constructed the Ice Palace for the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival.

Within two years, Camp Adirondack was embarking on its most outstanding project. Lake Placid had been selected as the site for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, and campmen were already working on the Olympic trails at Mt. Van Hoevenburg.

Right up to the start of the Games, they would continue to con-tribute directly to the Olympic effort  and to the incalculable economic benefits the Olympics would bring to the community. Hosting the games entailed infrastructure improvements such as upgrading roads and street lights in the village. Because the camp itself would be used for Olympic staff housing, the effort also resulted in renovation and refurbishment of the water treatment plant, sewage system, kitchen and housing and food service areas.

In January of 1980, the campmen were temporarily relocated, most of them to the Clinton Annex. Their departure made room for 900 State Police and 300 U.S. Customs Bureau personnel, the National Guard and security forces of foreign governments who would provide security for the Games. For a two-month period, the camp's residency was increased by sixfold. The camp's 125 permanent staff plus 70 temporary staff performed a variety of services for the guests, including laundry services and driving buses.

In addition to manpower, New York State contributed land, deeding over 200 acres of the Camp Adirondack property to the federal government. During the Games, the property would be used for the Olympic Village housing the athletes; afterward, it would hold a new federal prison. The Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) at Ray Brook, across the street, is sometimes confused with New York's facility, but the two neighboring prisons have a symbiotic relationship. Adirondack provides water and FCI reciprocates by providing waste treatment for both institutions.

Adirondack Correctional Facility

The Winter Olympic Games began on Feb.13, 1980, and concluded March 1. The campmen were returned quickly to an improved physical plant and their numbers began to climb. By the spring of 1981, there were 300 campmen and a security fence was installed around the perimeter of the main complex. Conversion was underway. In July 1981, Camp Adirondack was redesignated as a medium-security facility and renamed the Adirondack Correctional Facility.

The population continued to increase, to 464 by July and to over 500 the next year. In 1983, a second section of fencing was added to enclose the shop and maintenance areas as well as to provide for future expansion. That year, a new gymnasium was constructed; in 1989, a new visiting room and a new building for additional vocational training shops were completed.

The facility's current population is 713 With conversion to medium security, a modern core of on-grounds programming is stressed. A full range of academic and vocational training is offered along with individual counseling and case management activities and group counseling programs for alcohol and substance abuse and aggression. Adirondack also conducts recreational programming, pre-release preparation and inmate organization activities.

Adirondack continues its long-standing good neighbor policy, enhancing the quality of life for residents of Essex County During January's ice storm, Adirondack sent out four supervised crews of seven inmates each, averaging 10 hours a day assisting in debris removal and other emergency services. The facility regularly does recycling work for Lake Placid and annually provides flower beds and flower boxes for the parks and streets of the Village of Saranac Lake. There is always a special community project underway: inmates restored a fire truck used in parades in Elizabethtown, refurbished 25 sailboats for the Massawapie Boy Scouts, donated picnic benches to the Mount Pisgah Ski Center, constructed three gazebos for Saranac Lake, renovated the Saranac Lake Adult Center, made signs and log furniture for the Newcomb Visitors Interpretive Center, made cedar strip guide boats as raffle prizes for area little leagues, constructed more than 100 bunk beds for the Young Life Church Group in Upper Saranac Lake and are building a log cabin for Dewey Mountain.

The Community Advisory Board continues to be very active to this day. The membership, which includes a cross section of the local community, has been a source of support for over two decades.

A lot has changed since the TB hospital days. The little golf course is now a parking lot. The ballfield is underneath the Federal Correctional Institute. The responsibility for building the Ice Palace has passed to Camp Gabriels' inmates. Coke and Cola   the bear cubs who begged outside the kitchen door in the camp days  can't get through the new fence. But through all the changes, there has been one constant in the life of the Ray Brook institution: it belongs. Adirondack Correctional Facility is part of the Adirondack community.q

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