Home PageOpened as a haven for women, now serves men
A stroll down West 110th Street inNewYork City is to visit a pleasant and serene residential neighborhood. The street itself frames the northern end of the internationally acclaimed Central Park. One notices an eight-story structure at number 31, sandwiched between two well-kept residences. Further inspection confirms the frequent comings and goings of its 260 or so residents. This is not an ordinary Manhattan neighborhood residence. This is the Lincoln Correctional Facility, which wears a triumvirate of hats as a work release, day reporting and educational release prison for men.
Lincoln�s principal function is to provide inmates nearing release with a physical, motivational and supportive setting for meaningful work and educational release programs within or close to the communities in which they plan to reside upon release.
In essence, it serves as a bridge between incarceration and success on the outside. The thrust of the programs at Lincoln centers around individual and family counseling and upgrading marketable job skills and personal abilities.
And thanks to the continued dedication and diligence of staff and volunteers from the local community, it�s a mission that�s been successful since the facility accepted its first inmates in 1976.
Lincoln is located between 5th and 6th avenues in a building that opened in 1914. In its early years, like today, the building�s mission was to address the transitional needs of its occupants, a roster that once included female Hebrew immigrants. This eight-story building was built specifically to serve as a Young Women�s Hebrew Association (YWHA) center. It had the capacity to provide services for up to 160 newly-arrived immigrants who had decided to make Manhattan their new home in America.
Those running the association provided their grateful clients with temporary housing and centralized social, recreational and dining services.Dancing, music and revelry filled the spacious building on a regular basis. Strong friendships were quickly forged that in many cases lasted a lifetime.
The building featured a swimming pool in the basement, a gymnasium and a theater with a balcony and exquisite lobby on the first floor. There were offices and classrooms on the second and third floors. On floors four through seven, there were dormitory-style rooms for the female residents and a sprinkling of separate rooms for approved overnight visitors. The kitchen and dining room were on the eighth floor. The roof � more commonly known as the ninth floor �was a place for relaxing, socializing and absorbing the breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline.
The building�s mission remained the same for the better part of the next three decades, until it was occupied by the U.S. Army at the start of World War II as a place of rest and relaxation for the troops.
The steady �rental monies� gleaned from the government under this arrangement allowed for a host of building improvements and renovations. Those changes helped to prepare the site for its new mission as �The New Lincoln School,� also called �The Experimental School.�
Initially, from 1948 to 1951, school officials rented some space in the building from the YWHA and purchased it in 1951 for $293,000. By taking control of the entire building, it enabled educators to teach upward of 330 co-ed students ranging from elementary to secondary grades.
Due to its progressive mission, the school reached out to ethnically diverse, bright but poor students. Depending on need, scholarships were also made available. Annual tuition was $680 in the 1950�s and $1,400 in the early 1970�s.
In the late 1960�s, The New Lincoln School continued to reach out to under-serviced children by renting a floor of the building to the �Northside Center for Child Development.� That was an organization started by doctors, including Kenneth Clark.
The Clarks developed and presented the psychological and research data used by U.S. Supreme Court justices in their rulings that the separate education of black children was inherently unequal and psychologically damaging to both black and white children. Its landmark 1954 decision began a process to integrate public schools with �all deliberate speed.�
Based on the Supreme Court rulings, The New Lincoln School Board of Trustees made the decision to sell the building.
Educators found an eager taker in the state of New York. Lincoln debuted as a work and education release prison in 1976. But there was a glitch before the needed building renovations were accomplished and the arrival of the first inmates. Area residents had grown accustomed to having tranquil immigrant
Jewish women and eager school children in the building. Theywere not exactly overjoyed with the prospects of having convicted felons as their neighbors. The outcry was so unified and sustained that the Department was forced to obtain the building by eminent domain, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. The prevailing notion among area residents was that this new arrangement would be nothing but a negative. But the prison would become a good neighbor.
A well-documented track record of success
Lincoln is classified as a minimum-security facility for male inmates aged 16 and older.
Lincoln serves three populations: 250 inmates assigned to work release, 50 in drug treatment and as many more in community service crews.
Lincoln was first accredited by the American Correctional Association (ACA) in 1996, affirming that itmeets and in many cases exceeds nationally-acceptable correctional standards in all facets of its daily administration and operations. The facility was last accredited in 2002 and will next be re-accredited in 2005.
The Department�s temporary release programs, which include work release, have proven to be a cost-effective means of housing select non-violent felony offenders in a secure environment without jeopardizing community safety.
The core mandate of such programs is to transition inmates from prison to the streets by enabling them to obtain gainful employment and find residences during their incarceration.
These inmates are also learning a work ethic by showing up to their jobs on time each day, taking pride in their work and learning valuable job skills that will help provide for themselves and their families.
The programs are successful: Repeated studies by New York, other jurisdictions and outside organizations have confirmed that inmates who successfully participate in these programs return to prison at lower rates than those who do not.
Helping fuel the lower recidivism rate is the fact thatwork release tends to make inmates more financially stable at the time of their release than inmates who did not participate in the program. Most have also been able to develop a broad-based community support system, and hopefully permanent employment.
To be eligible to participate in the temporary release program, an inmate must be within 24 months of their earliest release date, parole eligibility, conditional release or maximum expiration of sentence. They also must never have been convicted of absconding or escape offenses; have no outstanding warrants, and be physically, mentally and emotionally capable of seeking andmaintaining steady, gainful employment. Participants also cannot be convicted of a homicide, sex crime or most other violent felonies.
Under temporary release, eligible inmates may be granted the privilege of leaving their respective facility for a period not exceeding 14 hours in any given day, with the exception of those inmates who may be on furloughs. Inmates assigned to temporary release participate in work release, educational release, furlough, a community service program and a rehabilitation therapy program.
The majority of Lincoln�s inmates, like inmates at other similar facilities, are assigned to work release.
Work release inmates typically work 40 hours a week. On their off hours, they do what any averageNewYorkerwould do. They attend self-help meetings and counseling sessions, seek permanent employment, run errands or go to school or church. They also return to the facility at night to attend programming under the oversight of staff and community volunteers.
Inmates assigned to work release see Social Security payments as well as federal and state income taxes withheld from their paychecks, like any other wage earner. The net earnings for work release inmates totaled $6,393,403 in 2002 and they paid $1,910,660 in taxes.
They also paid $2,216,838 in room and board charges and saved $3,728,428 to help provide for themselves and their families upon release from prison. Additionally, they paid just under $450,000 in family support, reducing the need for or the amount of money taxpayers spend on public assistance.
Inmate wages earned through an inmate�s outside employment must be surrendered to facility staff, who then deposit them into the inmate�s account. Money the inmates accumulate in their accounts allows them to begin transitioning into the community, often a step ahead of other inmates released from non-work-release facilities.
Former inmates have described the work release program as �a second chance at life,� helping thousands of inmates to make a difficult transition from incarcerated felon to law-abiding citizen. Inmates aren�t the only winners under the restructured temporary release program. Communities throughout the state have also benefitted thanks to Governor Pataki.
His January 1995 Executive Order barred inmates convicted of committing violent acts from participating in temporary release programs.
That resulted in a 79 percent reduction in inmate participation, from 27,937 in 1994 to 5,797 in 2002. Between 85-90 percent of temporary release inmates are on work release.
Since the Governor�s action, the average daily participation in work release has declined by 74 percent, from 6,300 in 1994 to 1,652 in 2002. At the same time there�s been:
An integral part of the neighborhood
Since it�s primarily a transitional services facility, Lincoln�s inmates for the most part aren�t involved in vocational, industrial and other typical prison activities. But there are exceptions.
For instance a few inmates are �employed� on community service crews and work for the Division of Industries.
Previous assignments have included:
The free concert series was started several years ago and has grown in popularity annually, thanks to the efforts of staff and inmates. Past head-liners have included Ashford and Simpson, Teena Marie and the Mighty Sparrow. The facility provides as many as 25 inmates and several Correction Officers to transport and provide supervision four days a week from July through August.
The tireless efforts of Lincoln�s staff and inmates are visible on a daily basis. Crews clean and sweep the entire neighborhood corridor from 5th Avenue, where a statue of jazz legend Duke Ellington sits. They also tend to 6th Avenue, where there is a triangular sidewalk tribute to Malcolm X. Then it�s off to 7th Avenue and then 8th Avenue, where a circular rotunda is being proposed to commemorate Frederick Douglas, the great orator. They are a big part of the reason the neighborhood looks as well as it does today.
Inmates aren�t the only ones who�ve been making a visible difference in the community.
Staff, community integration remains strong
Staff have embraced the community and its residents, often taking up residence in the neighborhood and becoming key strands in the community fabric. They serve on community boards, work as scout leaders and mentors to the children of their neighbors, serve as sports coaches, volunteer their time at food banks and houses of worship and hold countless fund-raisers for those in need.
The Central Park North community has come on board as well. They assist staff on a daily basis trying to help ensure that the soon-to-be-released Lincoln inmates have the tools and knowledge to succeed on the outside.
Registered volunteers come in to meet and speak with inmates, often operating independent of staff. Their offerings are varied and geared toward providing inmates with even more tools and skills and offering them from a different perspective.
Among other things, the volunteers conduct AA, NA and other self-help groups and provide other services. They, along with staff, try to help inmates forge bonds with community agencies to help ensure a smooth transition. Those efforts could include such things as setting up job interviews or making sure of a continuum of appropriate aftercare.
Lincoln has indeed come a long way since it opened to skepticism and even furor 27 years ago. During the early years of its existence the residents in the area embraced the work of Lincoln staff and the supervised community crews. Many were so impressed that they joined the Lincoln Advisory Board and have been active and dedicated allies in helping the facility meet its mission
Article is from DOCS TODAY November 2003