Watertown Correctional Facility
Watertown Correctional Facility
23147 Swan Road
Watertown, New York 13601-9340
Also sometimes known as Dry Hill Prison.
In 1981, about a year after the Dry Hill Radar Installation was closed, prison Commissioner Thomas A. Coughlin III announced that the military radar station would be made into a medium-security prison.
Rebuilding of existing buildings started in January of 1982 and by June the prison received its first inmates. Since that time and into the next year the prison had about 225 inmates and in Spring of the next year the state Legislature granted that the prison could expand to 545 beds, and bids of more than $13 million were awarded. Construction on the expansion started that Fall. The expansion was completed in the Fall of 1984 with three new dormitory housing units housing 100 inmate each and a new mess hall and kitchen. Now the prison has the capacity to house a total of about 750+ inmates.
The prison is now permanently closed.