Five Points Correctional Facility Explained
Five Points Correctional Facility[1] (FPCF) is a maximum security state prison for men located in Romulus, New York, and operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Five Points is known as a supermax prison.[2]
History
The prison was built in 2000 with a capacity of 1,500 inmates, as well as a Special Housing Unit (SHU) for up to 50 inmates in disciplinary confinement. Five Points was originally named for the five points that are seen from above, showing each housing block location. As of 2008, 71% of the inmates were convicted of a violent crime and 16% of the inmates were being treated for mental health issues.
FPCF's academic courses included Adult Basic Education (ABE) and Pre-High School Equivalency (Pre-HSE), and High School Equivalency (HSE). Vocational courses included building maintenance, custodial maintenance, painting/decorating, computer operator, electrical trades, horticulture/ agriculture, small engine repair, masonry, and plumbing/heating. The library contained approximately 3,000 books and periodicals.
Notable inmates
- Demetrius Blackwell – Convicted of First Degree Murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2017 for the murder of New York City Police Officer Brian Moore in Queens Village, NY on May 2, 2015 (Moore survived the shooting, but died two days later). Moore was posthumously promoted to the rank of Detective, 1st grade by New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton at his funeral.
- Willie Bosket – Adult repeat offender who, in 1978, received the maximum five-year sentence for multiple murder as a (fifteen-year-old) juvenile, causing New York to become the first state to change its laws so that juveniles as young as 13 could be tried as an adult for murder.
- Peter Braunstein – former journalist, writer, and playwright dubbed the "Halloween rapist"
- Lemuel Smith – Serial killer and rapist. Convicted of killing six people between 1958 and 1981, including the first ever murder (1981) of an on-duty female corrections officer by an inmate at a prison.
- David Sweat – Transferred there after 2015 escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York[3]
- Manuel Rivera- Bronx trinitarios gang member serving 23 years to life. Convicted of 1st degree murder for participating in the murder of Lesandro Guzman-Feliz. Rivera was the youngest of the gang members being 18 at the time. Transferred to Great Meadow Correctional Facility in March 2021.
- Jamir Thompson-Thompson, of Yonkers, has been sentenced to nine years to life in state prison. Thompson pled guilty on July 8 to Murder in the Second Degree, a felony, for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Marilyn Cotto-Montanez.
External links
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Notes and References
- Web site: Prison Website.
- Web site: Grondahl . Paul . Prison escapee David Sweat severely isolated, controlled in . Times Union . 24 July 2015 . In corrections parlance, Five Points is known as a "super-max." It was built 15 years ago and the modular cell units were hauled to the rural prison site two at a time on flatbed trucks and bolted together end-to-end to form a cellblock..
- Web site: Inmate lookup: Sweat, David . New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
