Michael A Klumpp Popular Books

Michael A Klumpp Biography & Facts

The Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center (VCBC; also known as the Vernon C. Bain Maritime Facility and nicknamed "The Boat") was an 800-bed jail barge used to hold inmates for the New York City Department of Corrections. The barge was anchored off the Bronx's southern shore, across from Rikers Island, near Hunts Point. It was built for $161 million at Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana, along the Mississippi River near New Orleans, and brought to New York in 1992 to reduce overcrowding in the island's land-bound buildings for a lower price. Nicknamed "The Boat" by prison staff and inmates, it was designed to handle inmates from medium- to maximum-security in 16 dormitories and 100 cells. The Vernon C. Bain Center was the third prison barge that the New York Department of Corrections has used. In its history, the prison has served traditional inmates, juvenile inmates and is currently used as a holding and temporary processing center. The added security of the prison being on water has prevented at least four attempted escapes. The barge was named in memorial for warden Vernon C. Bain, who died in an automobile accident. In 2014, the prison barge was named the world's largest prison barge in operation by Guinness World Records. The barge was decommissioned in November 2023. History Planning In the late 1980s, the New York City Department of Correction experienced overcrowding issues in its prison complexes. The idea of temporarily alleviating the issues of a growing inmate population and dwindling space by outfitting prison ships was conceived under the administration of then Mayor Edward I. Koch. Their solution was to develop usable prison space with maritime cells and avoid complaints about building jails in densely populated neighborhoods. At the time, the prisons at nearby Rikers Island held 22,000 inmates, and with this number increasing consistently, were nearing capacity. In 1988, the Bibby Resolution and her sister ship Bibby Venture were bought by the New York City Department of Correction to serve as the first two prison ships. Both ships were previously used as British troop carriers before being re-purposed into prison ships. The Bibby Venture was docked off Manhattan's Greenwich Village, while the Bibby Resolution was located off the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They were decommissioned in 1992. In 1994 both ships were sold, leaving the Bain Correctional Center and two converted Staten Island ferries, the Harold A. Wildstein and Walter B. Keane, docked at Rikers Island to be used when overcrowding became an issue. Construction The construction of the Vernon C. Bain Center prison barge began in 1989 at Avondale Shipyard by Avondale Industries and was supposed to be finished in 1990 at the price of $125.7 million. Due to unanticipated construction problems including issues with the ventilation system, the finished barge was delivered 18 months late and $35 million over budget. The barge was originally slated to be docked at the Brooklyn Army Terminal or the mayor's mansion. The site ultimately chosen, at Hunts Point, was selected after protests arose over the other proposed sites. On January 26, 1992, the recently outfitted prison barge was brought through Long Island Sound by the tugboat, Michael Turecamo, after an 1,800 nautical mile trip. The new barge was named for well-liked and respected warden Vernon C. Bain, who had died in an automobile accident. One of the first captains of the barge under the Department of Corrections had previously been employed by the same tugboat company and had earlier captained the tugboat that hauled the barge to its current location. The new crew of the prison barge, who were placed in accordance with Coast Guard regulations, worked on the empty barge to learn the vessel operations, including the electrical and fire fighting systems. The barge officially opened for use and began accepting inmates later in 1992. Usage From the time the barge was constructed, there had been controversy about its cost. The final price was more than $35 million over budget, which attracted negative attention. The assistant correction commissioner, John H. Shanahan, claimed the price difference was because the Department of Corrections "never designed this kind of passenger vessel before and unfortunately there was a mistake in the original contract." William Booth, the chairman of the Board of Corrections, said at the time that the prison barge would be the last barge the Department of Corrections would build because the process was too expensive and too uncertain. The Board of Corrections is an independent body that monitors city-owned prisons. By the time the Bain Center opened, the inmate population of New York City's jail system had started to decline. The prison barge was temporarily closed in August 1995 due to less crowded city jails, caused by a decline in arrests and inmate transfers. In late 1996, the prison was slated for reopening due to the rise in arrests from a campaign targeting drugs and drug dealers. The six-month campaign expected more than seven thousand additional arrests than usual, but the ship was not reopened until 1998 when it was used by the Department of Juvenile Justice. The Bain Center was then used as a processing facility for inmates in the Department of Corrections system, supplementing three other processing facilities that each handle specific boroughs. In early 2016, New York City government officials began looking into ways to possibly shutter Rikers Island and transfer prisoners to other locations. One plan is to situate a 2,000-bed jail in the parking lot for the Bain Center. Another similar plan includes closing the barge jail. In 2018 the city released plans to phase out Rikers Island over ten years and replace it with borough-based jails. The Bain Center was included in the plan to close Rikers Island, which the New York City Council voted to approve in October 2019. Under the bill, both facilities would have to close by 2026. The jail barge was the subject of several high-profile incidents in its final years. For example, one inmate died in 2021 after he contracted meningitis and was left untreated, while another inmate killed himself in 2022 after jumping off the barge. Opponents of the barge's continued operation said the facility's inmates, who were largely Hispanic and black, were incarcerated "with minimal oversight". In September 2023, the city's Department of Corrections announced plans to decommission the Vernon C. Bain Center by that October. The DOC would move the barge's 200 staff and 500 prisoners to Rikers Island. The last prisoners were moved off the barge that November. The Associated Press wrote at the time that the barge was "grim vestige of mass incarceration, an enduring symbol of the city’s failures to reform dangerous jails" in the city. Facilities The 625-foot-long (191 m) by 125-foot-wide (38 m) flatbed barge had 16 dormitories and 100 cells for inmates. For recreation,.... Discover the Michael A Klumpp popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Michael A Klumpp books.