New York State's Scariest Prison
Two murderers escaped Clinton Correctional Facility this weekend, willing to risk death by AR-15 and seven extra years for their attempt. That's drawn a lot of attention to the facility, which many outlets have referred to by the nickname of "Little Siberia" because of the cold upstate climate. But it's not really called Little Siberia, or at least not by anyone I met over my ten years and three months in the Correctional Department of New York State.
Whether by cop or by con, I've only heard Clinton called "Dannemora," and that's enough. Because Dannemora is the most notorious prison in the state, a place even the most hardened criminals try to avoid.
Dannemora has the nation's attention right now, but it had mine for a years. Attica is more famous thanks to the 1971 riot, and Sing Sing still has the chair (though it's getting dusty, the last electrocution having come in 1963), but to properly put the fear of God into prisoners, cops threatened us with a 400-mile trip upstate.
Convicts cherish the northernmost "Max"—maximum security prison—when they bullshit, frequently bragging about surviving Clinton. All four of Dannemora's syllables were meticulously enunciated every time it was used to scare me. The five letters of my simple last name were routinely misread, but Dannemora was never stuttered nor contracted by the cops and cons who said it nice and slow to convey the horror.
http://www.vice.com/read/a-former-new-york-state-inmate-on-the-prison-the-two-murderers-escaped-from
= new reply since forum marked as read
