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Administrative History

Matteawan State Hospital opened in 1892 and was originally designed to house inmates previously held at the State Asylum for Insane Convicts at Auburn.

Chapter 525 of the Laws of 1904 mandated that Matteawan provide for the custody and care of: those persons committed by criminal courts or transferred there by the State Commission in Lunacy; convicts declared insane while serving sentences of one year or less for a misdemeanor; and for all female convicts declared insane while serving a sentence. Eventually inmate population extended to include: the dangerously mentally ill from civil hospitals in New York State; the indicted who were unfit to stand trial and those charged with crimes who had not been indicted and declared unfit to stand trial. In early 1973 Matteawan State Hospital, Beacon State Institution (created in 1966, Ch. 819) and the Glenham Correctional Facility (created in 1970) were combined as the Correctional Center for Medical Services at Beacon, which in turn was renamed the Fishkill Correctional Facility. In 1977 patients were transferred from Matteawan to the Central New York Psychiatric Center or to one of seven satellite centers throughout the state.

The Dannemora State Hospital for Insane Convicts was officially established in 1899 (Ch. 520) as a facility for the confinement and care of males convicted of felonies who were declared insane while serving sentences. The hospital was constructed on the grounds of Clinton Prison and received its first inmates in 1900. After the hospital was completed all males convicted of felonies who had at least six months to serve on their sentences were to be transferred from the Matteawan State Hospital. In addition, males serving time for felonies in state prison reformatories or penitentiaries and who were declared insane were to be transferred to Dannemora. In 1912 (Ch. 121) the institution's name was changed to Dannemora State Hospital and in 1926 (Ch. 606) it was placed under the supervision of the Department of Correction. The hospital operated as a confinement and care facility for mentally ill convicts and tubercular convicts until 1972 when it was closed and the inmates transferred to the Matteawan State Hospital.