When most people picture Upstate New York, their minds wander to postcard perfect images like the Adirondacks stretching toward the sky, cozy small towns with church steeples and diners on the corner, or the sun setting over the vineyards of the Finger Lakes. It feels peaceful, almost storybook.
But tucked into that same landscape, hidden behind high fences and razor wire, are some of the most infamous prisons in America. These aren’t just anonymous gray buildings on the horizon, they’re places that have held men and women whose names once splashed across front pages and filled nightly news broadcasts.
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From murderers whose crimes shattered the quiet of their hometowns to escapees who had the entire state holding its breath