The Vernon C Bain Correctional Center, as the ship is named, is a five-story prison boat and looks more like a container ship than a prison.
The reason for closing the boat is part of the city of New York’s broader plan to make room for several smaller prisons. A decision that has been welcomed by, among others, the human rights group Freedom Agenda, which has previously called the boat a “modern slave ship”. Inmates and advocates alike have long viewed the prison boat as a symbol of the city’s failed attempts to reform New York’s large and dangerous prisons.
Testimonials about rodents
Inmates on the boat have also testified about mould, cramped cells and also that rodents get in and eat the prisoners’ food.
Several people have also died while in prison on the boat. Last September, a 44-year-old man committed suicide by jumping from the ship.
The roughly 500 prisoners who remain on the ship are now being moved to another prison on nearby Rikers Island, which, according to the plan, will also eventually close.
Place for 800 prisoners
The boat, which has been moored outside an industrial area in New York, will now close at the end of the week after operating as a prison since 1992.
The idea of having prisons on boats came about in the late 1980s when New York had major problems with overcrowded prisons.
What will happen to the ship itself in the future is still unclear.