Fishkill Correctional Facility

Cost: $50 million

Development Team

Owner: Office of General Services, Department of Correctional Services, Albany, N.Y.
Construction Manager: Christa Construction, Victor, N.Y.
General Contractor: U.W. Marx Construction Co., Troy, N.Y.
Plumbing and HVAC Contractor: C.B. Strain & Son, Inc., Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

While the United States prides itself on being one of the freest countries on Earth, it also has the highest percentage of its citizens in prison.

In 2001, 6.6 million Americans were in prison or on probation. That's 3.1 percent of all U.S. residents or one in every 32 adults, and the numbers have been rising steadily over the last 20 years.

It is no wonder then that one of 2002's top projects in the New York region was the construction of two new buildings at the Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, N.Y. The $50 million project for which Victor, N.Y.-based Christa Construction Inc. served as construction manager, involved the construction of a 100-cell maximum security building and a 200,000-sq.-ft. regional medical unit on the prison grounds.

The new maximum-security building can accommodate 200 prisoners in a series of self-contained cells. It was built as one of eight projects approved in the state budget in 2002 to expand maximum-security prison capacity state-wide by 3,100 cells.

The medical building at Fishkill is now serving sick inmates from a number of area prisons. It contains 120 beds, examination rooms, x-ray facilities and dental operations, all of which are under fully secure conditions.