Floating prison crossbar. floating prison

The prison barge is not the setting of an American action movie starring Schwarzenegger, but a real floating prison for 800 prisoners, moored off the coast of the Bronx. Correctional Center named after Vernon Sea Bane is part of the world's largest prison complex, Rikers Island.

But even despite the gigantic size of this island-dungeon, from time to time there is still not enough space for prisoners, so in 1989 the New York authorities ordered a special floating prison. The $161 million contract was awarded to New Orleans-based Avondale Shipyard. In 1992, the barge was launched and, after traveling 1,800 nautical miles, arrived in New York. Not by herself, but with the help of tugboats, of course.

Such an original project for housing prisoners was chosen solely for financial reasons. The floating prison was cheaper than one of similar capacity, but built on the island itself. The new prison complex was supposed to be launched in 1990 and would cost the New York budget $125.6 million. But due to the lack of experience in designing such structures, mistakes were made that had to be corrected during construction. As a result, the budget increased by 35 million, and the delivery date was postponed by 18 months.


The Coast Guard viewed the city's new acquisition as a ship first and a prison second. Therefore, the prison department has to constantly keep a team of 3 people on it.


In 1995, the prison was decommissioned due to a lack of clients. Even the narcotics department could not help solve this problem. As a result, it stood empty for almost three years until it was temporarily used to house juvenile delinquents. The adult scoundrels returned to the floating prison only in 2000.


The barge is designed for 800 prisoners living in 16 common areas and 100 separate cells. It is now used as a reception and distribution center and is the largest floating prison in the world. It looks like she should have been hauled and moored at Rikers Island, but she's still sitting off the coast of the Bronx next to a large industrial area and fish market.


In 2002, a prisoner escaped through the fence of an outdoor basketball court located on the roof. Neither height nor barbed wire stopped him. The guards, in order to prevent the fugitive, threw basketballs at him, but he safely got over and jumped into the water of the bay, from where he was caught by a police boat that arrived in time.


In 2004, another prisoner obtained the key to the handcuffs, unfastened his cellmate while being transported from a barge to the island, and escaped by hiding under the bottom of a prison bus. At one of the Bronx intersections, he rolled out from under a bus and simply walked away. The guards noticed his disappearance only upon arrival. Despite his intelligence and dexterity, he was caught a month later and returned to prison with an additional sentence for escape.


This is not the first time that such floating correctional facilities have been used in New York. Center named after Vernon Sea Bane is the third full-fledged floating prison in the history of the city. It all started with old decommissioned Staten Island ferries, which in 1987 were driven to Rikers Island and, scalded on all sides with nets and bars, were converted into a place for holding prisoners. The ferries accommodated 162 people each, but after some time this was not enough. The crime-fighting company was gaining momentum, and when a new drug trafficking unit took over, 200 new prisoners began to be added to New York prisons every week.


To solve this problem, New York authorities bought from the British Ministry of Defense two floating barracks, Bibby Resolution and Bibby Venture (former Swedish floating hotels for oil workers), which were used to house British army personnel during the Falklands War. They were towed to New York and converted into floating prisons MTF1 and MTF2 (Maritime Facility).


The project cannot be called successful and effective. After an expensive reconstruction, instead of 800 British soldiers, they could only accommodate 386 New York prisoners each. One of the barges was moored at Rikers Island (with a $10 million pier built for it), and the second was directly opposite the East Village in Manhattan.


When they were no longer needed, the barges were sold. The buyers of one of them were the same Englishmen who in 1992 moved the barge to the Isle of Portland (Dorset) and subsequently used it to house those arrested during Operation Dimetrius against the Irish Republican Army. Prisoners and guards repeatedly complained about terrible conditions, cramped cells, lack of light and fresh air, and the prison itself was called a claustrophobe's dream.

The British named the barge HMP Weare (Her Majesty's Prison - Her Majesty's Prison).


In 2005, due to poor technical condition and high operating costs, she was sold to Sea Trucks Group, slightly reconstructed, renamed Jascon 27, and towed to Nigeria, where she is now home to 500 local oil workers.

The Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center is the world's only functioning floating prison. She is moored at Rikers Island near New York - the largest penal colony in the world. This blue and white monster weighs 47,326 tons and can hold at least 800 prisoners. Prisoners call it “Kater” and deservedly consider it a place from which it is extremely difficult to escape. Since 1992, barely two have succeeded.

The floating prison Vernon C. Bain was named after the respected (apparently only in his own circle) warden Vernon C. Bain. Its creation was prompted by an attempt to solve the problem of overpopulation on Rikers Island, where prisoners were packed like sardines in a barrel.

In 1990, the US government bought a disabled British landing ship, which became the basis for the future prison. Including the purchase and remodel, Vernon C. Bain cost $161 million (35 million more than expected).

Despite the fact that the amount was considerable and taxpayers were unhappy, it still turned out to be cheaper than building a new building on the island.

Despite the fact that the project was experimental, the idea is not new and floating prisons have been made for hundreds of years in a row. The British were especially successful in this, using barges to hold criminals in their colonies.

A typical colonial era floating prison. Almost all of them had ironic names, like “Happiness”, “Adventure” or “Journey”.

This mainly concerns Australia, where convicts and exiles were transported on floating prisons, as well as America, where pirates were kept on such ships.

The floating prison Vernon C. Bain was laid down in New Orleans, after which it was towed 1,800 miles to New York and began operation in 1992.

The Vernon C. Bain is 190 meters long and 38 meters wide. The ship has 14 hulls and 100 cameras. There are 800 beds in total, although more can be accommodated.

The floating prison is truly equipped to all standards. There is a place for walking and playing sports, a library and three churches (obviously for different denominations).

Throughout its history, the ship survived 4 escape attempts. In 1993, a 38-year-old prisoner escaped while clearing ice from a ship. Apparently, he managed to cross the bay on an ice crust that froze the water. In 2002, one of the criminals managed to climb over a 10-meter fence with barbed wire and dive into the water. The overseers were unable to climb up after him because they were wearing boots. But he was still picked up from the jet ski, so the escape was unsuccessful.

In other cases, prisoners managed to slip out of handcuffs. One of them even made a full escape, but for some reason remained in the vicinity of the prison and was detained a month later.
The imprisonment of criminals on a barge turned out to be a kind of experiment - in some places controversial, in others quite successful. Construction turned out to be cheap, but operation was costly and associated with constant problems. After all, a floating prison is a piece of iron that is constantly rusting and getting ready to leak.

Every country in the world suffers from such a problem as petty criminals and delinquents. To solve this problem, each state develops its own methodology to keep criminals behind bars. One such method was the use of floating prisons to isolate criminals from the outside world.

The first state to decide to exploit prison ship, became the USA. Why did the government acquire the barge? Weare» from British owners in the 1980s and converted her into a naval prison. floating prison « Weare"Moored on the Hudson River, the four-story building became the Drug Rehabilitation Center.

floating prison "HMP Weare"

After successfully serving its purpose, the floating prison was sold to the UK again in 1997 to serve as a prison for violent criminals.

Between 1997 and 2005 prison ship « HMP Wear" was located in Portland in south-west Dorset, providing "housing" for 400 offenders. Another noteworthy aspect was that during the life of this vessel, she played an important role in providing employment to the residents of Portland.

In 2005, at the initiative of several officials, the operation of the ship as a prison was discontinued due to excessive budgetary costs for maintenance and the lack of normal conditions for prisoners. As a result prison ship was assigned Level C, meaning it provides places for minor offenders.

After official duties floating prison were completely abandoned, the authorities' plans considered sinking the ship to create an artificial diving site, but due to the lack of a suitable diving site, these plans did not come to fruition. Subsequently " Weare" was acquired in 2006 by an African conglomerate to house its workers in the mining area.

barge "Jascon 27" in Nigeria

Today there is talk about buying a barge " Jascon 27» by the UK government for its further use as floating prison. This issue is considered relevant for this country due to overcrowded prisons in the UK.

Technical data of the floating prison "HMP Weare":
Vessel type - barge;
Displacement - 13512 tons;
Year of construction - 1979 company " Gotaverken Finnboda" Stockholm, Sweden;

Lifetime afloat. August 3rd, 2012

What do you think it is? I already knew and am not surprised that they are about to build a nuclear power plant afloat, but until today I had never heard of the fact that there is a prison afloat.

The Vernon C. Bain Center (VCBC) is a floating prison, essentially a barge, which is a branch of the New York City Correctional Facility.

be nearby Rikers Island (Rikers Island) is a prison island in the East River, part of the city of New York. The distance to the other shore is 80 meters. It is the largest penal colony in the world, costing American taxpayers $860 million a year.

There are ten separate prisons on the island; the prison complex includes, in addition to the actual prison facilities, schools, playgrounds, chapels, gyms, shops, hairdressers, a bakery, a power plant, a bus depot and even car washes.

When the prison became overcrowded, some prisoners were held on a special 800-passenger barge, the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, which became operational in 1992.

From the 1970s until December 2005, the prison had separate units for prisoners with non-traditional sexual orientation, but were eliminated “to enhance security.”

Since 1965, in the main dining room of the prison complex, in the most prominent place, hung a drawing by Salvador Dali, which he wrote as an apology to the prisoners for not being able to attend their art lecture, as promised. In 1981, the drawing was hung in the hall “for safekeeping,” and in March 2003 it was replaced with a fake, and the original was stolen; four employees were charged in this case. Although three of them pleaded guilty and the fourth was acquitted, the original was never found.

Several scandals related to the brutal treatment of prisoners by prison staff were made public and received wide public outcry.

This prison is reportedly known constant incidents of violence and cruelty. Quite often there are riots, brutally suppressed by special forces. People who have been to the Rikers Island cells believe that it is more dangerous there than in the most dangerous places in New York. Previously, in this prison, clashes between prisoners and guards happened very often, now the situation has changed for the better and the average number of riots per year has dropped to 70. But this is not because the conditions have become better - quite the contrary, the rules have been tightened, and now any prisoner whoever attacks a cellmate or guard is sentenced to additional prison time.

Recently, this name - "Rikers Island" - has appeared in the media. First, in connection with the case of Russian Viktor Bout, accused of arms trafficking and transported from Thailand directly to Rikers Island. Then the head of the International Monetary Fund (now former) Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of rape, spent several days here until he was “criminalized” and released on bail of $1 million. What kind of prison is this?

Rikers Island is a New York State prison located on the island of the same name. The prison was built in the 30s of the last century and is located on an area of ​​1,672 square meters. km and is a gigantic complex of buildings. Rikers Island is one of the highest security prisons. Its 10 prison blocks house more than 14 thousand people. For comparison, the largest European prison, Fleury-Mérogis (France), houses only 3,800 prisoners. Quite a lot, too, but it’s a long way from Rikers Island. Surrounded by the waters of the East River, the island is also called the “prison of New York's bottom.”

Security and other functions in this huge penitentiary institution are carried out by 7 thousand guards and 1.5 thousand civilians.
The county jail operates as both a detention center and a prison facility, but has a bad reputation for its high incidence of inmate violence. For example, in 1996 one of the prisoners wounded four of his cellmates with a pistol. In 2009 An 18-year-old boy committed suicide, unable to bear the abuse.

The most dangerous wing of the prison is called the Robert N. Davoren Center. It contains young people aged 16 to 18, characterized by the prison administration as “the most violent.” The unofficial name for this part of the prison is the “House of Pain.” So, in order to have the right to sit on a chair or watch TV, you need to pay. Those who refuse to comply are subjected to regular beatings.

In Rikers Island, representatives of various gangster groups in New York “rule the show”: Trinitarios, Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips, etc. The number of some of them exceeds 100 people. It is clear that the rivalry between these gangs does not bring peace to the lives of the rest of the prisoners. On average, Rikers Island experiences about 70 riots per year.

The prison has a special department called the West Facility, where men and women who pose a threat from the point of view of the spread of various contagious diseases are kept in single-person cells (measuring 3 by 4 meters). It was in such a cell, but for security reasons, that the director of the International Monetary Fund was placed.
But a separate camera is a privilege. Most of the prisoners are those who cannot pay bail, that is, poor criminals. They are usually kept 10 people in one cell

Prisoners' walks are limited to one hour and are often terminated early due to various incidents between prisoners.

All residents of Rikers Island Prison wear blue or orange uniforms, which are sewn in such a way as to prevent the prisoner from committing suicide. The nylon fabric of this uniform is very durable and cannot be torn to make a loop. Most prisoners who commit suicide in prison (and suicides are common here) do so by hanging with bedding or clothing. In addition, the nylon fabric from which prisoner uniforms are made does not burn. By the way, prisoners of the equally famous Guantanamo Bay military prison wear clothes made from the same fabric.
The Rikers Island prison is very popular among filmmakers: it appears in many feature films, television films, and series. This prison is often depicted in comics.

Celebrities at Rikers Island

In addition to Victor Bout and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, many other celebrities visited Rikers Island. Tupac Amaru Shakur, an American rapper, film actor and public figure, served his sentence here. Shakur has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 86th on its list of Greatest Artists of All Time. Tupac was murdered in 1996, but the killers were never found. He is the first rapper to have a monument erected.

In 1950, the famous saxophonist Sonny Rollins came here after being arrested for armed assault. He spent 10 months in the prison hospital and was released on parole.

The famous killer nicknamed “Son of Sam” (David Berkowitz), who killed 6 women and wounded seven more, was in this prison during the investigation. He stated that he was forced to kill by a neighbor's dog, which was possessed by the devil.

John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, was taken into custody at Rikers Island immediately after his crime, on the evening of December 8, 1980. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment with the right to apply for early release after 20 years. He applied for parole 6 times (in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and September 2010), in all cases his release was denied.

The famous rapper DMX has had trouble with American justice more than once. He also had to visit Rikers Island for 1 month, from where he was released early for good behavior. And he got here for speeding and illegal driving (DMX was deprived of his driver's license for numerous traffic violations).

Another, no less famous rapper, Lil Wayne, was sentenced to 1 year in prison for illegal possession of firearms. He was released early for good behavior.

A long pole is driven into the ground, the criminal is ordered to stand on a chair placed next to the pole, and his right hand is tied to a hook embedded in the pole. Then the chair is removed, and in its place a block of wood with a rounded blunt top is placed and driven into the ground and the barefoot victim is forced to stand on it. Although the skin remains intact, this “standing” causes unbearable suffering to the victim.

The time for which the victim was left in this painful position was 15 minutes. But this was quite enough, although depending on the severity of the offense and the sadistic temperament of the officers, this time could have been extended. However, sometimes the injury to the foot was so severe that the soldier was out of action, and the picketing was eventually called off.

These passages are taken from the research of Henry Mayhew and John Binney, the eminent 19th-century social historians who published their book The Criminal Prisons of London in 1862.

History of floating prisons

The idea of ​​turning disused ships into prisons arose when transporting convicts to British overseas possessions became impossible due to the outbreak of the American War of Independence. George III's Decree (19, George III, ch. 74) stated:

... with a view to more severe and effective punishment of the most cruel and insolent criminals, I decree that from now on, from the first day of the month of July 1779, any male criminal guilty of theft or any other crime, with the exception of petty theft, for which he is subject to lawfully sent to Our overseas dominions, may be lawfully condemned to serve his sentence on one of the ships duly adapted for the accommodation and safety of prisoners, who are required to perform compulsory labor in clearing the sand and alluvial silt from the bottom of the River Thames, as well as any another river suitable for navigation of cargo ships...

The Justice, an old merchant ship that sailed between Britain and India, and the Censor, a military frigate, were England's first floating prisons. By January 1841, there were already 3,552 prisoners held in various floating prisons. Some idea of ​​the sanitary condition of these establishments may be obtained from the report of Mr. Peter Bossy, physician of the floating prison "Warrior." It reports that in 1841, of the 638 prisoners held on board the ship, at least 400 people were in the prison hospital, 38 of whom died. During this period, the British government had at its disposal no less than 11 courts adapted for detention facilities (including those located in Bermuda).

It became impossible to tolerate this scandalous state of affairs any longer. Government agencies received reports from the heads of floating prisons demanding reform of this system. The weakening of prison discipline was largely due to the fact that the courts entrusted to the care of the prison governors were rotten and could no longer serve in their current capacity. “Warrior,” wrote one of them, “is rotten and patched up so much that there is no way to say how much longer it will stay afloat. The prisoners should be transferred to a safer place of detention, since it is pointless to repair such a “trough.” "Warrior is rotten from mast to keel."

And yet the Warrior continued to be used as a floating prison, and prisoners continued to put canvas patches under its holes in order to somehow protect themselves from the ever-penetrating dampness. The ship remained at anchor at Woolwich Dock for some time with 436 prisoners on board watching their prison crumble to dust.

The system of floating prisons has been condemned from its inception to the present day, stuck like a bone in the throat of all reformers without exception. Born initially due to circumstances, this system existed for almost half a century. The floating prisons became repositories for the most inveterate criminals collected from all the land prisons of the United Kingdom, a terrifying example of government inertia, its indifference to the fate of prisoners and lack of faith in the possibility of their reform.

Convict labor at Woolwich

This work was usually characterized by the word “hard,” in other words, it required neither skill nor intelligence, but only exhausting work... Prison governors said that prisoners performed mainly work that required great physical effort. For example, they loaded and unloaded ships, moved logs, or cleaned up ships. At the Royal Arsenal, in addition to the above-mentioned work, they cleaned guns and extracted gravel for military engineering structures. Another testimony (dated July 15, 1776) gives a clear picture of the conditions that reigned on the floating prisons almost a century before Mayhew and Binney published their book.

“The law requiring the use of convict labor on the River Thames is indeed harsh, but we still hope that it is useful and charitable. They should be forced to work until exhaustion and fed with beef shanks, ox heads and other rough food; Allow only water and occasionally beer. Prisoners must be dressed in the same rough clothes, and visitors must be allowed to see them only with the permission of the prison authorities. Moreover, if any of the visitors gives the prisoner anything in excess of what is required, the visitor must be fined 40 shillings. All costs of maintaining prisoners are borne by the government, not by the county where the prison is located.”

The first ship fitted for holding prisoners was refitted according to a drawing approved by His Majesty. The vessel could not be called a ship or tender; it was not as wide as a lighter, and carried several tons of ballast. On the port side the gunwale was significantly higher than that of conventional lighters. On the starboard side there was a 3-foot-wide deck, wide enough for one person to walk through, and a mechanism called a “david” (or “davit”) with a winch for lifting the ballast.

Part of the ship in the aft part was converted into sleeping quarters for prisoners, and something like an observation booth for the guards was erected on the formwork. In appearance, the ship was not much different from an ordinary lighter.

Daily routine on board the floating prison "Defence"

Duration of individual activities

On August 5, the first group of prisoners, chained in twos, boarded the ship, anchored 2 miles below the mouth of Barking Creek. The government appointed Duncan Campbell, Esq., to be in charge of this new Bridewell. The behavior of prisoners serving time on the ship was quite tolerant. The clause in the law on floating prisons, which stated that with good behavior the term of imprisonment could be reduced, worked very well. However, several prisoners working near Woolwich tried to take off their chains and attack the warden, for which they were severely punished by flogging; the prison authorities took care to make their stay on the ship even more intolerable and cut off all routes for their escape.