Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center

Vernon C. Bain barge as seen from kayaks on the East River.

In the late 1980s, the New York City Department of Correction experienced overcrowding issues in its prison complexes.[8] The idea of temporarily alleviating the issues of a growing inmate population and dwindling space by outfitting prison ships was conceived under the administration of then Mayor Edward I. Koch. Their solution was to develop usable prison space with maritime cells and avoid complaints about building jails in densely populated neighborhoods.[4] At the time, the prisons at nearby Rikers Island held 22,000 inmates, and with this number increasing consistently, were nearing capacity.[9]

In 1988, the Bibby Resolution and her sister ship Bibby Venture were bought by the New York City Department of Correction to serve as the first two prison ships.[10] Both ships were previously used as British troop carriers before being re-purposed into prison ships.[11] The Bibby Venture was docked off Manhattan's Greenwich Village,[12] while the Bibby Resolution was located off the Lower East Side of Manhattan.[13] They were decommissioned in 1992.[13] In 1994 both ships were sold,[14][15] leaving the Bain Correctional Center and two converted Staten Island ferries, the Harold A. Wildstein and Walter Keane,[16] docked at Rikers Island to be used when overcrowding became an issue.[17][18]

The construction of the Vernon C. Bain Center prison barge began in 1989 at Avondale Shipyard by Avondale Industries and was supposed to be finished in 1990 at the price of $125.7 million. Due to unanticipated construction problems including issues with the ventilation system, the finished barge was delivered 18 months late and $35 million over budget.[19] The barge was originally slated to be docked at the Brooklyn Army Terminal or the mayor's mansion.[20] The site ultimately chosen, at Hunts Point, was selected after protests arose over the other proposed sites.[9] On January 26, 1992, the recently outfitted prison barge was brought through Long Island Sound by the tugboat, Michael Turecamo, after an 1,800 nautical mile trip.[19] The new barge was named for well-liked and respected warden Vernon C. Bain, who had died in an automobile accident.[21][8]

One of the first captains of the barge under the Department of Corrections had previously been employed by the same tugboat company and had earlier captained the tugboat that hauled the barge to its current location. The new crew of the prison barge, who were placed in accordance with Coast Guard regulations, worked on the empty barge to learn the vessel operations, including the electrical and fire fighting systems.[22] The barge officially opened for use and began accepting inmates later in 1992.[4]

The blue and white barge as seen from the East River with the outdoor recreation area to the left and the gym in the center

From the time the barge was constructed, there has been controversy about its cost.[4] The final price was more than $35 million over budget, which attracted negative attention. The assistant correction commissioner, John H. Shanahan, claimed the price difference was because the Department of Corrections "never designed this kind of passenger vessel before and unfortunately there was a mistake in the original contract."[4] William Booth, the chairman of the Board of Corrections, said at the time that the prison barge would be the last barge the Department of Corrections would build because the process was too expensive and too uncertain. The Board of Corrections is an independent body that monitors city-owned prisons.[4]

Furthermore, by the time the Bain Center opened, the inmate population of New York City's jail system had started to decline.[9] The prison barge was temporarily closed in August 1995 due to less crowded city jails, caused by a decline in arrests and inmate transfers. In late 1996, the prison was slated for reopening due to the rise in arrests from a campaign targeting drugs and drug dealers.[23] The six-month campaign expected more than seven thousand additional arrests than usual, but the ship was not reopened until 1998 when it was used by the Department of Juvenile Justice. The Bain Center is currently used as a processing facility for inmates in the Department of Corrections system. There are three other processing facilities that each handle specific boroughs.[24]

In early 2016, New York City government officials began looking into ways to possibly shutter Rikers Island and transfer prisoners to other locations. One plan is to situate a 2,000-bed jail in the parking lot for the Bain Center.[3][25] Another similar plan includes closing the barge jail.[26] In 2018 the city released plans to phase out Rikers Island over ten years[27] and replace it with borough-based jails.[28] The Bain Center is included in the plan to close Rikers Island,[9] which the New York City Council voted to approve in October 2019.[29][30] Under the bill, both facilities would have to close by 2026.[9]

A surge in the need for juvenile detention space caused the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice to lease space at the Bain Correction Center in 1998.[35][36] At the time, there were over five thousand juveniles aged thirteen to eighteen years old in secure detention in New York.[37] The barge had been unused since August 1995 but had been maintained and was ready to house inmates again. The center was used to solve the space problem and to assist in the closure of Spofford Juvenile Center. The temporary space was used for juvenile inmate processing and temporary housing for inmates prior to transfer.[17] The underage inmates were moved out of the Bain Center and back into the Spofford facility in 1999.[37] In January 2000, the Department of Juvenile Justice, after completing renovations to other buildings, moved out of the center.[38][39]