West Facility (New York City)

(from www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nycdoc/html/jai...

West Facility was opened in the fall of 1991. It was designed to be an 800-bed facility constructed of Sprung structures— rigid aluminum framed structures covered by a heavy-duty plastic fabric. The structures are climate controlled and represent the application of a modern building technology system that has been successfully used by the Department in past emergency conditions. Sprung Structures on Rikers Island provide capacity for 1,900 inmate beds. Part of the West Facility was converted into the Department’s Communicable Disease Unit (CDU) in which 140 specially air-controlled housing units are reserved for male and female inmates with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis. Currently West Facility, except for CDU, has been placed on reserve status and is not housing inmates.