Prison Town: Making the Carceral State in Elmira, New York

Elmira, a town of about twenty-six thousand people in central New York, is in some ways a typical town—with quiet, tree-lined residential streets, an art museum, local coffee shops, and a small college. The city, however, is best known as home to Elmira Correctional Facility and, until its closure in March 2022, the Southport Correctional Facility. Hundreds of locals have worked at the prisons, the town plays host to visitors of the incarcerated, and local medical institutions provide treat...