A state-authorized prison oversight group found unusually strong access to academic and vocational programs at Riverview Correctional Facility, but also widespread reports of staff abuse, racialized mistreatment and distrust of the grievance system.
The Correctional Association of New York released the findings Wednesday after a two-day monitoring visit in June 2025 to the medium-security men's prison in Ogdensburg. The group interviewed 86 incarcerated people, about 21% of the facility's population at the time, and also met with prison leaders, medical staff, union representatives and incarcerated-person committees.
Strong programs, limited recreation
Eighty percent of respondents who answered questions about academic and vocational programming said they had access to the programs they needed, the highest rate among medium-security prisons CANY recently monitored. Riverview offers high school equivalency and adult basic education courses along with vocational programs in horticulture, barbering, masonry, custodial maintenance, computer operations and welding.
The report said Riverview's college partnership with SUNY Potsdam was the largest higher-education program in the state prison system. About 100 students were enrolled at the time of the visit, and St. Lawrence University also operated a community-based learning program involving 10 incarcerated students and 10 university students.
That access came with a tradeoff. Incarcerated people said recreation was often available only once or twice a week, while prison leaders told CANY that staffing shortages forced them to preserve programs by reducing yard time and sometimes canceling recreation.
Facility leaders reported 82 correction officer vacancies out of 344 budgeted positions during the visit. They said 17 officers were terminated, 11 resigned and 15 retired after the unauthorized statewide work stoppage ended in March 2025, leaving remaining officers on mandatory 12-hour shifts.
Abuse allegations and grievance distrust
CANY said 70% of 56 respondents reported seeing or experiencing verbal, physical or sexual abuse by facility staff. Fifty-six percent of 55 respondents reported seeing or experiencing racialized abuse, including allegations that officers used racial slurs and discriminated against Black hairstyles.
Those accounts were allegations gathered in interviews, not independently verified findings. CANY said it does not have authority to investigate individual claims and treats them as a basis for further inquiry, referring requests for help with the person's consent.
Many respondents nevertheless credited body-worn cameras with improving conditions. Interviewees said cameras and the presence of the National Guard reduced physical confrontations, although 20 respondents alleged that some officers removed, repositioned or activated cameras only after an encounter escalated.
Confidence in the grievance process was especially low. Only one of 17 respondents who answered a fairness question said the process was fair, while committee representatives alleged that some grievances were discarded and that people who complained received little information about the outcome. Ten interviewees reported retaliation or fear of retaliation connected to grievances.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision disputed the strength of those conclusions in an August response included with the report. The department said CANY did not provide enough identifying information to investigate specific abuse allegations and argued that the grievance sample was too small to support a broad finding about procedural fairness.
DOCCS said Riverview referred two named staff members to its Office of Special Investigation, but lacked dates, locations and other details needed to investigate particular incidents. The department also said Central Office had not been told that grievances were being discarded and that Riverview's grievance appeal packets were consistently complete.
Health care, visits and living conditions
Fifty-nine percent of 29 respondents said they received adequate medical care, the third-lowest rate among the medium-security facilities in CANY's comparison. Twenty-one of 36 respondents reported unaddressed medical or dental needs, with some describing long waits, missed specialty appointments and limited follow-up care.
Medical staff told CANY that nursing vacancies were their biggest challenge during the visit, when seven registered nurse positions were vacant. In its 2026 response, DOCCS said Riverview then had five of nine registered nurse positions filled, three per diem nurses, a part-time doctor, a full-time agency nurse practitioner and a full-time dentist.
Riverview is a Level 6 Office of Mental Health facility, meaning it has no mental health staff assigned on-site. Services are provided by telemedicine, and people who need a higher level of care are transferred to another prison. Thirteen interviewees described dissatisfaction with access to mental health services, including two who said requests went unanswered.
The Office of Mental Health said in its response that it could not verify those accounts without identifying information. It said requests depend on DOCCS staff making timely referrals and asked CANY to send urgent mental health concerns directly to the agency's corrections-based operations leadership rather than only to the prison's executive team.
Interviewees also raised concerns about food quality, delayed packages, visitation and housing conditions. Half of the 68 people who discussed food described an unsatisfactory experience, and 22 respondents said package delays sometimes caused perishable food to spoil.
Forty of 45 respondents said they had access to in-person visits, but some described long travel distances and poor treatment of visitors during processing. CANY calculated that people at Riverview were incarcerated an average of 219 miles from their county of commitment.
Thirty of 53 respondents described housing-unit conditions as unsatisfactory, most often citing toilets, showers and sinks. Only 20 of 41 respondents said temperature controls were adequate, with complaints that housing areas were too hot in summer and too cold in winter.
DOCCS said Riverview follows statewide rules for food, package handling, mail screening, visitor searches and maintenance. It also said recreational opportunities are scheduled three times a day and that complaints about tablet Wi-Fi were rare and typically addressed within 48 hours.
Report reflects interviews and records
CANY conducted 74 interviews in general population, eight in the Special Housing Unit and four in the General Confinement Restricted Unit. The group compared closed-ended responses with interviews at nine other medium-security prisons visited between July 2024 and June 2025 and supplemented them with state administrative records obtained through public-records requests.
The report cautioned that the interview findings reflect people's experiences and perceptions and can be affected by memory, fear of retaliation and other limitations. CANY also said its lack of investigative authority and limited access to administrative records prevent it from independently confirming many individual accounts.
Administrative data reviewed by the group showed no deaths at Riverview in 2025 and three reported incidents of self-harm. Most unusual-incident rates at the prison were below statewide rates, while rates involving drugs or alcohol, accidents and lost or stolen property were slightly higher.
The full report and the responses from DOCCS and the Office of Mental Health were published together after a 60-day agency review period.
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