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State Officially Handing Over Former Bronx Prison to Nonprofit

By Eddie Small | January 29, 2015 3:15pm
 The Osborne Association plans to turn the shuttered Fulton Correctional Facility into a community reentry center.
The Osborne Association plans to turn the shuttered Fulton Correctional Facility into a community reentry center.
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Osborne Association

CLAREMONT — The state has officially handed over control of a former Bronx prison to a nonprofit group that will work to transform it into a community reentry center.

The Osborne Association, a group that works with currently and formerly incarcerated men and women, obtained the shuttered Fulton Correctional Facility from New York State in March 2013, and the state formally gave it to the organization during a ceremony at the facility on Thursday.

The building, located at 1511 Fulton Ave., was constructed in 1906 and originally known as the Fulton Avenue Church House for Episcopalians. Over the years, it was also used as a nursing home, a drug rehab center and a home for the Bronx Jewish Center before being converted into a minimum security prison in 1975.

It remained a prison until 2011, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office slated it for closure to help save money.

The Osborne Association plans to transform the closed prison into a center that offers emergency and temporary housing, job training and social service referrals to people who are coming home from the state’s jails and prisons.

The total cost of the project is estimated at roughly $9.5 million, funded in part by the state and borough president's office, and it should be complete within two years.

"Turning a prison into a reentry center for formerly incarcerated men and women is truly turning swords into ploughshares," said Osborne Association President and CEO Elizabeth Gaynes in an email. "We are sending a strong message that families affected by incarceration are assets to our community, and our returning citizens are welcome home."