Visiting Clinton Correctional Facility

Seven Days a Week, Holidays Too

Clinton visits daily, 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM, and that includes weekday holidays.

When New York reorganised weekday visiting on 7 September 2026, it sorted its prisons into groups. Most got a single weekday. Several had weekday holiday visiting suspended. Three went to daily visiting including holidays, and Clinton is one of them, with Bedford Hills and Shawangunk.

Given how far Dannemora is from most of the state, being able to come on any weekday is the single most useful thing about visiting here. Weekends work differently.

Weekends Go by Last Name

Weekdays at Clinton are open to everyone. Weekends are not.

Clinton’s visiting schedule gives each weekend day to one half of the alphabet, by the first letter of the incarcerated person’s last name. The two groups are A to M and N to Z. On the schedule, each weekend’s Saturday and Sunday go to different groups, so only one of the two is yours.

Weekdays, including weekday holidays, are marked ALL. So if the weekend day you wanted belongs to the other half of the alphabet, any weekday is still open to you.

NYSDOCCS publishes the dated schedule on Clinton’s facility page, revised May 2026. It shows which group each weekend date belongs to.

Arrive by 2:00 PM, Not 3:00

Visiting runs to 3:00 PM. Arrivals close at 2:00 PM.

That is a full hour of daylight between the two numbers, and it is the one most often misread. Treat 2:00 PM as the time you need to be inside the door, not the time you aim to leave the car park.

Three Units, Three Clocks

This is the part specific to Clinton, and it is worth reading twice.

Most of the prison closes visiting at 3:00 PM. Three units close at 2:30 PM.

Unit	Visiting closes
General population	3:00 PM
APPU	2:30 PM
Special Housing Unit	2:30 PM
Long-Term Protective Custody	2:30 PM

Half an hour, and nothing on the way in will remind you which applies. If your person is in one of the three, build the earlier close into the day.

What APPU Actually Is

APPU is the Assessment and Program Preparation Unit.

DOCCS names the unit on its own page without ever spelling it out, which is why families see the letters and nothing else. New York’s regulations do spell it out, and they tie it to this prison by name, so it is a Clinton unit rather than a general category found across the system.

For visiting purposes what matters is simple: it keeps the 2:30 PM close, alongside the Special Housing Unit and Long-Term Protective Custody.

Three Visitors, One Visit a Day

Three visitors, plus one child under the age of five who sits on an adult’s lap and does not count against the three.

One visit per day. Five Points allows an unlimited number, Coxsackie allows two, Green Haven allows one. Clinton sits at the tighter end, which matters if two branches of a family were planning to come on the same day.

If the Room Gets Busy

The prison publishes an order for shortening visits when the room fills.

1. Volunteers. Staff ask first whether anyone will end their visit willingly.
2. Visitors who live within 100 miles. Ended after three hours, first in first out.
3. Visitors who travelled more than 100 miles. Same basis, after the local group.

There is one protection built in. Visits with special permission, and visits to someone who has not had a visit in six months, get separate consideration from the Superintendent or the Officer of the Day before anyone is asked to leave.

Dannemora being where it is, most families are in the second group. Plattsburgh and the immediate area are inside 100 miles. Anyone coming from Albany, Syracuse or the city is well outside it.

New York Has No Visitor Application

Nothing is filed before a first visit to a New York state prison.

No application form, no approved-visitor list, no background check, no waiting period. You need valid photo identification and the consent of the person you are visiting.

Three groups need written permission from the Superintendent in advance: former incarcerated people, anyone on probation or parole, and DOCCS employees.

Getting to Dannemora

Clinton sits at 1156 Route 374, in the village of Dannemora, in the northern Adirondacks.

It is about twenty minutes west of Plattsburgh and a long way from anywhere else. Albany is roughly three hours south, Syracuse around four, and New York City the better part of six. There is no useful public transport to the village, so this is a car journey.

Bear in mind that in winter this is one of the coldest inhabited parts of New York State, and Route 374 runs over high ground.

Not the County Jail in Plattsburgh

Before you set off, check which building you are going to.

Clinton Correctional Facility is the state prison at Dannemora, on 518-492-2511. Clinton County Jail is run by the Sheriff at 25 McCarthy Drive, Plattsburgh, on 518-565-4300, about fifteen miles away in the same county.

Both are in Clinton County, both are called Clinton, and they have completely different visiting rules. The facility name on the lookup result is what tells them apart.

Between Visits

Even with every weekday open, Dannemora is a long way to come, and most weeks will not have a visit in them. Pigeonly sends letters and photos to P.O. Box 2001 from your phone, so the gaps are not empty.