Visiting Franklin Correctional Facility

Weekends, Holidays and an Early Start

Franklin takes visits on weekends and holidays, from 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM.

That opening time is unusual. Most New York prisons open at 8:00 or 8:30, and Upstate Correctional Facility, the only other state prison in the county, opens at 8:00 AM. Half an hour sounds like nothing until you have spent a night on the road to get here, and it is the difference between arriving for the start and arriving for the tail end.

The hours took effect on 1 September 2026.

Holidays Count, Even Midweek

A holiday that lands on a Tuesday is a visiting day at Franklin. The schedule reads weekends and holidays, and the holiday stands on its own, without needing a weekend attached to it.

This is worth knowing in advance, because a midweek holiday is often the one day in a long stretch when a working family can make the trip at all.

The 2:00 PM Cutoff

The room closes at 3:00 PM, but the latest you can arrive is 2:00 PM.

There is a full hour between those two numbers and it is not a grace period. Turn up at 2:15 and the visit does not happen, however far you have come. Build the cushion into the journey, not into the arrival.

Saturday or Sunday Depends on the DIN

This is the detail that decides whether the journey is worth making.

Franklin rations weekend visiting days by the last digit of the DIN. The schedule splits into two groups, 0 to 4 and 5 to 9. On the dated schedule, each weekend’s Saturday and Sunday go to different groups. If the DIN ends in a 7, the day marked 5 to 9 is yours, and arriving on the day marked 0 to 4 does not get you a visit.

Holidays are the exception. On a holiday the schedule opens to everyone, whatever the DIN.

So the order of operations here is not the one most families use. Look up the DIN first, then look at the schedule, then book the travel. NYSDOCCS publishes a dated visitation calendar for Franklin on the facility’s own page, revised August 2026, and that document is the authority on which specific days belong to which group.

One Day a Week, No Limit Inside It

Franklin allows one visiting day per week, and within that day there is no cap on the number of visits.

Read together with the DIN split above, that is the real shape of it: your group decides which days are available to you, and on the day you use, you can visit without counting sessions. For anyone travelling a distance that works in your favour, because six hours on the road buys a whole day, not a single slot.

Three Visitors, and the Under Fives

Three visitors at a time, plus one child under the age of five who does not count toward the three.

The under five allowance is the part people miss when they plan a carload. A family of three adults and a four year old fits. The same family with a six year old does not.

Special Housing Is Once a Week

Anyone in special housing is allowed one non-legal visit every seven days.

Legal visits sit outside that count. If the person you are visiting has moved into special housing, the general schedule above stops applying and this is the rule that governs, so it is worth confirming their status before a long journey.

No Bus Comes Here

New York runs a free visitor bus programme with the state’s transport partners, and it serves 18 prisons. Upstate Correctional Facility, 250 yards up Bare Hill Road from Franklin, is one of them.

Franklin is not.

That is a hard fact to plan around and there is no way to soften it. Families without a car are looking at a coach to Malone and a taxi from the village, or a shared ride arranged privately. It is the single biggest practical difference between visiting Franklin and visiting its neighbour.

Getting to Malone

Malone sits in the far north of the state, close to the Canadian border.

From	Approximate journey
New York City	About six hours
Albany	About three and a half hours
Syracuse	About three and a half hours
Plattsburgh	About one hour
Montreal	About one and a half hours

Franklin is at 62 Bare Hill Road. Upstate Correctional Facility is at 309 Bare Hill Road. Set the satnav to the street number, not the road name, because the two entrances are close enough that the road name alone will not sort them out.

How to Arrange a Visit at Franklin

There is nothing to book. NYSDOCCS does not take appointments for a regular visit. You can visit during visiting hours as long as you have proper photo ID and the person you are visiting agrees to see you.

Here is how it works on the day:

1. Check the lookup. Make sure they are still at Franklin and have not been moved.
2. Check the day. Your weekend day depends on the last digit of their DIN, as set out above.
3. Arrive by 2:00 PM with valid photo ID.
4. Get processed. On your first visit, staff take your photo for the visitor ID system, and you sign a statement agreeing to the visiting rules.

NYSDOCCS suggests contacting the prison before a first visit to learn its visiting policy. Franklin’s number is 518-483-6040.

Some visitors need written approval first. Anyone on probation or parole, NYSDOCCS staff, volunteers and contract workers, and anyone with past or pending criminal cases must write to the Superintendent before visiting. People on probation or parole also need written approval from their officer.

Bringing more visitors than the limit takes special arrangements through the Superintendent’s Office, with several weeks’ to a month’s notice.

Children. The person’s own children can visit without written permission, and the parent’s name should be on the child’s birth certificate. A child under 18 who is not with a parent or guardian needs the parent’s written permission, mailed ahead or carried by the adult who brings them.

What to Bring, and What to Leave

Bring photo identification. Everyone over sixteen needs it and a visit does not proceed without it.

Leave the rest in the car. Phones, bags and anything electronic stay outside, and the fewer trips back to the car park before a visit starts, the more of the day you keep.

There is a visitor lockbox inside for cash deposits, capped at $50 a day in total, so if you are bringing money it goes in there, not into the visiting room.

If the Trip Is Not Possible This Month

Six hours each way is not something most families can do often, and for many the honest answer is that visits happen a few times a year.

That is what fills the gap in between. Calls from every New York state prison have been free since August 2025, and letters and photos arrive on the days you cannot. Pigeonly sends both from your phone, addressed to P.O. Box 10 the way Franklin expects, so the weeks between visits are not silent ones.