Visiting Queensboro Correctional Facility

Your Day Is Set by the DIN

The Queensboro schedule says:

Weekend visits are divided into specific segments of the population by the last digit of the incarcerated individual’s DINs. Holiday visits are open to all incarcerated individuals regardless of DIN. Visits begin at 1:00PM

The groups are DIN 0 to 4 and DIN 5 to 9, and the dated calendar gives each weekend day to one group. Saturday and Sunday usually go to different groups, swapping from week to week.

General population gets one visiting day a week, so the day on the calendar for your group is the visit.

Holidays Belong to Everyone

Holidays are open to all, whatever the DIN. For the rest of 2026 the Queensboro calendar marks October 12, November 11, November 26 and December 25 as ALL, and weekday holidays became visiting days under the NYSDOCCS update effective 7 September 2026.

A Short Afternoon

Visits begin at 1:00 PM and end at 3:45 PM, under three hours. There is no morning session. Plan to arrive for the start.

Five Visitors

NYSDOCCS publishes a maximum of five visitors at Queensboro. Most New York prisons set three visitors plus one child under five, so a larger family can come together here.

Temporary Release

Queensboro holds people on temporary release, and NYSDOCCS states they are not permitted visits except under exceptional circumstances. If the person you visit is on temporary release, contact is by phone and letter.

When the Room Is Full

If space runs short, NYSDOCCS ends visits in a published order:

1. Visitors who volunteer to leave.
2. Local visitors, from within 100 miles, after three hours.
3. Visitors from further away, after three hours.

How a Visit Is Arranged

Nothing needs booking for a regular visit. Under NYSDOCCS rules you can visit during visiting hours with proper photo identification, as long as the person inside agrees to the visit.

On a first visit, staff take your photograph for the visitor identification system and you sign a statement agreeing to the visiting rules. Arrive at 1:00 PM to leave time for it.

Some visitors need advance written approval: people on probation or parole, NYSDOCCS staff, volunteers, contract workers, and anyone with past or pending criminal cases.

Children are straightforward. Their own children can visit without written permission where the parent’s name is on the birth certificate. A child under eighteen visiting without a parent or guardian needs the parent’s written permission.

Getting to Van Dam Street

Queensboro is at 47-04 Van Dam Street in Long Island City, Queens. Unlike almost every other state prison, it is inside New York City and reachable by public transit.

It is not Rikers Island. Rikers and the city’s borough jails are run by the New York City Department of Correction, with their own visiting rules and their own search.

What to Bring

Photo identification for everyone over sixteen, and the visit does not proceed without it.

Phones, bags and electronics stay in the car.

If you are bringing money, the visitor lockbox takes $50 in cash a day in total, however many of you are visiting, and it takes money orders and checks as well.

Between the Visits

One afternoon a week leaves six days with no visit at all.

Calls from every New York state prison have been free since August 2025, and letters and photographs fill the rest. Pigeonly sends both from your phone, addressed to 47-04 Van Dam Street with the full ZIP, so the week in between is not a silent one.