Visiting Upstate Correctional Facility

The Free Bus Is the Headline

Upstate is one of 18 New York prisons reached by a free roundtrip visitor bus, run in partnership with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

It costs the family nothing. For a household in the city without a car, that is the whole question of whether visits happen at all, because Malone is about six hours away and there is no rail line to it.

It is also the sharpest contrast with Franklin Correctional Facility, 250 yards up Bare Hill Road. Franklin is not on the route. Two families travelling to the same stretch of road can face completely different journeys depending on which prison they are visiting.

Seats are booked in advance, so check the lookup before the date to be sure the person is still held here.

Weekends, Holidays and a 2:30 Close

Visits run weekends and holidays, 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM.

A holiday falling midweek is a visiting day on its own account. It does not need a weekend attached to it, and for a working family the midweek holiday is often the only date in a long stretch that works.

1:45 PM, and Why It Catches People

The room closes at 2:30 PM. Arrival closes at 1:45 PM.

That quarter hour is the most expensive detail on this page, because Franklin up the road closes arrivals at 2:00 PM. Anyone who has visited both prisons, or who has been told the time by a family visiting the other one, is working from a number that does not apply here.

Arrive at 1:50 PM and the visit does not happen. Forty five minutes of room time remain and it makes no difference.

Two Visits a Day

General population at Upstate allows two visits per day.

It suits the journey. A family that has spent six hours getting here is not choosing between visits across a week, they are using the day they have. Anyone coming by coach in particular is here for the day either way.

Special Housing Is Twice a Week

Anyone in special housing is allowed two visits per week, counted Sunday through Saturday.

That is a different allowance from the general population rule above, and it is worth confirming which applies before booking a seat or setting out. Legal visits are counted separately.

Three Visitors, and the Lap Rule

Three visitors at a time, plus one child under the age of five.

The under five sits on an adult’s lap and does not count toward the three. A child of five or older does count, so a group of three adults and a six year old is a group of four.

Getting to Malone

Malone is in the far north of the state, closer to Montreal than to Albany.

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

Upstate is at 309 Bare Hill Road. Franklin is at 62 Bare Hill Road. Put the street number into the satnav, because the road name alone will not separate two prisons a few hundred yards apart.

Arranging a Visit: No Appointment Needed

A regular visit at Upstate is not booked in advance. NYSDOCCS lets anyone visit during visiting hours if they bring proper photo ID and the person inside agrees to the visit. The free bus is booked on its own; the visit itself is not.

On the day:

1. Confirm the facility in the state lookup. A transfer changes everything.
2. Arrive by 1:45 PM with valid photo ID.
3. First visit only: staff photograph you for the visitor ID system, and you sign a statement agreeing to the rules.

If it is your first visit, NYSDOCCS advises contacting the prison ahead to learn its policy. Upstate’s number is 518-483-6997.

Written approval first is required for people on probation or parole, NYSDOCCS staff, volunteers, contract workers and anyone with past or pending criminal cases. They write to the Superintendent before visiting, and probation or parole also need their officer’s written approval.

More visitors than the usual three can sometimes be arranged through the Superintendent’s Office, with several weeks’ to a month’s notice.

Children. The person’s own children can visit without written permission, with the parent’s name on the birth certificate. Their own children aged 16 and older can come in without an adult. A child under 18 who comes without a parent or guardian needs written permission from one.

What to Bring

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

Everything else stays in the car or on the coach. Phones, bags and electronics do not come in.

If you are bringing money, the visitor lockbox inside takes up to $50 cash a day in total, so it goes in there and not into the visiting room.

Between the Visits

Even with a free coach, most downstate families make this trip a handful of times a year.

Calls from every New York state prison have been free since August 2025, and letters and photos land on the weeks when nobody is travelling. Pigeonly sends both from your phone, addressed to P.O. Box 2000 the way Upstate expects, so the stretches between coaches are not empty.