State Police investigating death at prison in Hudson

HUDSON — Authorities are investigating the death of an inmate at Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County.

The death, which occurred last Tuesday, is being investigated by the State Police, the attorney general’s office, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s Office of Special Investigations and the state Commission on Corrections, as is standard with all deaths that occur in prisons and jails in New York.

State Police spokesman Trooper Aaron Hicks said the incident was being treated as an “unattended death” — meaning no officials or medical personnel were present — but declined to give more information due to the ongoing investigation.

DOCCS spokesman Thomas Mailey confirmed the death, saying the autopsy was being performed by the county coroner, who will determine the cause of death. Mailey declined further comment.

As of Monday, there were 113 people incarcerated in the prison, according to DOCCS.

In 2015, then-gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed an executive order mandating that imprisoned 16- and 17-year-olds would be separated from the adult population into their own prison, designated as the Hudson Correctional Facility.

However, the plan was scrapped a week before it was to be implemented, according to an audit of the prison, and now the medium-security facility houses a general male population. In 2020, the prison included inmates ages 16 to 62, according to the audit.

From 1904 to 1975, the facility was known as the New York Training School for Girls, a reformatory for delinquent girls ages 10-16. A young Ella Fitzgerald spent a year in the facility in the 1930s before escaping.