In 1938, with the prison census nearing 18,000, the Legislature authorized construction of a new prison on state-owned land in the hamlet of Green Haven. The 839-acre site had been acquired by the state in 1911, nearly three decades earlier, and had served a hodge-podge of miscellaneous uses. It was originally purchased with the intention of establishing a "farm and industrial colony" for tramps and vagrants, but the project never materialized. In 1916, the site was used briefly as a National Guard mobilization camp; troops were trained at "Camp Whitman" (for then-Governor Charles S. Whitman) in preparation for the invasion of Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa.

Starting in the 1920's, the site was farmed by patients of the Hudson River State Hospital. Parts were used during the Depression years by the State Conservation Department to grow roadside shade trees, and by the federal government as a "transient camp" for weary hoboes and drifters.

Construction commenced in 1939 and was nearing completion at the end of 1941, In the meantime, Green Haven Prison (as it was called until 1970) had as its first prisoners two women. The women became separated from a group with which they were touring the site, entered a cell on a lark and, at about 5:45 in the afternoon, saw the cell door close behind them. Their cries were heard, but nobody at the prison could get to them. Finally, state police found an inspector in Poughkeepsie who eventually located a contractor's representative who had keys. The women were freed around 11 that night.

In July 1941, William Hunt, who had overseen Attica since its opening 10 years earlier, was appointed warden of the new prison. On first glance, Hunt might have thought he was still in Attica. Green Haven, like Attica, had a 30-foot high wall punctuated by guard towers, enclosing similar acreage (48.6 to Attica's 55). Inmate housing was in long, three-story cell blocks, arranged like Attica's in a rectangle whose interior was subdivided by corridors into four enormous recreation yards.

The only difference is that, whereas Attica's rectangle of cells is fully closed, Green Haven's is split down the middle, as though pried apart into two squarish "C's" whose open sides face each other. Between the "C's" are Building 2 (originally the hospital and segregation) and the kitchen and mess hall complex.

With its massive dam-like wall, multi-tiered blocks of barred cells, cavernous mess halls with gas jets in the ceilings and factory-style industrial buildings in the back, Green Haven was an archetypal "Big House" prison in the style of the 1930's and '40 's. It was the last prison in New York built on this model: future max construction would be on the "pod" design of Shawangunk, Downstate, Upstate and Five Points.

The duration and six months: wartime service

Green Haven was supposed to open Oct. 1,1941, but the war overseas created delays in receiving materials and equipment. The prison's opening was pushed back. Then, eight days before the rescheduled opening on Dec. 15, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the nation was plunged into war.

Even before Pearl Harbor, the prison population had begun to fall off as men enlisted in the armed services. But though it was suddenly superfluous as a state prison, Green Haven would soon be put to use by the United States Army. In 1942, the federal government leased Green Haven for the duration of the war plus six months, using it as a military prison where deserters and other wayward military personnel were detained until deemed fit return to the front lines.

Army officers used cycles in Green Have: 600-foot long corridors that ceased when corrections took the prison back after the war. Among other interesting trivia from the "disciplinary barracks” days is the service there Corrections Sergeant Edwin LaVallee, who was a captain in the U.S. Army; after the war, LaVallee would go on to serve DOCS as warden Auburn and Clinton.

Green Haven finally opens

Green Haven was returned to the state - in rough shape -Jan. 1, 1948. Locks had to be replaced, because keys were lost. More than a year and a half was spent on reconstruction and renovation. It was declared "open" on Oct. 1, 1949; the first prisoners were transferred in on Oct. 20. The population year's end was 377. At the end of the next year, 1950, the population was approaching 1,000. It did not reach the 1,500 mark until 1953. It climbed to 2,000 in 1961, then declined in the late1960's,