The prison property bordered Arthur Kill, a waterway that separates Staten Island from New Jersey.
The 260-acre (1.1 km2) Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve is located just south of the prison site.
Opened in 1976, the site formerly served as a 650-bed drug rehabilitation center, with an indoor swimming pool (closed when it became a prison);[1] the housing of that unit was destroyed by fire.
In the summer of 2006, the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility was used to shoot scenes for the juvenile detention center shown in the film Tenderness.
[2] Arthur Kill housed a call center of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.