[1] Elmira is a major stop in the New York State Department of Corrections bus network, with a large enclosed yard that holds many, and inmate transfers.

[2] Among the programs begun at the reformatory included courses in ethics and religion, vocational training in various trades and extracurricular activities (such as a prison band), a newspaper, and various athletic leagues.

[citation needed] Influenced by the methods of Walter Crofton's "Irish system", as well as Alexander Maconochie's experiments in Australian penal colonies, discipline was largely patterned after military academies.

[citation needed] However, under instituted indeterminate sentencing, tension was often high among the general population, as prisoners were rarely informed how long the terms of their imprisonment lasted.

Two central ideas emerged from the Elmira system: differentiating between juvenile and adult offenders; and acknowledging the possibility of prisoner rehabilitation.

Although the education programs introduced in Elmira were the first to serve inmates in a correctional facility, the majority of the teaching staff were often unqualified, and its complex grading system made progress difficult to maintain.

[citation needed] However, following Brockway's resignation, the reformatory reinstituted to standard custody and treatment methods and eventually converted to the Elmira Correctional and Reception Center, an adult maximum security prison holding approximately 1,800 inmates.

However, during the recession of 1990–1992 there was a public outcry over spending taxpayer money to educate felons while many middle-class families struggled to pay their children's college tuition.