The prison is located just north of the hamlet of Wallkill, in the Town of Shawangunk.

The prison opened in 1933, in the form of a collegiate campus with no surrounding wall or fence.

Connected three-story English Gothic buildings of gray stone "self-consciously embraced an idealistic notion of the rural idyll and an old-fashioned sense of place".

The one-time "Prison without a Wall," is no more—in the 21st century chain-link fencing and razor wire was constructed around the perimeter.

The facility has a long-running optical laboratory to grind lenses and produce eyeglasses.