Wende Correctional Facility

Wende Correctional Facility

Location	3040 Wende Road Alden, New York
Status	open
Security class	maximum/supermax
Capacity	961
Opened	1923 (as county jail) 1983 (as state prison)
Managed by	New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

Wende Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison located in Town of Alden in Erie County, New York, east of Buffalo. The prison is named for this region of Alden. The prison was formerly the site of a county jail operated by Erie County, New York, and sold to the state to further its need for a maximum security state prison. The Erie County Correctional Facility was built adjacent to Wende.

Notable inmates

• Jack Abbott - criminal and author. He committed suicide at Wende in 2002.
• Jimmy Burke - mastermind of the Lufthansa Heist. Burke was imprisoned in Wende until his death in 1996.
• Robert Chambers - the "Preppie Killer." He was imprisoned in Wende in 2008 and later transferred to Sullivan Correctional Facility.
• Mark David Chapman - the man who murdered John Lennon in 1980. Chapman was transferred from Attica Correctional Facility to Wende in 2012.
• David Gilbert - participant in the 1981 Brink's robbery and murders. Is currently incarcerated at Wende.
• David Sweat - a man who killed a Broome County sheriff's officer and then led an escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015, was transferred to Wende in April, 2018.
• Maksim Gelman - perpetrator of a 28-hour stabbing spree lasting from February 11 to 12, 2011, in New York City, which involved the killing of four people and the wounding of five others.
• Harvey Weinstein - former film producer and convicted sex offender serving a 23-year sentence. Awaiting another trial in Los Angeles.

External links

• Development of Wende