There are 70 prisons in New York State. Although 60 percent of all prisoners in New York State come from New York City, 95 percent of these prisons are located upstate, in remote rural towns and villages, like Attica, Dannemora, and Malone. Every Friday night about 800 people, mostly women and children, almost all of them African American and Latino, gather at Columbus Circle in Manhattan and board buses. (1)

Depending on the destination, the trips can take 8 or 10 hours one way. Visitors arrive at prisons early the next morning, allowing enough time for the slow procession. They then spend a good part of a weekend afternoon with an imprisoned family member or friend. By late afternoon, they are riding on the bus back to Manhattan, where they sometimes arrive after midnight.(2)

(1) Eric Shlosser Atlantic monthly (December 1998)
(2) Vincent Mallozzi, New York Times (June 2006)