About the Project

The Beacon Prison Rides Project is a volunteer-run effort of Beacon Prison Action, providing free rides between the Beacon Metro-North Station and New York State prisons located in Dutchess and Ulster Counties. We provide rides to the following facilities timed to their visiting hours: Fishkill, Green Haven, Downstate, Shawangunk, and Wallkill. Since November 2017, Beacon Prison Rides has provided an alternative to costly taxis or prison vans, providing more than 2,600 rides for more than 200 people visiting their incarcerated loved ones. Volunteers live in or near Beacon. Each volunteer is vetted by the project to make sure that they have safe driving records and vehicles. Volunteers are trained to respect the privacy of their riders, but are friendly and open to conversation depending on a rider's preferences.

Beacon Prison Action is a group of concerned citizens which formed when the death of Samuel Harrell at the hands of correctional officers at Fishkill came to light. Residents of Beacon and surrounding communities decided that a duty falls on us to speak out about human rights abuses taking place at the prisons located within our communities. We seek to hold our elected officials responsible for upholding the human rights of prisoners and to educate our communities about human rights abuses and shameful racial disparities in our prison system. Our volunteers are engaged in a number of campaigns such as Release Aging People in Prison and Decarcerate the Hudson Valley.