Urbex Photographer Accidentally Locks Himself in Cell in Abandoned Prison

An urban explorer photographer was arrested after accidentally locking himself in a jail cell overnight when he broke into an abandoned prison to take photos.

Photographer Cody M. Mallon found himself imprisoned inside the former Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, New York City this weekend and needed to be rescued by police and firefighters.

New York State Police responded to a report of a trespass at the abandoned prison at approximately 12:04 A.M. on June 14.

When cops arrived at the former Downstate Correctional Facility, they discovered that the caller was Mallon. The 19-year-old photographer from Argyle, New York, had locked himself inside one of the facility’s cells.

An investigation revealed that Mallon had unlawfully entered the unused facility by crawling through a hole in the perimeter fence. He told New York State Police that he had entered the premises to take photographs of the abandoned prison and became trapped in a cell from Friday night into the early hours of Saturday.

The New York State Police, along with the Glenham Fire Department, assisted the photographer out of the cell and subsequently placed him under arrest. Mallon was charged with Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree, a Class B misdemeanor. Police say that Mallon was issued an appearance ticket for the misdemeanor charge and will appear in Fishkill Town Court at a later date.

Inside The Abandoned Downstate Correctional Facility byu/Art-In-Decay inurbanexploration

Downstate Correctional Facility was a maximum-security prison, which opened in 1979, in the town of Fishkill in the Hudson Valley region of New York. Some of its most infamous prisoners included the serial killer Patrick Baxter and former real estate developer Sean Ludwick who was convicted of aggravated vehicular homicide in 2017 after killing a friend in a crash in the Hamptons, New York. The prison was among a half-dozen correctional facilities closed by the state in March 2022 due to declining inmate populations.

Last month daredevil urban explorer photographer Isaac Wright, more commonly known as “Drift”, was arrested at his first solo show by the New York Police Department (NYPD) after cops used his photo as evidence that he had climbed to the top of the Empire State Building.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.