For generations, New York state prisoners who died were buried in graveyards just outside prison walls, under headstones marked with prisoner identification numbers — but no names.

In recognition of the idea that people shouldn’t be defined in eternity by their periods of incarceration, state officials recently and quietly changed course. A state directive outlining the corrections department’s responsibilities when a person dies in custody was updated at the start of the pandemic and mandated that prisoner names be added to all future gravestones. And some prison officials are going a step further -- adding plaques with names to the gravestones of people who died decades ago.

“We recognize their humanity,” said Rev. Alfred Twyman, a state prison chaplain who officiates prisoners’ funerals. “We recognize them as people, not just a number, but people. So to me, spiritually as a pastor, it's a wonderful thing.”

New York state officials didn’t publicly announce the new policy. The change only came to light when a formerly incarcerated California man, Matthew Hahn, tweeted about visiting the cemetery at the maximum security Green Haven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County. His in-laws live nearby, and they told him that some tombstones at the prison graveyard lacked names. His mother-in-law, Patti Clarke, was appalled. So on a visit in February, Hahn grabbed his camera and checked it out for himself.

“In many ways, the way that we talk about people who are incarcerated, the way that we treat people who are incarcerated, the way that we bury people who died while incarcerated is an attempt at depersonalizing them, and depersonifying them,” Hahn said.

Hahn discovered that there were indeed some gravestones that lacked names. But at the cemetery he also encountered a prison employee who — before politely kicking him off the grounds — told him that names were in the process of being added to the gravestones.

On a recent afternoon at the cemetery, maintenance staff solemnly tacked new plaques — with names, dates of birth and dates of death — to old gravestones that only had prisoner ID numbers etched into them.

The cemetery sits on a rolling, daffodil-filled meadow located down a dirt road just out of sight of the maximum security prison’s massive concrete walls.

Late last year, a 65-year-old man who had been locked up since he was 25 died at the prison, said Mark Miller, Green Haven's superintendent. The family couldn’t afford a burial, but they were able to come up to Green Haven from New York City, Miller said. So the prison arranged a graveside service, with the maintenance staff preparing a casket covered in a black cloth, he said.

“We take a lot of pride in the burials here,” said Miller. “We allowed them to lay flowers on [the casket] and give them the proper closure, and they knew that they had the dignity of a proper burial.”

Twyman, who officiated that burial, said adding names to the gravestones offers the deceased “respect and dignity.”

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