Level V — pretrial detainees and sentenced men · State Prison (Level V) · DDOC

Howard R. Young Correctional Institution

Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware

Visiting schedules change without notice. Always call before traveling.

Call Visiting Office: (302) 429-7700 Info last verified: June 2026

The first stop after arrest for most of Delaware — an urban Wilmington facility processing about 60 percent of all admissions, reachable by city bus and train.

Statewide rules that apply at every Delaware DOC prison

These rules are set by DDOC and apply at every unit. The full list — including all permitted and prohibited items and the approval process — is in Visiting in Delaware.

Dress code

No bathing suits, body suits, strapless or low-cut tops, sleeveless shirts, or tube tops; nothing see-through or revealing — staff have the final say.
Dresses, skirts, culottes, and walking shorts no shorter than two inches above the knee, measured from the bend at the back of the knee.
No spandex pants, shorts, or leggings worn alone; leggings under a skirt are permitted.
Some facilities add more — Baylor and Howard R. Young prohibit open-toe or open-heel shoes, Crocs, and hoodies.

ID: Photo ID for every visitor (any picture ID suffices for children under 16 at Baylor); at James T. Vaughn the address on the ID must match the address given when booking. Children 14-18 need their own photo ID at Howard R. Young.
What to bring: Car keys and ID, little else — everything else stays secured in the vehicle. Infant items go in a clear baggie; small cash or vending allowances vary by facility.
Scheduling: No application form — visits are booked by calling the facility scheduling line, generally one week ahead, and at some facilities cannot be changed once booked. Background checks before entry can bar visitors (10 years after a past incarceration, 5 after probation).

Full statewide rules: Visiting in Delaware

Overview

Howard R. Young Correctional Institution — known locally as Gander Hill, after its neighborhood — is the front door of Delaware’s prison system. Because Delaware runs a unified correctional system with no county jails, someone arrested and not released on bail goes into a state facility, and for most of the state that facility is this one: DOC says it processes about 60 percent of all admissions and houses the majority of the detainee population. Opened in 1982 as the Multi-Purpose Criminal Justice Facility and renamed in 2004 for its first warden, it held about 1,300 men at the most recent published count — roughly 530 of them awaiting trial.

For families, that mix matters: many stays here are short (the published average for detainees released in a recent year was about a month and a half), so the rules in this page often apply during the most chaotic, earliest stretch of a case.

What Makes Howard R. Young Correctional Institution Different

It is where most Delaware families’ experience starts. If someone was just arrested and is being held, this is the most likely place — VINELink (vinelink.com) is DOC’s published tool for confirming custody.
You can get there without a car. DART’s stop listing includes a Route 9 stop at the facility itself (“Howard Young Correctional Inst”), Route 4 stops on Northeast Boulevard at 12th and 13th Streets beside it, downtown Wilmington is about a mile and a half away, and the Amtrak/SEPTA station connects from Philadelphia in under an hour.
The booking call is unforgiving: visits are scheduled exactly one week out, require every visitor’s birth date, address, and phone number, and once booked “cannot be changed, cancelled or confirmed.” Verify the day and time before hanging up.
A clothing denial ends the day — the posted rule says a visitor turned away for dress-code reasons may not change clothes and come back; the visit is cancelled.
Up to $5.00 in cash may be carried in — one of the few facilities with a posted money allowance.
Visitors traveling 100 miles or more can request a two-hour visit once a month, by written letter to the warden’s office.
It runs the Road to Recovery residential substance-use treatment program.

Visiting Hours and Procedures

The statewide rules above — phone scheduling, the dress code, and screening — apply here. What follows is specific to this facility.

Children 14 to 18 need their own photo ID — a school ID works. The posted rules make no distinction between visiting a pretrial detainee and a sentenced person; the same booking line handles both. Money orders have not been accepted at visits since 2013 — deposits go through the lobby kiosk or the channels in Sending Money. Video visits run through the GettingOut system — see Phone & Video Calls.

Getting There and Parking

HRYCI is at 1301 E. 12th Street in northeast Wilmington, where 12th Street meets Northeast Boulevard.

Distances are approximate, based on map routing. DOC publishes no parking details or driving directions for the facility — its posted rules say only that items must stay secured in your vehicle, and street parking rules in the surrounding neighborhood are the city’s.

Nearby Services

This is an urban facility — downtown Wilmington, with its full range of food, gas, and lodging, is about a mile and a half away. The closest emergency room is ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Hospital at 501 W. 14th Street, about two miles from the facility, with 24/7 emergency care; the main hospital line is (302) 733-1000.

Learn More

For detailed information about visiting and communicating with someone in a Delaware facility:

Visiting in Delaware — phone scheduling, dress code, and screening
Mail & Packages — the Las Vegas scanning address and white-envelope rule
Phone & Video Calls — the GettingOut account and five-number list
Sending Money — kiosks, ConnectNetwork, and the Dallas money-order address
Medical & Mental Health — co-pays, sick call, and the 7-day grievance window
Transfers — how Delaware’s unified system moves people

Sources

This page is compiled from the following publicly available sources. Policies change without notice — confirm current details with the facility before relying on them.