Spectacular views that only crime could pay for. For 43 years, inmates inside the caged rooftop recreation yard of Harlem’s Lincoln Correctional Facility could stretch their legs while luxuriating in the unobstructed sights of Central Park and the city’s sprawling skyline to the south. Now the facility is poised to close — and the jailhouse is suddenly Manhattan’s hottest piece of high-priced real estate.

The W. 110th St. (aka: Central Park North) property, opened as a prison in 1976, will be ...