{"id":289557,"date":"2026-07-07T20:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/289557\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:26:08","slug":"9m-state-study-finds-obvious-new-yorks-prisons-are-deadly-and-nobody-cares-the-free-lance-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/289557\/","title":{"rendered":"$9M STATE STUDY FINDS OBVIOUS: NEW YORK’S PRISONS ARE DEADLY AND NOBODY CARES \u2014 THE FREE LANCE NEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Robert Brooks’ sons<\/a>, Robert Brooks’ Jr., questioned why New York needed to pay $9.3 million to find out \u201cwhat everyone already knows\u201d in a public statement through his attorneys on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York prisons are dangerously unsafe and the system is broken,\u201d Brooks Jr.’s statement adds. \u201cAdvocacy organizations, journalists, and incarcerated people have been telling DOCCS about these problems and proposing reforms for years. The need for change was obvious before my father was killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patterson Nantwi, Messiah Nantwi’s father, also released a statement through his lawyers on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis report lays bare the horrific violence my son endured and the efforts to cover up what happened to him,\u201d the statement says. \u201cNothing can bring my son back, but I will continue fighting to make sure that everyone responsible for his death is held accountable and that no other family has to suffer the pain our family lives with every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris Summers, president of the union that represents New York’s prison guards, the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, also released a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members have been sounding the alarm for years<\/a>,\u201d the NYSCOPBA statement says. \u201cNew Yorkers deserve more than carefully timed press releases issued over a holiday weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Instead of listening to the correction officers who work inside these facilities every day, DOCCS and New York state policymakers dismissed their concerns,” the statement added. “Now, they are releasing reports and independent assessments that confirm many of the same warnings our members have been raising all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Jess D’Amelia, Gov. Hochul’s Deputy Communications Director for Public Safety, told The Free Lance News that after the killings of Brooks and Nantwi “Governor Hochul invested more than $500 million to strengthen New York\u2019s correctional system and signed landmark legislation to enhance safety, accountability, and oversight across the State\u2019s correctional facilities.”<\/p>\n

“The safety of correctional staff and incarcerated individuals remains a top priority for the Governor which is why many of these recommendations have been implanted or are currently underway,” D’Amelia added. “The Administration is committed to building on these ongoing reforms, advancing meaningful systemic change and making DOCCS facilities safer and more secure for all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Gov. Hochul’s office expressed only lukewarm support for the biggest, most-important change recommended by WilmerHale in the report: adding teeth to the toothless administrative employee disciplinary system.<\/p>\n

Thanks to a sweetheart union deal that places the legal power to discipline guards in the hands of private arbitrators instead of public officials, guards enjoy almost carte blanche to abuse prisoners.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

(The Free Lance News sued to open up DOCCS’ employee disciplinary hearings to public scrutiny in 2025, but in January a state appeals court ruled<\/a> DOCCS can continue to hold them in secret. The State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, is considering whether to grant The Free Lance News permission to appeal to it.)<\/p>\n

State Senator and Chair of the Senate Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Julia Salazar proposed strengthening the power of the DOCCS’ commissioner to discipline guards with Senate Bill No. S1671<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WilmerHale’s report specifically recommends making the bill law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked by The Free Lance News on Tuesday whether Gov. Hochul supports the bill, D’Amelia, Gov. Hochul’s spokesperson, said only that: “Governor Hochul will review all legislation that passes both houses of the state legislature.”<\/p>\n

For tips or corrections, The Free Lance can be reached at jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DONATE\u00a0 TO THE FREE LANCE HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Robert Brooks’ sons, Robert Brooks’ Jr., questioned why New York needed to pay $9.3 million to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-289557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}