{"id":358893,"date":"2026-09-28T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358893\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T15:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:58:11","slug":"sister-of-man-burned-alive-in-prison-cell-to-sue-new-york-state-for-50-million-the-free-lance-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358893\/","title":{"rendered":"SISTER OF MAN BURNED ALIVE IN PRISON CELL TO SUE NEW YORK STATE FOR $50 MILLION \u2014 THE FREE LANCE NEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MALONE, NEW YORK SEPT. 28, 2026<\/p>\n

The family of a Bronx man burned to death in an upstate New York prison cell intends to file a $50 million lawsuit against the state.<\/p>\n

Marcos Alcaraz was alone in his cell in a maximum-security prison when a fire broke out <\/a>inside it in the middle of the night on July 18. State prison guards stood by and did nothing as flames killed the 35-year-old.<\/p>\n

Guards “failed to properly extinguish the fire,” a notice of intent to sue filed by Alcaraz’s family on Monday alleges. They “knew or should have known that Mr. Alcaraz was burning alive but failed to provide aid in a reasonably timely or adequate manner.” <\/p>\n

Guards also “failed to render timely or adequate aid to Mr. Alcaraz,” the legal filing also alleges. And they “unreasonably delayed Mr. Alcaraz \u2019s medical care and caused his death.”<\/p>\n

The notice was filed by Alcaraz’s sister, Francheska. It seeks $50 million dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother was incarcerated, but he was still a human being,” she said on Monday. He “had plans for his future.”<\/p>\n

Initially, she said, the family was told “Marcos became sick and died of natural causes.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

A notice of intent to file a lawsuit is not an actual lawsuit, but preliminary paperwork state-law requires before injured New Yorkers can sue the State for civil wrongdoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, the conditions inside the state prison where Alcaraz died, the Eastern Correctional Facility outside Ellenville in Ulster County, are a threat to all the prisoners confined there. At Eastern, state officials fail to provide prisoners with “clothing, bedding, and cell furnishings that were not prone to catching fire.” <\/p>\n

They also fail “to maintain adequate fire control devices and or fire alarms in the facility.”<\/p>\n

Guards themselves “failed to properly conduct their rounds”\u2014which are walking patrols inside the prison. Officials also “failed to monitor or install video monitoring equipment which would alert employees and agents of the State to dangerous conditions.”<\/p>\n

Ulster County Medical Examiner Dr. Margaret M. Prial determined Alcaraz died of “smoke inhalation and thermal burns,” according to a summary of the full autopsy report released by lawyers for Ms. Alcaraz on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marcos Alcaraz had third degree burns over his entire body, according to the report. The medical examiner concluded he killed himself by lighting his mattress on fire and laying on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Alcaraz\u2019s sister said she had questions about that determination.<\/p>\n

The family, Francheska said, wants “a complete and independent investigation into the response of the correction officers, the fire-safety equipment, and why Marcos was not rescued.”<\/p>\n

The Alcaraz Family is represented by David B. Rankin, Marc A. Cannan and Keegan Stephan of Beldock Levine & Hoffman, a noted civil rights law firm. A news conference is set for noon in Foley Square in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

A total of 115 prisoners have died in state custody since January 1, according to the latest monthly report<\/a> published by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. <\/p>\n

39 of those are listed as having died of natural causes while a whopping 55 are listed with a presently unknown cause of death. Five died by suicide, allegedly.<\/p>\n

“2026 has seen the most in-custody deaths of any year since at least 2020, including during the COVID-19 pandemic,” prison watch-dog group Correctional Association of New York reported in May<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the state prison system did not immediately respond to a request for <\/p>\n

New York’s prison system is facing multiple crises in every measurable metric<\/a>.<\/p>\n

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS REPORT. CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY.<\/p>\n

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Send tips or corrections to jasonbnicholas@gmail.com<\/a> or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DONATE TO THE FREE LANCE HERE MALONE, NEW YORK SEPT. 28, 2026 The family of a Bronx man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-358893","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\/358893","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=358893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}