New York’s Prisons Are Stuck in Their Brutal Past, Independent Review Finds

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here .

A sweeping report excoriates the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for failing to protect prisoners and staff.

By Chris Gelardi , New York Focus

In February 2025, a team of consultants walked into Central New York’s Marcy Correctional Facility, responding to Governor Kathy Hochul’s call for an investigation into prison violence. Two months earlier, guards at the prison had beaten an incarcerated man, 43-year-old Robert Brooks, in the infirmary. Body cameras, which the officers thought were turned off, captured them taking turns punching and choking a bloody, handcuffed Brooks. He died hours later.

The visitors, from the law firm WilmerHale, found a prison system stuck in its brutal past. Incarcerated people and current and former officers complained of frequent violence at the hands of both prisoners and guards. Only weeks into their investigation, officers killed another incarcerated man, 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi, at a prison down the road from Marcy.

This month, the state prison agency released the consultants’ long-awaited findings and recommendations in a 277-page report with dozens of recommendations. Based on facility visits, hundreds of interviews, and internal prison documents, it offers scathing new insights into the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision — and a roadmap for reform.

While lawmakers and the prison agency commissioner preach rehabilitation, guards still see themselves as stewards of punishment, the report revealed. Many adhere to an “us versus them” mentality, and corrections officers perceived to be soft on prisoners are branded “inmate lovers” and ostracized, it said.

It found that officers are able to disregard rules around use of force — by obstructing the view of body cameras, for instance, and relying too heavily on pepper spray. And DOCCS does a poor job of tracking violent incidents: Guards mostly use pen and paper to submit use of force reports, which often exclude key data points, making it difficult to detect trends and hotspots.

There are plenty of noteworthy hotspots, former officers from Brooks’s and Nantwi’s prisons told the consultants. Nearly all of those interviewed for the report acknowledged that groups of “goon squads” would beat up incarcerated people they viewed as difficult.

Outdated training likely contributes to prison violence. DOCCS’s paramilitary-style training academy “can promote aggression,” the report said. It teaches guards self-defense and includes seminars on department policy, but doesn’t adequately teach officers how to communicate with the unstable and often highly traumatized populations that they oversee.

Do you or have you worked for DOCCS? New York Focus wants to hear from you. Reach reporter Chris Gelardi at chris@nysfocus.com or on Signal at cgelardi.42.

DOCCS is a sprawling system — 41 facilities hold 34,000 incarcerated people and employ more than 11,000 officers — and its central office can barely keep tabs on it, the report authors found. In an age of cheap, sophisticated data systems, DOCCS relies on antiquated methods to track important information. The consultants discovered a “completely inefficient” system that involved one deputy superintendent tracking prisoner programming over twice daily emails. Meanwhile, DOCCS hasn’t digitized medical records, and some facilities don’t store the paper records in a central location, contributing to treatment delays.

Watchdogs, advocates, and incarcerated people have long raised alarms about many issues mentioned in the report, which highlighted DOCCS’s bureaucratic inertia. “DOCCS is reactive,” one retired officer told the investigators. “They only do anything when something gets fucked up.”

The report, plus a shorter report from a prison reform organization, together contain 77 recommendations, including naming a “chief risk officer,” adding more fixed cameras to DOCCS facilities, and addressing mental health care issues among staff. Its authors acknowledged that change won’t come easily.

“Many of our recommendations will take years of dedicated effort, operational innovation, and financial commitment, along with potential legislative action and updates to collective bargaining agreements,” they wrote.

In a statement, DOCCS said it had already implemented several of the report’s recommendations and had plans to take up most of the others. Among other improvements, it said, excessive use of force allegations had dropped by 42 percent in 2025 versus 2024.

DOCCS released that statement at the beginning of a long holiday weekend — four days after the paper’s publication date — a common way for government agencies to limit public attention on important news.

No such luck. New York Focus will be keeping tabs on which reforms actually happen and whether they lead to meaningful change.