New York State’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision is struggling to maintain staffing as officers strike, amidst the fallout from two high-profile inmate deaths and reports of staff violence.
State police are investigating the death of 22-year-old inmate Messiah Nantwi, housed at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, about 50 miles east of Syracuse. Authorities have not released a cause of death, but The New York Times reported that nine prisoners alleged he was brutally beaten by corrections officers.
Governor Kathy Hochul stated Monday that the “deeply troubling” incident is under investigation, and State Department of Corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III described Nantwi’s death as a tragedy.
Fifteen staff members have been placed on leave in connection with the death, Hochul said Tuesday. Initially, eleven were placed on leave, according to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
“While the investigation into this incident is ongoing, early reports point to extremely disturbing conduct leading to Mr. Nantwi’s death, and I am committed to accountability for all involved. The people of New York extend our deepest condolences to Mr. Nantwi’s family and loved ones,” Hochul said in a release Tuesday.
However, others argue that his death is the latest consequence of a failing prison system.
The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit law firm representing low-income New Yorkers, said in a statement Monday that the incident “underscores the inherent culture of staff violence that pervades New York’s prisons, and the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and reform.”
Nantwi’s death follows less than two weeks after six New York prison workers were charged with murder in connection with the death of Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old Black man who died in December after being beaten by corrections officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, less than a mile from Mid-State.
Body camera footage of officers beating Brooks while his hands were cuffed behind him led to intense criticism of violence within the state’s prison
