Multiple state correction officers were criminally charged for their alleged roles in the murder of Robert Brooks inside an upstate New York prison in December, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday. 

Brooks, 43, was handcuffed behind his back as guards kicked and punched him while they held him down on a medical bed inside Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County on Dec. 9, according to body camera footage from officers involved. 

He died around seven hours later at Wynn Hospital in Utica. 

The officers face a slew of charges ranging from murder, manslaughter and gang assault, according to the Albany Times Union, which first reported the indictment. 

The five officers seen beating Brooks on the video were hit with the top murder charges, according to the newspaper. Three officers in the area who failed to stop the assault were hit with manslaughter charges.

Brooks’ cause of death was ruled a homicide due to compression of the neck and multiple blunt force injuries, according to the Onondaga County Medical Examiner. 

On Dec. 27, state Attorney General Letitia James released footage of four officers at the scene who apparently didn’t realize the cameras were recording. During the assault, one officer put a white object in Brooks’ mouth and then calmly changed his bloody rubber gloves, the videos show. 

At least three sergeants and two nurses were also present during the beatdown, the videos show.

“The brutal attack on Mr. Brooks was sickening, and I immediately moved to terminate the employment of those involved,” Hochul said in a statement. “Now, the perpetrators have been rightfully charged with murder and State Police are making arrests.”

The case is being handled by Onondaga County District Attorney Willian J. Fitzpatrick because James named him as special prosecutor after she recused herself due to a possible conflict. In her role as attorney general, James is representing two of the officers in a separate civil case brought by a former prisoner alleging similar abuse. 

“Our investigation further revealed that there was no provocation by Robert Brooks that would have precipitated any physical response whatsoever, never mind the physical response that was inflicted upon him,” Fitzpatrick told reporters at a press conference. “The fact of the matter is, he did absolutely nothing.”

He noted three correction officers pleaded guilty to lower charges in return for their cooperation into the probe.

Two weeks after Brooks’ death, Hochul ordered New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision officials to fire the 14 prison staffers implicated in the fatal beatdown. They are still officially on the payroll as their disciplinary cases make their way through the process outlined by their union contracts. 

Brooks was nine years into a 12-year sentence for assault when he was moved from Mohawk Correctional Facility to Marcy after allegedly being involved in some sort of fight with another incarcerated person, according to media reports. 

Correction Officers Still on Strike

Meanwhile, hundreds of state correction officers remained out on strike Thursday, and Hochul on Wednesday activated the 3,500 of the National Guard to staff areas in some of the 42 prisons across New York. 

The wildcat strike started on Monday and has spread throughout the prison system to at least 30 penitentiaries. 

The New York State Correction Officers Police Benevolent Association has not formally condoned the strike, which is technically illegal under New York’s Taylor Law. 

A “wildcat” strike is a worker action not backed by a union.

But the union is meeting with state officials to hash out demands that include repealing a law that limits the use of solitary, according to NYSCOPBA spokesperson James Miller. 

The union, which represents that state’s approximately 13,229 correction officers tasked with guarding over roughly 33,368 people behind bars, is also pushing Hochul to allocate funds for additional officers. 

The strike has forced jail officials to place all the impacted facilities on lockdown, according to DOCCS. The lockdowns have blocked some people behind bars from receiving medical care and visits from friends and family, according to Antony Gemmell, a Legal Aid Society supervising attorney in the Prisoner Rights Project. 

“We’ve been receiving a lot of reports from clients at prisons across the state,” he told THE CITY on Wednesday. “There are a number of people who’ve reported not receiving meals for extended periods of time. And we have reports of people not receiving timely access to critical medical care.” 

The lockdowns have also led to cancellation of almost all programming, including mental health counseling and courses leading to high school equivalency degrees, according to prison officials and lawyers for people behind bars. 

At least one prisoner uprising occurred at Riverview Correctional Facility early Thursday morning, according to the Albany Times Union. Jail officials called an emergency response team to quell the violence, according to the report, which indicated no staff were injured. 

The National Guard are now in prisons to “ and supplement” correction officers and to make sure people in prison are getting meals and medications, according to Hochul. They are also tasked with “maintaining general order” of those unnamed sites. 

The governor’s order also approved additional overtime pay for corrections officers being deployed to the state’s 42 penitentiaries. 

Additionally, she has brought on independent mediator Martin Scheinman to “help bring a quick and immediate end to this illegal work stoppage,” according to her office. 

The labor dispute comes after the commissioner of the prison system, Daniel Martuscello, earlier this month asked his top deputies to come up with a broad plan to deal with ongoing staff shortages. In a Feb. 10 memo, he ordered superintendents to “redefine” how they operate with fewer officers, noting that “70% of our original staffing model is the new 100%.” 

A Halt to HALT

The striking correction officers are also demanding the governor repeal the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Act (HALT). That measure, signed into law by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, restricts the use of solitary confinement to 15 days and bans it for pregnant women and people with mental illness. It took full effect in March 2022. 

The correction officers’ union has urged Hochul to repeal the law. Correction officers contend that people who act out in dangerous and violent ways must be punished even if that means isolating them for weeks or months at a time. 

On Thursday afternoon, Martuscello announced that the department would pare back parts of the HALT Act “that cannot safely be operationalized under a prison-wide state of emergency.” 

Advocates for people behind bars slammed the move. 

“Solitary confinement is torture, and this suspension will inflict profound, irreversible harm on incarcerated New Yorkers, who are disproportionally Black and Brown,” said New York Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Ify Chikezie.

Outside the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville on Thursday, one retired correction officer said the strike would not end until the law was totally repealed by the governor g an executive order. 

“It’s not about money here. It’s about staffing levels and safety,” David Smith, 58, told THE CITY.

Smith, who worked at Green Haven from 1984 to 2022, ed a group of about 100 strikers across the street from the prison. 

Some huddled around barrels with fires for warmth while others grilled hotdogs and burgers. They were periodically greeted by honking horns from drivers ing by. 

Like many who work for DOCCS, Smith’s father was also an officer at Green Haven from 1974 until 1999. The senior Smith ed his colleagues during the last strike in 1979, his son proudly recalled. 

“I’m here to my fellow officers,” the junior Smith said. “Inside the facility is dangerous.” 

There are approximately 1,900 people locked up in the maximum security facility. They are guarded by 583 officers, according to Smith. 

The prison appeared to be operating without any National Guard on site. Many officers who are on probation are afraid to go on strike, said Smith, noting those staffers are not entitled to the same job protections as regular staff.  

Under the HALT bill, people behind bars aren’t supposed to be in solitary for more than 15 days at a time. The measure also barred officers from putting pregnant women or people with mental illness in solitary. 

Smith contends the legislation, ed by criminal justice reformers, completely limits their ability to punish people behind bars accused of violent assaults or other bad behavior. 

“There’s no discipline inside so the inmates can do whatever they want so there’s no recourse,” he argued. 

Even with the law in place, prison officials have repeatedly violated the 15-day limit, according to an investigation by New York Focus. 

Backers of the HALT measure cite medical research that shows isolating people for long stretches is akin to torture and causes serious mental harm. 

But Smith said people in so-called punitive segregation are still allowed to meet with clergy and given an hour a day to go outside. 

“He gets to see everybody,” Smith said. “The clergy comes by, the medical comes by, counselors come by, the exec team comes by.” 

They also have a view of outside via their windows and can talk to people in nearby cells, he added. 

DOCCS should go back to the “old system,”  he said, where prisoners could be put in the special unit for two or three days up to a year. 

“There has to be some kind of punishment.”