New York Fires Striking Prison Guards Amid Inmate Death Investigation
New York state officials have initiated the termination of correctional officers who have defied a negotiated agreement to end their ongoing labor strike, now stretching into its third week. The strike, deemed illegal under state law, has prompted serious concerns about prison safety and operations, exacerbated by the recent death of an inmate.
Jackie Bray, the state’s homeland security commissioner, announced the commencement of terminations on Sunday. The state also began canceling health insurance benefits for striking officers and their dependents on Monday, marking a significant escalation in the state’s response.
According to Bray, the number of officers terminated remains below ten, while thousands face the loss of their health insurance coverage. "None of these actions we take lightly," Bray emphasized, "We have tried at every turn to get people back to work without taking these actions."
The strike’s backdrop is shadowed by the death of Messiah Nantwi, a 22-year-old inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility. Nantwi, who died Saturday at a Utica hospital, was serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon related to a 2021 shooting involving police officers. He was also awaiting trial for the 2023 shooting deaths of two men.
While officials have remained tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding Nantwi’s death, other inmates reported to The New York Times that he was severely beaten by correctional officers.
Stan German, executive director of the New York County Defender Services, expressed outrage, stating, "True, he was incarcerated, but he was still entitled, like all of us, to basic human dignity and safety. Instead, he suffered a violent senseless death at the hands of state corrections officers operating within a toxic culture that our society mainly ignores."
The corrections department has placed 11 staffers on administrative leave pending an investigation into Nantwi’s death.
Mid-State Correctional Facility is located across from the Marcy Correctional Facility, where six guards face murder charges in connection with the December beating death of Robert Brooks.
Adding to the grim picture, Jonathon Grant, a 61-year-old inmate, was found unresponsive in his cell at Auburn Correctional Facility last month amid the ongoing strike. The cause of his death is under investigation, and it remains unclear whether the strike and staffing shortages played a role.
The public defender’s office that represented Grant voiced concerns that the strike may have negatively impacted inmates’ access to medical care.
Correctional officers initiated their walkout on February 17, citing concerns over working conditions within the state’s prisons.
Jose Saldana, director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, argued that the strike is a deliberate distraction from the issue of inmate abuse. "To put it more bluntly," Saldana said, "guards are holding hostage tens of thousands of incarcerated people, whose basic survival needs are often going unmet, in order to demand even more power to harm those in their custody."
The agreement between the state and the officers’ union, aimed at ending the strike, includes provisions to address staffing shortages and reduce mandatory 24-hour overtime shifts. The deal also proposes a temporary increase in overtime pay and potential changes to the pay scale.
Furthermore, the agreement includes a 90-day suspension of a law limiting the use of solitary confinement. During this period, the state will assess whether reinstating the law would pose an "unreasonable risk" to staff and inmate safety.
Governor Kathy Hochul has deployed the National Guard to several prisons to fill in for striking workers and maintain order.
Corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello reported that the number of facilities affected by the strike had decreased from 38 to 32. However, visits remain suspended at all state prisons.
"No matter when this ends or how this ends, our long-term plan must be and is to recruit more corrections officers because our facilities run safer when we’re fully staffed," Bray stated. "That work can’t really begin in earnest until folks return to work and we end the strike."
The New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, the officers’ union, has not yet issued a statement regarding the terminations and the ongoing situation.
The series of events paints a troubling picture of the New York prison system. A labor dispute has morphed into a crisis with potentially deadly consequences. The firing of striking workers is a gamble by the state, a decision that could further strain the system if staffing levels are dangerously reduced. The inmate deaths and allegations of abuse, meanwhile, speak to a deeper systemic problem in the state’s correctional facilities, one that requires swift and comprehensive action to ensure the safety and well-being of both inmates and staff. The coming weeks and months will prove critical as the state attempts to resolve the strike, investigate the allegations of abuse, and reform its prison system to prevent future tragedies.
