The family of Robert Brooks, an incarcerated man who died after a violent incident with prison officers at Marcy Correctional Facility last month, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. Brooks, a 43-year-old Black man, died at a hospital in Utica the day after the incident.

His death has prompted more calls for change within New York state prisons.

The Correctional Association of New York visits state correctional facilities to identify and report on prison conditions. They visited Marcy Correctional Facility in 2022.

Their visit came after they said they received an unusually large volume of correspondence – 25 letters from people who were incarcerated between February and September.

After 117 interviews with individuals who were incarcerated, their report said many claimed to have experienced rampant abuse by staff, including physical assaults and several instances of racialized abuse and discrimination.

The 2022 report listed many other alleged negative experiences.

With that knowledge, the Correctional Association of New York’s executive director said while Robert Brooks’ death was shocking and horrific, what wasn’t shocking to her was that it happened at Marcy.

“We weren't really surprised given the kinds of allegations we documented while we were at Marcy about the day-to-day culture of hostility, violence, threatening misconduct, retaliation that incarcerated people reported to us experiencing coming from security staff in particular at the facility," said Correctional Association of New York Executive Director Jennifer Scaife.

DOCCS said they value the association’s insight, and have addressed, or are in the process of addressing, the majority of the recommendations from the 2022 report.

It said it opened four investigations of alleged misconduct, and three of the four were unsubstantiated. It said the fourth was referred to the superintendent at Midstate Correctional Facility, since it did not involve Marcy.

DOCCS’ response went on to say: "Over the past three years, DOCCS has adopted a number of broad CANY recommendations. One of those recommendations adopted has been DOCCS investment of millions of dollars to continue to expand fixed cameras in all facilities, along with body-worn cameras. Body-worn cameras were deployed to Marcy Correctional Facility in May, 2024."

DOCCS noted that those cameras preserved the evidence of the fatal attack of Robert Brooks.

The Correctional Association of New York’s executive director also wanted to emphasize that these sorts of complaints do not involve all or even most staff at prisons.