The head of the troubled upstate prison where a handcuffed inmate was beaten by staffers and later died has been replaced, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday, along with a host of measures she promised would boost oversight and accountability for correction staff statewide.

The personnel change and other measures come after the state Attorney General’s Office on Friday released videos from body-worn cameras showing multiple correction officers taking turns punching and kicking 43-year-old Robert Brooks while he was handcuffed and delirious in the medical exam room of the Marcy Correctional Facility.

New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision announced Brooks’ death on Dec. 15, and New York Attorney General Letitia James opened an investigation the next day as required by state law. A week later, Hochul ordered the correction department to start the process for terminating 14 correction employees who were identified as being either directly involved in the attack or who failed to intervene. One employee has since quit.

Hochul on Monday visited the room where Brooks was pummeled and spoke with people incarcerated to hear their experiences.

“The system failed Mr. Brooks and I will not be satisfied until there has been significant culture change,” Hochul said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to hear ideas from experts, elected officials, and advocates as we continue this work.”

The measures announced by Hochul, including expedited installation and funding for fixed and body-worn cameras, follows an oversight panel's Oct. 11-12, 2022, site visit report that chronicled a long list of concerns about conditions at Marcy, located in Oneida County. The “most prominent issue” was alleged abuse by staff, according to findings. “Respondents described an environment in which verbal and physical abuse was regular and expected,” according to the report. “You are at the whims of the guards,” one inmate told investigators who visited.

Advocates for incarcerated people said the most sweeping of Hochul’s changes is $400 million in funding for stationary cameras and body-worn cameras throughout the state’s sprawling 42 correctional facilities.

“ I think that the camera installation is one of those things that has been on five-year capital plans for a long time,” said Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the prison watchdog group Correctional Association of New York. “I think that it's been an intention and here now we have a wholesale commitment, which is fantastic.”

Scaife said her organization has long documented the abuses shown in the recently released videos and said cameras had been a policy initiative for advocates for several years.

CANY's site visit report detailed “rampant abuse by staff, including physical assaults and observations of a retaliatory environment." There have also been numerous lawsuits filed against correction officers for similar assaults.

Scaife said there was never proof until now.

“In color and in video for people to see, a visual depiction of the kinds of accounts that we've been recording as allegations for years,” she said.

Other reforms promised by Hochul include:

  • Replacing the current acting superintendent of Marcy with Shawangunk Correctional Facility Superintendent Bennie Thorpe who Hochul says will bring fresh perspective.
  • Boosting staff at the correction department’s Office of Special Investigations, which investigates complaints from people who are incarcerated.
  • Ordering an outside review of the culture within the correctional system.
  • Adding $2 million in funding for the watchdog group CANY.
  • Creating partnerships with other prisoner advocacy groups.

“ Why didn't [the steps announced by Hochul] happen until now? That’s hard to answer,” said Mark Mishler, counsel to state Sen. Julia Salazar of Brooklyn, who chairs the Senate’s committee on correction.

“ There's been studies. There's been testimony at hearings. There's no lack of information,” he said. “I guess people didn't take it seriously until there's this horrific lynching.”

Mishler said he hopes Hochul and lawmakers take up other prison reform efforts that have languished that would reform the parole system and allow older people who are incarcerated to leave prison. He also pushed for lawmakers to pass a bill creating an ombudsman for the correction department.

Scaife said CANY’s annual policy recommendations will be released next week. At the top of the list is to reform the grievance process. She said people in prison who made complaints routinely faced retribution.

“It's too late for Mr. Brooks,” she said. “Yet I think that given the slow pace of change and how discouraging watching policymaking in this space can be, I'm guardedly optimistic that this is a real opportunity for meaningful change."