A decade ago, corrections officers in New York state prisons used pepper spray 124 times over the course of a year. But by 2024, the year Robert Brooks was murdered by guards while incarcerated at a prison near Utica, the number of pepper spray deployments had spiked to 4,758.
It's just one finding in a long-awaited 277-page outside review of New York’s prison system ordered by Gov. Kathy Hochul after Brooks and another prisoner, Messiah Nantwi, were killed by guards at the Marcy and Midstate correctional facilities.
The report, by the law firm WilmerHale, found a degraded culture and low morale among corrections officers. It cited statistics that show the use of force rose steadily in the decade before Brooks’ murder, a fact that prisoners overwhelmingly said in surveys was unjustified. Of nearly 1,200 complaints of excessive force filed by prisoners against guards in 2024, only 40 were substantiated.
Observers of the prison system say the report’s findings back up their concerns.
“It confirms what many of us already feared: that the killing of Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi weren't just a few bad actors, that it's a systemic issue, and it’s something that we need to address,” said Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, a Long Island Democrat who chairs the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus.
Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the watchdog Correctional Association of New York, said the findings were concerning but in line with what her group has observed in monitoring visits to state prisons.
“A culture of mutual distrust and even contempt between staff and incarcerated people, miserable working conditions and lack of institutional support for staff,” she said. “All of these things are things that are very familiar to us.”
Jurors last year convicted David Kingsley of murdering Brooks in December of 2024. Body camera footage showed Kingsley and other men beating and kicking Brooks in the infirmary of the Marcy Correctional Facility. Six other guards pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Brooks’ death.
As the guards were being indicted the following February, corrections officers around the state walked off their posts as part of an illegal strike that wasn’t authorized by their union. The three-week walkout disrupted visitation and forced prisons into a lockdown where incarcerated people were mostly confined to their cells.
At least nine prisoners died during the strike, including Nantwi. Ten guards at the Midstate Correctional Facility were charged in connection with his homicide. One guard was found guilty of manslaughter and other men pleaded to lesser charges.
State lawmakers responded to the killings by passing a sweeping bill that increased oversight and required more cameras in prisons. But problems remain more than a year after the strike concluded — mostly stemming from a lack of staff in prisons. Hochul is spending more than $500 million a year to deploy National Guard troops to supplement the prison workforce.
Prison guards have called for rollbacks to a 2019 law that placed limits on the amount of time prisoners could be placed in solitary confinement. Supporters of that law say prolonged solitary confinement is torture. Corrections officers said the law removed an important disciplinary tool and contributed to rising violence.
The rising violence documented in the report wasn’t a surprise, a union leader said.
“Instead of listening to the correction officers who work inside these facilities every day, [the Corrections Department] and New York State policymakers dismissed their concerns,” said Chris Summers, president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association. “Now, they are releasing reports and independent assessments that confirm many of the same warnings our members have been raising all along.”
Solages defended the 2019 law and said more work should be done to change the culture of prisons. She supports bills that would reduce the number of incarcerated people by allowing for more chances at parole.
The state corrections department said it has already implemented some of the recommendations in the WilmerHale report. Commissioner Daniel Martuscello said that excessive force complaints declined 42% from 2024 to 2025, and reported assaults on staff and prisoners were both down more than 10%.
Martuscello said the report reflects “both the important work already underway to strengthen safety, accountability, and professionalism across [the corrections department] , and the significant work that still lies ahead. We remain committed to instituting meaningful reforms.”
Scaife said it would be difficult to change the culture in state prisons.
”Unfortunately, it's not simple, it's not fast, and it's not one thing,” she said. “This is going to take a long-term commitment to improving the living and working environment so that people feel that they're stepping into an environment where their human dignity is recognized, acknowledged, and upheld.”
Hochul spokesperson Jessica D’Amelia said the governor was committed to making prisons “safer and more secure for all.”
