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Discipline in New York prisons part one: Guards

January 16, 2025 Jesse Goodman

The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, where former federal correction officer Quandelle Joseph smuggled contraband in exchange for bribes, leading to his 30-month prison sentence. Photo: John Minchillo/AP

The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn. Photo: John Minchillo/AP

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In December 2024, Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old inmate at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, New York, was brutally beaten by correctional officers while handcuffed in the prison’s medical unit. Body camera footage released by the New York Attorney General’s Office shows officers repeatedly punching and kicking Brooks, leading to his death the following day.

The case garnered international attention. Gov. Kathy Hochul toured the Marcy Correctional Facility after demanding the termination of the 13 officers involved.

“We have no tolerance for individuals who cross the line, break the law and engage in unnecessary violence or targeted abuse,” Hochul said in a Dec. 21, 2024 statement. “I am committed to accountability for all involved.”

Hochul isn’t the first person to call for disciplinary action against this particular group of officers, nor is this the first incident. At least two of the guards involved in Brooks’ death belong to CERT Team 20, one of the specially trained teams of prison officers known as “Correctional Emergency Response Teams” intended to respond to emergency situations. CERT has a widespread reputation for excessive violence. More than 90 incarcerated men have alleged brutal assault and waterboarding at the hands of CERT officers.

At least three of the guards involved in Brooks’ death have been accused of participating in similar attacks in the past, resulting in one inmate becoming permanently disfigured and another consigned to a wheelchair. Ronald Anderson, a former inmate at Marcy Correctional Facility, told Gothamist that CERT is known as the “demon squad” among incarcerated people.

“When CERT comes in, there’s nothing you can do,” Sean Michael Chung, 29, who also served at Marcy, told Gothamist. “You’re going to be hurt badly, and it’s not a regular beating. It’s not like you had a fistfight at the bar. This is a different kind of whooping.”

So far, none of the implicated correctional officers have been terminated. And CERT is far from the only group to avoid disciplinary action. According to data obtained by The Marshall Project, New York prisons attempted to fire guards involved in the abuse of prisoners 290 times from 2010 to 2022. Only 10% were successfully terminated.

There are a few reasons it might be hard to fire a correctional officer, including a culture of secrecy and cover-ups, but the most common impediment is arbitration. When the State of New York fires a guard for abuse or covering up abuse, the guard has the right to appeal. The decision then goes to an independent arbitration committee hired by the union and the state, usually made up of one or two private lawyers. According to the data, arbiters overwhelmingly decide to overturn the decision of the corrections department management in favor of the guards.

The Marshall Project investigation found that three out of every four guards fired in New York between 2010 and 2022 due to accusations of abuse were later reinstated via arbitration.

The job of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), the union representing the guards, is to “vigorously [defend] its members from false allegations by the incarcerated community,” while “a neutral party renders decisions based on the facts and evidence presented,” said NYSCOPBA president Michael Powers in a statement.

The right to arbitration was originally negotiated as part of a 1972 contract between the state and the union representing NY correctional officers at the time. Only a court can overturn arbitration decisions.

Last year, Hochul negotiated a new contract that requires a three-person panel consisting of an arbiter, a representative from the state and a representative from the union, to decide all cases of serious misconduct. However, the state’s civil service department is still working with the union to implement the panels.

A bill filed in Feb. 2024 by State Senator Julia Salazar, a Brooklyn Democrat, would authorize the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to remove abusive guards from its prisons without the input of a third-party arbiter. The bill has been stuck in the New York Senate’s Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee since it was introduced.

Reports show that guards often work together to cover up violent assaults in prisons. Often, they seek revenge against whistleblowers by accusing prisoners of assaulting them. In nearly half of the 160 lawsuits against guards examined by The Marshall Project, officers retaliated by filing their own charges against inmates and sending them to solitary confinement.

Most likely, the vast majority of cases in which a guard assaults a New York state prisoner are unknown.