15 N.Y. Prison Workers Placed on Leave as Inmate’s Death Is Investigated
The New York Times
Gov. Kathy Hochul said that early reports suggested “extremely disturbing conduct” leading to the death of Messiah Nantwi, 22, in an upstate prison.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday that 15 corrections department employees had been put on leave in connection with the death of Messiah Nantwi, a 22-year-old inmate in a medium-security prison in central New York.
Ms. Hochul said that while the matter was under investigation, “early reports point to extremely disturbing conduct leading to Mr. Nantwi’s death.”
Nine prisoners interviewed by The New York Times said he died on Saturday after he was beaten by prison guards at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y., near Utica.
His death followed the December killing of Robert Brooks, 43, at Marcy Correctional Facility, across the street from Mid-State. Ten officers have been criminally charged in Mr. Brooks’s death. Six of them were charged with murder after footage from body-worn cameras showed them beating and choking Mr. Brooks.
Mr. Nantwi was the seventh prisoner to die in a New York State facility since Feb. 17, when thousands of correctional workers began wildcat strikes at dozens of prisons across the state, leading to disarray throughout the system. At least one of the deaths was a suicide, and prisoners said two other people did not receive medical care in a timely manner.
A prisons spokesman said on Tuesday that the seven people who have died also included two men who had been admitted to the Coxsackie Correctional Facility Regional Medical Unit weeks ago. Robert St. Ives, 71, died at the Albany Medical Center on Saturday and Zion Gregory, 25, died there on Monday.
