Opinion: The murder of Robert Brooks as a catalyst for clemency

The confluence of the murder of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility, the illegal

walkouts by correction officers at prisons across the state and the deaths of Jonathon Grant at

Auburn Correctional Facility and Anthony Douglas and Franklyn Dominguez at Sing Sing marks an urgent moment for Gov. Kathy Hochul to grant clemency to a significant number of the more than 1,000 people with pending clemency applications.

The sickening video evidence of Brooks’ torture and killing made it impossible for the governor, who after all has ultimate responsibility for the state’s Department of Corrections, to issue a typical “let’s see what an investigation reveals” response.  Instead, the governor took what her press release described as “immediate corrective actions,” including the immediate replacement of the superintendent of Marcy Correctional Facility.

Most of the subsequent corrective actions, like calls for better training and greater use of body-worn cameras, are predictable and unlikely to have much impact. A culture of violence is endemic to prisons where people are placed in cages like animals and told when they can wake, sleep, eat, step outside, speak and shower, and where correction officers are given vast power to enforce those orders however they see fit. Robert Brooks was not killed by the proverbial one bad apple – ten correction officers have so far been indicted for their role in his death.

No doubt motivated by these indictments, correction officers are now engaging in what is euphemistically being called a “work stoppage” at multiple prisons across the state, while brazenly demanding repeal of the HALT law that restricted the use of solitary confinement. The immediate impact of this illegal wildcat strike on incarcerated people cannot be overstated.  Programs are shut down, medical appointments are postponed, legal phone calls and legal visits are canceled, parole interviews are deferred, family visits are suspended and people are confined to their cells. Since the strike began, three incarcerated persons have already died, heightening fears over the lack of necessary medical care and increasing feelings of anxiety and hopelessness.

Almost all New York State prisoners are in upstate prisons, far from New York City. Once people are locked up in remote parts of the state, with limited access to family (or lawyers), the potential for abuse grows immeasurably. The question “who knows what goes on behind closed doors?” becomes especially apt the farther and farther away those doors are from other people.

Marcy Correctional Facility is 250 miles from midtown Manhattan in Oneida County, a locale with a population that is 90% white. A recent report from the state Inspector General found that 91% of the Marcy prison staff is white, while the prison’s incarcerated population is two-thirds Black and Latino. It is impossible to watch the video of Brooks being beaten to death and not notice that all the prison staff involved, which included at least one sergeant, appear to be white.  

It is this upstate/city, white/Black, guard/prisoner dynamic that leads, consciously or subconsciously, to so many of the prison abuses that have been exposed over the years.  Whether it is due to lack of familiarity, understanding, indifference, neglect or rank racial animus, the result is rampant abuse.

Put simply, the Brooks homicide video captured a reality that has long been known from first-hand accounts of people inside, and which was documented in a report from the Correctional Association, an organization authorized to provide independent monitoring of New York prisons: violence against prisoners, in particular at Marcy, is widespread.

The most noteworthy response from the governor was tucked away in her State of the State budget priorities. Hochul proposed expanding opportunities for prisoners to reduce time on their sentence through good behavior and expanded job training. Such legislation would create incentives for people to change their thinking and actions and ultimately would serve to send people home sooner. And the fewer people in prison, the fewer opportunities for brutality.

But if Hochul is serious about expanding ways for people in prison to reduce their sentence and thereby reduce the prison population, there is no need to wait. 

Countless people with pending clemency applications have already availed themselves of the types of opportunities that the governor’s merit time proposal envisions and have robust evidence of rehabilitation. They have acknowledged responsibility for their actions and have expressed genuine remorse. Many clemency applicants came into prison when they were teenagers.  Many are now elderly and ill. Many have bettered themselves through education, and many volunteer on behalf of others as hospice aides or by assisting peers with mental health challenges. All have served decades in prison. 

It is commendable that the governor speaks of ways for people to earn time off their sentences, but the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the prisons demands that she act now – by using her clemency power to swiftly remove people from harm’s way. Hochul’s clemency website states that applicants must “demonstrate that they have made exceptional strides in self-development and improvement.” Last year, she commuted the sentences of just three people. With more than 32,000 people in New York state prisons, there are surely more than three who have made those exceptional strides. 

If Joe Biden can commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people in his last week in office, and Donald Trump can commute the sentences of Jan. 6 rioters in his first week in office, Hochul can surely commute the sentences of deserving people in the middle of her term in office.