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NEW YORK (AP) — Fifteen prison staffers have been placed on leave following the death of a man incarcerated in New York state, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday
The Democrat said the state department of corrections staffers were taken off the job at her direction as state police have launched a probe into the death of Messiah Nantwi Saturday at the Mid-State Correctional Facility.
“While the investigation into this incident is ongoing, early reports point to extremely disturbing conduct leading to Mr. Nantwi’s death and I am committed to accountability for all involved," she said in a statement. “The people of New York extend our deepest condolences to Mr. Nantwi’s family and loved ones.”
State police and corrections officials have declined to provide details of the incident other than to say the 22-year-old died at a hospital in Utica.
But the New York County Defender Services, which had been representing Nantwi as he awaited trial in the killing of two men, said Monday that he suffered a “violent senseless death at the hands of state corrections officers.”
The office also described Nantwi as a “bright” young man dealing with “significant mental health challenges” following a “dysfunctional violent upbringing.”
Manhattan prosecutors say Nantwi shot and killed Jaylen Duncan, 19, on a Harlem street in April 2023. The following evening, they say, he shot and killed Brandon Brunson, 36, at a Harlem smoke shop after an argument.
Nantwi had entered the state prison system last May and had been serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon related to an exchange of gunfire with police officers in 2021. At the time he was shot multiple times, while the officers were uninjured.
Hochul said Nantwi's death is a “reminder of the need for real systemic change" within the state prison system.
She noted she mandated the use of body-worn cameras, expanded whistleblower hotlines and brought in outside experts to conduct a review of the prison system in response to the December death of Robert Brooks, an inmate at the Marcy Correctional Facility.
Six guards have been charged with murder in Brooks' death. The Mid-State prison is located across the street from the Marcy prison.
Former inmates and their families and supporters rallied earlier Tuesday at the State Capitol in Albany in response to the latest prison death.
“This is not just about any one isolated tragedy. It is about generations of unchecked violence, racism, and impunity,” Thomas Gant, a community organizer with Center for Community Alternatives, said in a statement from the organizers after the event. “It is about a prison system that operates as a death sentence for far too many. And it is about the urgent demand for accountability, justice, and freedom.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of corrections staffers and their supporters rallied at the capitol Tuesday as many continued a weekslong wildcat strike that began on Feb. 17 in protest of working conditions.
Hochul in response called the illegal work stoppage a “significant safety risk" and implored prison staffers to return to their jobs.
Last Thursday, she announced an agreement with the officers’ union that called for officers to return to work by Saturday to avoid being disciplined.
The New York Civil Liberties Union also filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the corrections department.
The legal challenge, filed on behalf of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, says attorney calls and in-person visits have been suspended at many state prisons as a result of the strikes, restricting the First Amendment rights of those incarcerated.
A department spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
“By restricting incarcerated people’s ability to communicate with their attorneys, DOCCS is undermining the essential right to access justice and due process,” said Karen Murtagh, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York. “The little information we were able to collect from people behind bars and their loved ones depicts horrific prison conditions that have only been worsened by the strikes.”
