HUSBAND OF PRISON NURSE WHO LOST CHILD SPEAKS OUT
SCOTT MITCHELL SAYS 'IT'S HORRIFYING TO ME THAT THESE PEOPLE IN ALBANY CAN'T SEE THIS.'
Scott Mitchell’s wife lost a child working as a nurse at the Upstate Correctional Facility speaks out against lawmakers in Albany. Photo credit: screenshot
Mar. 11, 2025
The husband of a prison nurse who lost their unborn child after suspected exposure to synthetic drugs at work is slamming Albany lawmakers.
“It’s horrifying to me,” Scott Mitchell said in a Facebook video post on Tuesday, “that these people in Albany can’t see this.”
“This has not just happened to us, it's happened to people throughout the state,” Mitchell said. “People have been cut, people have been stabbed, people have lost their life. And they just do not care.”
Scott's wife, Savannah, miscarried days after being exposed to suspected synthetic drugs while at work inside the Upstate Correctional Facility on Jan. 22, 2024, The Free Lance first reported yesterday.
Today, Scott told their story in his own words.
"My wife and I feel it's time to shed some light on the situation going on throughout the state," he began. "We want everybody to hear our story."
Savannah was just one of 25 workers at Upstate stricken by suspected exposure to synthetic drugs in one incident. Five more were stricken with the same symptoms three days later.
The strike began in western New York at the Collins and Elmira Correctional Facilities on Feb. 17. Its cause traces to a new law that limited officials’ power to hold prisoners in solitary confinement and a savage, bloody brawl Correction Officers blamed on that law that broke out in Collins' mess hall in 2023.
Strikers also asked for better protection from drug exposure.
Strikes by all public employees are illegal under New York's Taylor Law. Under the Taylor law, striking guards face automatic loss of two days' pay for every day on strike.
On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul directed her state prison chief, Daniel F. Martucello III, to fire more than 2,000 guards who remained on strike. Then she issued an executive order barring the fired strikers from any kind of state employment—even though the state is suffering from a shortage of workers.
The press offices for Gov. Hochul and DOCCS did not respond to an invitation to comment.
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