MONDAY WAS ROBERT BROOKS ADVOCACY DAY AT THE STATE CAPITAL, CRIME CMTE CHAIR SEN. JULIA SALAZAR SUPPORTS REFORM
CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE ON CRIME VICTIMS, CRIME AND CORRECTION SEN. JULIA A. SALAZAR AND MORE BACKS BILLS TO ADD TEETH TO PRISON GUARD DISCIPLINARY PROCESS, MAKE IT EASIER TO FIRE VIOLENT OFFICERS
VIDEO. Sen. Julia Salazar (r), Assembly member Eddie Gibbs (c) and (l) Aseemblymember Emily Gallagher attend a news conference calling for new laws to make it easier to discipline and fire state prison guards who abuse prisoners. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Jan. 27, 2025
Prison reform advocates seeking justice for a state prison inmate tortured and killed by guards delivered a list of 9 demands to state lawmakers during a raucous protest tour of the State Capital on Monday.
"Robert Brooks!" the several dozen protesters shouted as they marched through the Capital. "We can't let 'em off the hook, for what they did to Robert Brooks!"
In addition to criminal prosecution of the guilty guards, protesters also demanded reform of the entire state prison system to ensure guards don't torture and kill another prisoner.
Robert Brooks Advocacy Day comes a month after state Attorney Letitia James released body camera video capturing an all-white gang of guards at Marcy beating, kicking, gagging and choking the 43-year-old Brooks to death in the prison's infirmary on Dec. 9, 2024.
Among protesters' 9 demands are reforms both macro and micro. Macro demands include "justice and accountability" for what the protesters called "the brutal murder of Mr. Robert Brooks." Protesters called it an "undeniable moral and legal obligation."
Mirco demands include every prisons' executive team "to work on the 3 PM to 11 PM shift, the time frame when the majority of abuses by correctional staff are reported."
The advocates' protest tour featured a stop at a news conference by State Sen. Julia Salazar, Chair of the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction. She challenged the sadistic violence by guards "that has long plagued our state prisons."
“Can any of us imagine cowardly killing someone at work and thinking we could get away with it?” Sen. Salazar said. “Justice for Robert Brooks means we cannot tolerate another person being killed in our state prisons, and as lawmakers we must do our jobs by bringing transparency, accountability and safety to our prison system.”
As Sen. Salazar spoke, formerly-incarcerated Assemblyman Eddie Gibbs stood beside her and shouted "Robert Brooks!" and "Shut it down!" at pauses in the senator's speech, amplifying another central of the protesters' central demands: that the prison where Brooks was killed, the Marcy Correctional Facility, be closed.
Sen. Salazar trumpeted a trio of related bills designed to make it harder for guards to abuse prisoners by, among other things, making it easier to fire violent guards.
Activists, many formerly-incarcerated, protested the killing of prisoner Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility by guards on Dec. 9 in the State Capital on Monday. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
The bills add teeth to a toothless and ineffective disciplinary process, give more power to a legislatively-empowered prison watchdog group, the Correctional Association of New York, and create an independent Office of the Correctional Ombudsperson with police powers.
Sen. Salazar, Assemblyman Gibbs and 56 state senators and assembly members including the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus asked Gov. Kathy Hochul to close Marcy in a joint Jan. 13 letter. Under existing law, Gov. Hochul has the authority to close up to three prisons without further approval by the state legislature.
The coalition's Jan. 23 letter said that Brooks' killing made closing Marcy "an essential step" to "ensuring justice, protecting the safety and wellbeing of individuals incarcerated at Marcy CF, and increasing accountability in the NYS corrections system."
In addition to Brooks' killing, the group wrote there were "numerous additional reports, anecdotal accounts, and formal and informal complaints raised over a period of many years regarding the pattern of systemic brutal and violent staff behavior at Marcy CF."
Formerly-incarcerated Assemblyman Eddie Gibbs with stacks of mail from New York State prisoners reporting abuse by prison guards, inside the State Capital on Jan. 27,, 2025. Photo credit: JB NIcholas.
During a pause in the protest on Monday, Assemblyman Gibbs exclusively showed The Free Lance hundreds of letters his office received from men and women in New York's prison system reporting abuse of all kind.
"Pick your poison. Everything's abuse, rape, you name it," Gibbs said. "I get them from all over the state."
"It's like 2,700 letters. I need a committee of members to read these letters," Gibbs said. "There are too many."
After Sen. Salazar's news conference, protesters roamed the halls of the capital looking for legislators to lobby.
They buttoned up Assemblyman Erik Martin Dilan outside his office because he declined to sign the letter Sen. Salazar, Assemblyman Gibbs and 56 other lawmakers signed on Jan. 13 demanding Gov. Kathy Hochul close Marcy under her existing legal authority.
Assemblyman Dilan defended himself by saying his first priority was ensuring the guards who killed Brooks were arrested. To that end, he revealed lawmakers pressed the special prosecutor, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, in a telephone call to bring charges against the guilty guards,
"We had a call with the DA and demanded that he be arrested," Dilan told the group gathered in the hallway outside his office."So that's the main thing that I want."
The group seemed to be pleased by Dilan's willingness to hear them out.
"Well that was productive," one said.
Assemblyman Erik Martin Dilan holds a list of protesters’ demands outside his office as he talks with them about Robert Brooks’ killing by prison guards. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
From there the group rode jammed into an elevator and rode to the sixth floor to visit Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon.
Buttenschon, a Democrat, joined with Republican Assemblyman Brian Miller and Republican deputy minority leader Senator Joseph Griffo to issue a joint statement condemning Gov. Kathy Hochul's visit to Marcy on Dec. 30.
Gov. Hochul said she was "sickened to think of the actions of depraved individuals with no regard for human life,” while Buttenschon, Miller and Griffo said they were "disappointed" in the "timing" of Gov. Hochul's visit.
In response to the Jan. 13 letter signed by 58 state lawmakers calling for Marcy's closure, Buttenschon issued a statement saying she opposed closing Marcy.
“It is with great disappointment and absolutely no regret," her Jan. 24 statement said, "that I disagree with my colleagues calling for the closure of the Marcy Correctional Facility.”
Activists demanding the closing of the prison where Robert Brooks was killed by prison guards on Dec. 9, 2024, the Marcy Correctional Facility, pack the office Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon, who has opposed closing Marcy. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
On Monday, the protesters, led by formerly-incarcerated activists chanting "Justice for!" pause "Robert Brooks!" flooded the assemblywoman's capital office.
"We're here to demand justice for Robert Brooks," one explained to the assemblywoman's stunned staffers.
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