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WilmerHale review found New York prison guards' use of force rose for a decade while DOCCS substantiated few misconduct complaints

A 277-page outside review by law firm WilmerHale, ordered by Gov. Kathy Hochul after corrections officers killed prisoners Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, found that New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision pepper-spray use rose from 124 deployments a decade earlier to 4,758 by 2024 and that use of force climbed steadily in the years before Brooks' killing. Of nearly 1,200 excessive-force complaints filed by prisoners against guards in 2024, only 40 were substantiated.

Jurisdiction
New York
Location
Albany, New York

Abuses documented

Actors

  • New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

On July 6, 2026, law firm WilmerHale released a 277-page outside review of New York's state prison system, ordered by Gov. Kathy Hochul after corrections officers killed prisoners Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility and Messiah Nantwi at Midstate Correctional Facility. The "Rising Force" report found that use of force by New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision staff rose steadily in the decade before Brooks' killing, with pepper-spray deployments climbing from 124 in a decade-ago year to 4,758 by 2024. Of nearly 1,200 excessive-force complaints filed by incarcerated people against guards in 2024, DOCCS substantiated only 40.

The report also described degraded workplace culture and low staff morale within DOCCS facilities. Six corrections officers pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Brooks' killing, and ten Midstate guards were charged in connection with Nantwi's death. DOCCS said it has already begun implementing some of the report's recommendations and that substantiated excessive-force complaints declined 42 percent from 2024 to 2025.

Why we recorded this

Government custody carries a duty to protect the people held in it, and independent oversight is what keeps that duty enforceable. An outside review ordered after corrections officers killed two New York prisoners found that force used against incarcerated people rose steadily for a decade while the state's own complaint system substantiated only a small fraction of the resulting misconduct claims. This archive records when internal accountability mechanisms fail to check a documented pattern of force inside state custody.

Sources

  1. Rising force: Report catalogs New York state prison problems — Gothamist primary accessed July 6, 2026
  2. Report catalogs rise in New York state prison problems — WRVO Public Media secondary accessed July 6, 2026

See also