Guards Brutally Beat Prisoners and Lied About It. They Weren’t Fired.

Written By Madelyn S

The New York Times, May 19, 2023: Guards Brutally Beat Prisoners and Lied About It. They Weren’t Fired.

“For decades, the workings of the prison discipline system had been hidden from public view under a secrecy law adopted at the urging of the state’s powerful law enforcement unions. But after the Legislature repealed that law in 2020, The Marshall Project obtained more than 5,600 records of disciplinary cases against prison employees, for issues ranging from physical abuse of prisoners to sleeping on the job.

“The records probably reflect only a fraction of the violence guards have inflicted in New York’s corrections system, experts said. Many prisoners do not file complaints because they fear retaliation or not being believed. And in most of the state’s 44 prisons, officers do not wear body cameras, which sometimes help prove abuse. These records do not detail prisoner attacks on officers, which the department and the guards’ union said have increased in recent years.

“A key reason the prison system finds it so hard to get rid of guards is the contract the state signed in 1972 with the union. The agreement requires any effort to fire an officer to go through binding arbitration, using an outside arbitrator hired by the union and the state — a system the union has successfully kept in subsequent contracts. Only a court can overturn arbitration decisions.

“In abuse cases, the arbitrators ruled in favor of officers three-quarters of the time, according to a review of nearly 120 decisions by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization. Arbitrators, most of whom are lawyers, often said the state’s evidence was insufficient or found prisoners’ testimony unconvincing.

“Rather than go to arbitration, the state sometimes withdraws charges, or officers choose to resign or retire. Guards accused of abuse are often suspended without pay — a three-month suspension is most common, the analysis found.”

Additional reading:

The New York Times, April 11, 2016: New York State Corrections Dept. Takes On Guards’ Union Over Brutality

The Marshall Project, updated April 27, 2023: Correctional Officer Brutality

Time Magazine, September 1, 2020: The Violence Against People Behind Bars That We Don't See

Madelyn S
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