By Philip Marcelo and Michael R. Sisak
Associated Press
NEW YORK — 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.
The New York County Defender Services had been representing Nantwi as he awaited trial in the shooting deaths of two men in 2023.
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.
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.
Mid-State is across the street from the Marcy Correctional Facility, where six corrections officers have been charged with murder in the death of Robert Brooks, who was beaten by officers in December.
The probe into Nantwi’s death comes as a wildcat strike by state prison officers stretched into a third week, prompting officials to start firing workers for failing to abide by a deal to end the illegal labor action.
The state’s homeland security commissioner, Jackie Bray, said terminations began Sunday and that on Monday the state would begin canceling health insurance for correctional officers who have remained on strike. Their dependents will also lose coverage.
Fewer than 10 officers have been fired so far, Bray said, while thousands are in line to lose their health insurance benefits.
Corrections officers began walking out Feb. 17 to protest working conditions.
Last Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a binding agreement between the state and officers’ union to end the picketing. Officers were required to return to work by Saturday to avoid being disciplined for striking.
The deal included ways to address staffing shortages and minimize mandatory 24-hour overtime shifts. It also offers a temporary bump in overtime pay, a potential change in pay scale and a 90-day suspension of a law limiting the use of solitary confinement.
The strike violated a state law barring walkouts by most public employees. Hochul deployed the National Guard to some prisons to take the place of striking workers.
Corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello said Monday that the number of facilities with striking workers had dropped from 38 to 32, though visiting remained suspended at all state prisons.
This article, originally published on March 4, has been updated to reflect that 15 staffers have been placed on leave.