Ahead of State Budget Hearing on NY Prison System, Speakers Call for Sentencing Reform, Parole Justice, and Urgent Policies to Transform Conditions Behind Bars
WHAT: Ahead of a joint legislative budget hearing on the prison system and other components of the legal system, lawmakers, formerly incarcerated New Yorkers, and crime survivors will hold a press conference calling for fair pathways home from prison and an end to the abuse of incarcerated people. In the wake of racist mobs of prison guards viciously murdering Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, and the evidence that a racist culture of brutality has continued unchecked behind bars for decades, lawmakers committed to addressing the crisis in our prison system…
WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 12 at 9am
WHERE: LCA Pressroom – Room 130 of the Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY.
VISUALS: Banners, signs, and people chanting.
BACKGROUND: The humanitarian crisis in New York’s prisons continues unabated, with rampant staff brutality and abuse, widespread illegal solitary confinement in systemic violation of the HALT Solitary Law, and people continuing to die. A little over a year ago, Robert Brooks was beaten to death by a swarm of prison guards at Marcy Correctional Facility. In February, Messiah Nantwi was killed across the street at Mid-State Correctional Facility. The murders of Messiah Nantwi and Robert Brooks follow decades of well-documented brutality by prison staff, including the murders of Leonard Strickland, Karl Taylor, Samuel Harrell, and many others, and rapes of predominately incarcerated women by prison staff…