Latest news with #NewYorkStateDepartmentofCorrectionsandCommunitySupervision
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Teen pleads guilty in deadly Rochester crash that involved stolen car
A Rochester teenager on Wednesday pleaded guilty in Monroe County Court to his role in a May 2024 crash that involved a stolen car and killed a 14-year-old passenger. Anthony Barnes Jr., now 18, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, the top count of the felony indictment, according to the Monroe County District Attorney's Office. The crash, which involved a stolen vehicle, occurred on Bloss Street around 7 p.m. on May 3, 2024. Officers said that the vehicle overturned due Barnes' reckless driving. Witnesses reported the westbound vehicle was speeding and driving erratically on Bloss Street as several people were hanging out of the car's windows. The driver lost control, the car fishtailed, overturned and came to rest in a Bloss Street yard. Six teens were in the car - ranging in age from 11 to 17. Jazzmeir Mouzon-Henton, 14, suffered serious injuries in the crash and died three days after the crash. Barnes is to be sentenced to 5 to 15 years in the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which is the maximum sentence allowed by New York State Law, according to the DA's Office. Assistant District Attorney Kelly Pettrone, who prosecuted the case, said the plea was important as Barnes was taking responsibility for his "terrible decision." Jazzmeir's death, she was, "was entirely preventable." 'Jazzmeir Mouzon-Henton was a young teenager with his entire life ahead of him,' Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said in a news release. 'A series of reckless choices made by Anthony Barnes Jr. led to this devastating loss. Because of his actions, Jazzmeir's family was robbed of their loved one, and Anthony Barnes, Jr. will face the consequences of his decisions while incarcerated." Barnes is scheduled to be sentenced by Monroe County Court Judge Julie Hahn on Aug. 14. This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Anthony Barnes Jr. pleads guilty in deadly Rochester NY crash
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Yahoo
DOCCS: Agreement reached, correction officers to return Monday
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision announced Saturday night that an agreement had been reached with the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association for striking correction officers to return to work at 6:45 a.m. Monday. DOCCS released a 'Memorandum of Agreement,' which has been signed by DOCCS commissioner Daniel Martuscello and NYSCOPBA president Chris Summers. The agreement came on the 20th day of the wildcat strike, which had not been officially sanctioned by the union. It will go into effect if at least 85 percent of the state's correction officers return to work. Under the agreement, DOCCS will rescind probationary terminations that were issued to striking employees, as well as reinstate any employee who resigned. New York State will reinstate health insurance effective immediately to employees who had their health insurance terminated. DOCCS will also not pursue Taylor Law proceedings against officers who were on strike if they return to work on Monday. The strike began on Feb. 17 with correction officers seeking changes to working conditions. Those requests included limits to overtime and a reversal of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act. A mediator was brought in on Feb. 21, and a tentative deal had previously been reached on Feb. 27 — but several correction officers remained on strike following that tentative agreement. The agreement states that the HALT Act will remain suspended on a temporary basis, and that Martuscello will 'begin to evaluate the operations, safety, and security of our facilities relative to staffing levels and determine whether re-instituting the suspended elements of HALT would create an unreasonable risk to the safety and security of the incarcerated individuals and staff.' Both sides will continue to 'work towards eliminating anyone working 24-hour mandatory overtime.' Both sides also agreed to establish a committee to examine staffing across facilities, as well as potential 'operational inefficiencies with the goal of providing more relief to existing staff.' The National Guard will remain at facilities on a temporary basis, and National Guard members 'will be used to help prevent an employee from being mandated to work a 24-hour overtime shift.' The full Memorandum of Agreement can be viewed below. Memorandum-of-AgreementDownload *** Mark Ludwiczak joined the News 4 team in 2024. He is a veteran journalist with two decades of experience in Buffalo. You can follow him online at @marklud12. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
07-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
N.Y. Corrections Department Issues Ultimatum to Striking Officers
Corrections officers who staged unauthorized strikes that have sowed chaos across New York State's prisons for the last two and a half weeks received an ultimatum on Thursday night: Return to work on Friday or face termination, disciplinary action and the possibility of criminal charges. In exchange for the officers' returning to work, the state would place a 90-day pause on some provisions of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, known as HALT, which limits the use of solitary confinement for inmates, Daniel F. Martuscello III, commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said in a news conference Thursday night. The department will also create a committee to study the law, which many corrections officers say has made their jobs more dangerous and difficult. Striking officers have also complained about staffing shortages and forced overtime, with some being required to work 24-hour shifts. The shifts of workers who return to duty on Friday will be limited to 12 hours, Mr. Martuscello said. When all workers are back in place and the prisons return to normal operations, he said, workers will not be forced to work shifts longer than eight hours. Dozens of corrections officers and sergeants have been fired for participating in the illegal strikes, Jackie Bray, commissioner of the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, said Thursday evening. Others who refuse to return to work on Friday will also be fired, and will face possible disciplinary action, civil contempt charges or criminal prosecution, Ms. Bray said. Those who return to work on Friday can avoid all of that, Ms. Bray said. Striking corrections officers and sergeants who already quit, who were fired, or who face contempt charges or other disciplinary actions will have their records swept clean and their jobs reinstated, but only if they accept the terms offered Thursday night. 'This deal will not be offered again,' Ms. Bray said. 'We want you back. We need you back. You need to come back to work tomorrow.' The state's offer was authorized by Gov. Kathy Hochul, said Avi Small, a spokesman for the governor. The deal offered Thursday did not include the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents prison guards. The schism between the union's leaders and members dates at least to Feb. 17, when corrections officers at two prisons declared a strike that was not authorized by their union. After the work action spread to nearly all the state's prisons, the union negotiated an agreement with the corrections department that would have ended the strikes on March 1. Most officers ignored the agreement and continued to strike. In response, Mr. Martuscello said, he spent much of the last week traveling the state, speaking with strikers over the phone. He also ordered his deputies to go the picket lines and speak with workers directly. Those conversations informed the compromise offer, which Mr. Martuscello announced on Thursday. Because that process excluded the union, union leaders said they would not sign on to the deal. That appeared to raise questions about whether the deal would be legally binding, even if striking officers did return to work on Friday. 'This agreement was not negotiated with NYSCOPBA — the legally recognized entity through which all negotiations must be conducted,' James Miller, a spokesman for the union, said in an email. Governor Hochul deployed National Guard troops to staff the prisons and maintain order. At least nine prisoners have died during the strikes, including two men at Auburn Correctional Facility in central New York who did not receive needed medical treatment in time. At Sing Sing Correctional Facility, in the Hudson Valley, no one intervened as a man hanged himself in his cell. Eleven corrections staff members were placed on administrative leave after the death on March 1 of Messiah Nantwi, 22, an inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Marcy, N.Y. Nine prisoners interviewed by The New York Times said Mr. Nantwi had been brutally beaten by corrections officers. Their accounts could not be independently confirmed, and Thomas Mailey, a prisons spokesman, said the death was under investigation. In some prisons, inmates went without hot food and showers because of the strikes. In others, they have missed court dates or have been confined in housing areas for more than a week.
CNN
03-03-2025
- CNN
New York State Police investigating prison inmate's death
New York State Police say they're investigating the Saturday death of an inmate who was housed at an upstate medium security prison – reports of which Gov. Kathy Hochul called 'deeply troubling' on Monday. Messiah Nantwi, a 22-year-old inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, died at a hospital, state police said Monday. Although authorities have not said what led to or caused the death, The New York Times reported that nine prisoners – seven of whom agreed to use their names – told it the inmate had been brutally beaten by corrections officers at Mid-State. Nantwi's death came nearly three months after state inmate Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old Black man, died after what authorities said was a December beating by correctional officers at a different prison in Marcy, less than a mile from Mid-State. The governor, when asked Monday about reports of Nantwi's death, said it was 'very much under investigation.' 'Deeply troubling,' Hochul said during a news conference Monday morning in New York City. 'The actual cause of death is not known, but it is my highest priority to get to the bottom of this and find out what happened.' State police were told about Nantwi's death on Saturday, the agency said in a release Monday. '(Nantwi) was pronounced deceased at Wynn Hospital in Utica, (New York),' state police said. 'The circumstances surrounding his death are part of an ongoing investigation by the New York State Police, with the assistance of the (New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision's) office of special investigations.' The state corrections department confirmed Saturday's death in a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WKTV. 'An incarcerated individual was taken from Mid-State Correctional Facility to an outside hospital earlier today (Saturday) and declared dead a short time later,' the corrections department's statement reads. 'Any death that appears to be from other than natural causes or a known medical condition' is investigated by multiple agencies, including the state attorney general's office, New York State Police and the New York state corrections department, the statement reads. A spokesperson with Attorney General Letitia James' office said the 'Office of Special Investigation is conducting a preliminary assessment of the matter.' The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit law firm that represents low-income New Yorkers, issued a statement calling on the state's corrections department to release all camera footage and information regarding the incident. 'The recent death of a 22-year-old at Mid-State Correctional Facility, who, according to reports, was brutally beaten by staff, is unconscionable, especially in the wake of the killing of Robert Brooks, who suffered a similar fate,' the group said. 'This tragedy underscores the inherent culture of staff violence that pervades New York's prisons, and the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and reform,' the group said. Six prison workers were indicted on murder charges in February in connection with Brooks' death. Authorities said Brooks died in the early hours of December 10 after he was beaten by correctional officers while handcuffed at Marcy Correctional Facility. This is a developing story and will be updated. CNN's Leah Thomeer and Gloria Pazmino contributed to this report.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
DOCCS commissioner: correction officers can still return to work, will lose insurance Monday
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) — The commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) put out a statement on Sunday afternoon giving striking correction officers another chance to return to work before losing health insurance. DOCCS Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III shared the statement on the department's official social media accounts at about 12:20 p.m. on March 2. In the statement, Martuscello said that any officers and sergeants who remain on strike on Monday, March 3, will lose their health insurance that day. The strikers' dependents will also lose their healthcare, and this termination will be backdated to the date the officer began striking. According to the statement, strikers will not be eligible for COBRA, a federal program that allows some workers to keep their insurance at a premium after losing their jobs. Martuscello made a personal appeal for strikers to return; he stated that he wants strikers to return even if they missed shifts. This statement comes less than 24 hours after strikers were sent a message through the New York State Department of Employee Relations that stated those who didn't return to work on March 1 like the consent award mandated would be fired on March 2 and lose their healthcare on March 3. Hundreds of COs and supporters remained on strike at Elmira Correctional Facility on March 2 despite the notice. Martuscello's full statement can be read below: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
