As tensions exacerbate within New York's correctional facilities during a sweeping unauthorized strike by state corrections officers, tragedy struck when two prisoners at Sing Sing Correctional Facility were found dead in their cells. According to the Gothamist, 35-year-old Franklyn Dominguez and 67-year-old Anthony Douglas were found unresponsive within five hours on Wednesday, amid an 11th-day strike over alleged unsafe working conditions and concerns surrounding the use of solitary confinement.
The strike, which has seen as many as 9 out of 10 officers walking off the job, has escalated to a critical point, with the News 12 report indicating that the men's deaths are under investigation. With corrections officers leaving their posts, the National Guard has been called in for support, thus leaving the incarcerated population on lockdown and effectively in solitary confinement. Jose Saldana, director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, told Gothamist, "The governor needs to hold accountable all guards who abandoned their duties and use all available means to safely resolve the crisis of overincarceration."
Amidst this escalating crisis, conditions inside said prisons are under scrutiny for the safety and well-being of those incarcerated. Loved ones of the incarcerated and activists have expressed profound concern over the situation. One woman, worried sick for her son at Fishkill Correctional Facility, expressed her fear to News 12, "Am I going to get a call or knock on my door that he’s not here anymore?" Jerome Wright, co-director of the #HALTsolitary Campaign, also called for immediate action: “How many more of us have to die before Governor Hochul, the DOCCS Commissioner, and the state legislature act? Since the state is not able to ensure the health or lives of the people in its custody, the Governor must immediately begin releasing people, starting with elderly and vulnerable people, through expansive use of her power of executive clemency.”
Furthermore, reports indicate the dire straits that not only the prisoners but also the National Guard troops find themselves in. Deployed to pick up the slack, they are housed under squalid conditions without proper training to handle the volatile environment. A member of the New York National Guard laid bare their predicament, revealing to News 12, “We all agree that Afghanistan was better than the conditions in these prisons. We have soldiers getting feces thrown at them, [bodily fluids] thrown at them. They are responding to suicide calls by inmates. We are not trained for this.” They spoke of being housed in sections without adequate facilities and facing hazardous encounters they're not trained to manage.
The DOCCS has stated that during the medical emergencies, immediate attempts at resuscitation were made for Dominguez and Douglas, including CPR, Narcan, and AED, yet they were pronounced dead soon after. As efforts continue to negotiate an end to the illegal strike, fears heighten that the system, overwrought with conflict and deficit, can scarcely hold the threads of humanity and justice together without responsible and immediate reforms. The mother of a prisoner encapsulated the sense of urgency that has grasped many, telling News 12, "Something needs to be done. The government needs to step up and they need to fix it. The system has been broken for years."
