Nearly a dozen staff members are on administrative leave and state officials are investigating after an inmate at a New York medium-security prison died over the weekend, prison officials told USA TODAY Monday.
According to information from The New York State Department of Corrections, the 22-year-old prisoner had been housed at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y., and died Saturday.
The town of Marcy is near Utica, the county seat of Oneida County.
Officials have not released the inmate’s preliminary cause and manner of death.
As of Monday, the prisoner’s identity had not been released by officials as they said they were attempting to reach the inmate’s next of kin.
After learning about the death, the Office of The New York Attorney General Letitia James and the New York State Police were notified, the Department of Corrections reported.
“The Commissioner placed 11 staff members involved in the incident on administrative leave pending the results of the investigations which are ongoing,” the DOC released in a statement to USA TODAY.
How did the New York inmate die?
Officials declined to release additional information about the case on Monday citing an open and active investigation.
But the New York Times reported it interviewed more than a half-dozen prisoners on Sunday, who said the inmate was beaten by corrections officers before his death.
USA TODAY has reached out to James’ office and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Death took place at facility next to prison where inmate Robert Brooks was killed
The death comes on the heels of another state inmate dying after being attacked by prison guards at Marcy Correctional Facility, located across the street from Mid-State Correctional Facility.
Last month 10 former New York corrections employees were indicted in the killing of Robert Brooks, an inmate violently beaten while handcuffed in a prison infirmary in December.
Brooks, 43, was beaten by multiple officers inside the Marcy Correctional Facility in central New York on Dec. 9 and died at a hospital the next day. Officers had not activated their body cameras, but video taken while the devices were in standby mode showed them punching, kicking and choking Brooks while his hands were handcuffed behind his back.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
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