More than a dozen correction officers involved in the fatal beating a 22-year-old from Harlem at a New York state prison earlier this year either didn’t wear their body cameras, turned away or shut them off so they wouldn’t document the violence, according to a new lawsuit.
The New York County public administrator is suing the correction officers, the superintendent of the prison and state Corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III on behalf of the estate of Messiah Nantwi, who was incarcerated at Mid-State Correctional Facility outside of Utica. Each borough has a public administrator to handle the estates of New Yorkers who die without a will and don’t have anyone available to oversee their assets. The suit argues prison officials should have done more to prevent Nantwi’s death and should ensure correction officers follow the department’s body-camera policy.
“When you have a constant stream of information coming to you that excessive force is out of control and that people feel that they can kill people, officers feel they can kill incarcerated people with impunity, that’s an emergency,” Katie Rosenfeld, an attorney representing the public administrator on behalf of Nantwi’s estate, said in an interview. “A huge red flag is being waved, and the commissioner needed to take any action.”
On March 1, a group of officers and sergeants at Mid-State Correctional Facility punched and kicked Nantwi, hit him with batons and stomped on his head while he was handcuffed, according to an indictment later filed against the officers. Prosecutors said he died from “massive head trauma” and other injuries. Nantwi was killed in the midst of an unauthorized, weeks-long wildcat strike at prisons across the state.
Nantwi died less than three months after prosecutors said different officers fatally beat another incarcerated man, Robert Brooks, at a prison across the street. In that case, body cameras captured the beating — unbeknownst to officers. The graphic video sparked outrage and calls for prison reform, including from the governor. Weeks later, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision updated its body-camera policy to prevent similar incidents.
Nantwi’s beating should have also been recorded because the policy requires correction officers to turn on their body cameras whenever they interact with an incarcerated person. But the lawsuit accuses the officers who beat Nantwi of violating department policy to cover up their assault. It also cites reports from the state’s prison oversight body that found plans to install more surveillance cameras throughout Mid-State Correctional Facility have been delayed for years.
“We can think about all of the events that have been captured on camera when people are killed by law enforcement, and it often spurs huge change," Rosenfeld said. "Mr. Brooks’ death was another shocking example. But in this case, we don’t have the footage because their cameras were off.”
Lawyers for Nantwi’s estate said a surveillance camera recorded a sergeant as he discussed a scheme to plant a weapon in Nantwi’s room to justify the beating. When the sergeant realized he was being recorded, he cursed, according to the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision declined to comment on the suit but said the prison system is taking steps to reduce violence and increase accountability, including investing hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy more cameras in correctional facilities.
Thomas Mailey, the department's director of public information, said it is working to speed up the installation of surveillance cameras at more than a dozen prisons. He also said 32 of the state’s 42 correctional facilities have fully implemented body cameras, with the other 10 expected to finish their rollouts by the end of the summer.
The union representing state correction officers did not respond to a request for comment.
Corrections department updated body camera policy before Nantwi’s death
State corrections department policy now requires officers with body cameras to wear them throughout their shift and keep them turned on.
Officers are supposed to record any encounters with incarcerated people or visitors, observations of unauthorized behavior, responses to emergency calls, uses of batons or pepper spray and any situations in which they feel unsafe. Officers are also supposed to film strip searches.
The stated goal of the directive is “to promote safety and transparency.”
The policy mandates that the most high-ranking officials randomly review 20 different videos each week and address any policy violations that they find.
Lawyers for Nantwi’s estate alleged in their lawsuit that Mid-State Superintendent Bryan Hilton failed to make sure staff properly used their body cameras, and didn’t review the required 20 videos a week.
The suit notes the corrections department has also failed to install stationary security cameras at Mid-State that have been overdue since at least 2022.
The Correctional Association of New York, an independent organization required by law to monitor state prisons, found during a 2022 visit to Mid-State that the department had yet to install between 1,500 and 1,700 cameras slated for the facility. When monitors visited again this past January — just weeks before Nantwi’s death — the cameras still hadn’t been installed, the association reported.
Executive Director Jennifer Scaife said in an interview that her organization has been urging the corrections department for years to more quickly implement cameras in state prisons. She said cameras can increase transparency for both the public and people working inside of correctional facilities. Wearing body cameras can also deter officers from using violence, she said.
But Scaife said deploying more cameras in prisons isn’t enough to ensure that all staffers follow the rules.
“It’s not so much a matter of the policy,” she said. “It’s a matter of whether or not people are going to follow the policy, which is really going to get to a deeper issue of culture.”
The state Legislature passed a package of bills last week to increase accountability and improve conditions in the state’s prison system — a push fueled largely by the deaths of Brooks and Nantwi.
The measure requires all state prisons to install and maintain cameras throughout their facilities, except in private areas like cells and showers. Facilities that violate the law could face financial penalties or other consequences.
When a death is captured on camera, the legislation also requires prison officials to share any video footage with the state attorney general’s office within 72 hours.
Rosenfeld, the attorney for the public administrator, said she hopes Nantwi’s and Brooks’ killings will push prison officials to hold officers accountable for misconduct so they don’t think they can “kill incarcerated people with impunity.”
“It’s not normal to have a prison system where two incarcerated people are murdered at the hands of guards in a matter of months from each other,” she said. “That’s not how a functioning prison system should operate.”
