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- A Marshall Project investigation of New York prison systems highlights the concerning abuse of power prevalent among prison guards.
- What can donors do to better understand and advocate for prison reform?
- Read more about criminal justice reform here.
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New York’s prison system has failed to fire nearly all corrections officers it accused of attacking people in their custody. And guards often work in groups to cover-up assaults by lying to investigators and in official reports, a Marshall Project investigation has found.
Reporters examined how New York disciplines guards for misconduct. Using public records laws, we got a database of disciplinary records that state law had kept secret for decades. Here are five takeaways from our investigation — based on our analysis of that database, thousands of pages of documents, several videos and scores of interviews with prisoners, officials and experts.
- New York’s discipline system favors prison guards.
- In many cases of serious abuse, officials didn’t try to discipline the officers accused.
- A culture of cover-ups among guards makes it hard to hold them accountable.
- The corrections officers’ powerful union has protected this disciplinary process.
- Our investigation captures only a fraction of prisoner abuse.
Read the full article about New York prison guards by Alysia Santo and Joseph Neff at The Marshall Project.