The murder of Robert Brooks by officials at Marcy Correctional Center is indeed horrific and appalling. For those of us who work with people ensnared in the criminal legal system of New York, however, it is anything but “shocking.”
via @NYTimesnytimes.com/2024/12/23/nyr…
via @NYTimesnytimes.com/2024/12/23/nyr…
Violence against incarcerated people in New York at the hands of corrections officials is regrettably all too common. It is therefore not helpful—indeed it is harmful—for leaders to come out during moments like these and emphasize how anomalous these incidents are. They are not.
These incidents are, in fact, expected consequences of a system that dehumanizes incarcerated people at every turn and shields officers that hurt them from accountability. These officers are not “bad apples.” They are just part of the rotten bushel that is our carceral system.
In the coming days, we can expect the reports to emerge that these officers filled out in the moments after the murder that documents a false narrative as to why their force was “justified.” Such false reports become the official record in the hundreds of other such beatings that are never captured on camera.
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