NEW YORK — New York’s prison system continues to face unrest and uncertainty as prison death rates reach their highest levels in six years, prompting renewed calls for Gov. Kathy Hochul to fully fund and staff the state’s prison oversight agencies.
The Hochul administration has proposed cutting $3 million in funding for the Correctional Association of New York, a private authority with constitutional authority to investigate prison conditions.
Additionally, the State Commission on Correction has not been provided with new commissioners to assist in overseeing prisons, jails and juvenile detention facilities. Without these new members, the SCOC cannot perform its tasks or make progress in monitoring conditions within prisons.
Following last year’s brutal deaths of Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, Gov. Hochul and the state Legislature approved increased funding in the 2025-26 executive budget for the Correctional Association of New York, or CANY. CANY is a 182-year-old nonprofit organization responsible for overseeing state prisons.
This funding was used to hire additional staff and schedule multiple visits to prisons experiencing issues with their conditions. These visits are intended to establish meaningful accountability.
However, the governor is now proposing cuts to CANY’s funding, which advocates warn could severely affect its ability to oversee prison conditions effectively. “The $3 million in CANY funding represents just 0.07% of the multi-billion-dollar DOCCS budget.”
There was also a series of reforms enacted by the Legislature and the governor affecting the State Commission on Correction. These reforms required the SCOC to annually visit every correctional facility in New York, create an online portal for families to submit concerns about their incarcerated loved ones, and expand the number of commissioners from three to five. One of these commissioners must be a formerly incarcerated person.
Key reforms to the State Commission on Correction took effect Saturday, May 9, yet, as of today, Gov. Hochul has not appointed any new commissioners, leaving the SCOC without a quorum to function. This makes it extremely difficult for commissioners and federal and private authorities to fulfill their task of protecting incarcerated people and overseeing conditions in prisons.
Though reforms have been made, action has not been taken to implement them. This poses threats to the future of the prison system and raises questions about whether reforms are actively making a difference in the community.
Advocates say New York must continue funding the Correctional Association of New York to maintain oversight of prisons. Between January and April 2026, there have already been 57 deaths in state custody, the highest year-to-date total in at least five years. Along with these deaths, there have been numerous other issues, including medical shortages, security concerns and dangerous conditions.
Cutting or weakening oversight could lead to broader issues regarding transparency and accountability. New York advocates are demanding change, beginning with the appointment of new commissioners for the state oversight agencies.
The Alliance of Rights and Recovery and the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice stated, “At a time when the prison deaths are increasing, and the system remains in crisis, it is inconceivable and shortsighted to end the ability of CANY to increase transparency by visiting and interacting with incarcerated individuals and staff at state prisons.”
With last year’s expanded funding for oversight agencies and the enactment of the Prison Oversight Omnibus bill, Gov. Hochul has already acknowledged the dire need for greater oversight. Yet the state is now failing to fulfill that commitment by proposing a budget that decreases oversight, transparency and accountability.
The stakes could not be higher, advocates argue, warning the course the state is currently charting will lead to more abuse and more preventable deaths.