A patchwork of bodies are responsible for watchdogging New York’s state prisons and local jails. The most powerful of those bodies is the State Commission of Correction. | Photo: RDNE Stock Project / Pexels
The Reporters’ Notebook features bite-sized stories and updates from New York Focus reporters on the topics they cover.
Over the past three months, New York Focus has reported extensively on the New York state prison system’s descent into tumult. An incarcerated man’s caught-on-video killing at the hands of corrections officers in December led to nationwide outrage and calls for reform. Guards responded by launching a three-week wildcat strike, which only ended after 2,000 officers lost their jobs and half a dozen allegedly beat another incarcerated person to death…