1 day Ago By Charles Lane
The fatal beating of an incarcerated man at an upstate prison is drawing renewed attention to Corrections Emergency Response Team (CERT) units, whose members across the correctional system have been at the center of prisoners’ abuse claims. Staffers at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County were seen on body-camera footage delivering blows to Robert Brooks while he was handcuffed on Dec. 9.
At least two officers were wearing black jerseys identifying themselves as members of “CERT Team 20,” a specially trained unit meant to quell violence in the prison. Brooks died the day after the videotaped beating. The footage showed officers taking turns punching and kicking the 43-year-old, who was halfway through a 12-year sentence for a nonfatal stabbing.
Both a special prosecutor, appointed by the state Attorney General’s Office, and the FBI are investigating Brooks’ death. Multiple lawsuits involving more than 90 incarcerated men allege brutal beatings and waterboarding by CERT officers. Gov.
Kathy Hochul has ordered termination proceedings to begin against 14 prison staffers and one already quit. Queens resident Sean Michael Chung, 29, who served most of an eight-year sentence at Marcy, and said he witnessed numerous beatings by CERT officers and experienced several himself. “When CERT comes in, there's nothing you can do,” he said.
“You're going to be hurt badly, and it's not a regular beating. It's not like you had a fistfight at the bar. This is a different kind of whooping.
” Ronald Anderson, a Queens resident who served two years at Marcy, said CERT Team 20 is known by incarcerated people as the “demon squad” and has a reputation for abuse. “I’m handcuffed on my knees,” said Anderson, recalling one encounter. “I just feel punches to my rib cage.
Boom. Both sides, left and right. Boom.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
” Anderson said he didn’t file complaints, “Because the ones that do complain are the ones that end up like Mr. Brooks.” The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in a statement that the conduct shown in the viral videos did not reflect any training on the books.
“None of the tactics used in the horrific acts against Mr. Brooks were CERT techniques,” spokesperson Thomas Mailey said. “None of the individuals involved in the actions that ended Mr.
Brooks' life were acting as members of a CERT Team.” Here’s what else to know about CERT teams and the Brooks case. According to the correction department, CERT teams are highly trained emergency response units that respond to high-risk situations such as large-scale disturbances and facility searches.
The correction department said it has 20 CERT teams, whose members must complete 96 hours of training in disturbance control, defensive tactics and de-escalation techniques. Two prison staffers in CERT garb are seen in a publicly released video carrying a handcuffed Brooks into a room where he was beaten. Exactly what transpired – beyond the brutal beating – has not yet been laid out.
Brooks was serving time after pleading guilty in the non-fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend. Attorney General Letitia James opened an investigation, as required under state law. She later recused herself and appointed Onondaga County District Attorney William J.
Fitzpatrick as special prosecutor because James’ office is defending four of the officers seen in the Marcy video in other litigation. Hochul has announced a long list of policy prescriptions aimed at bolstering oversight and accountability of correction staff. The measures include expediting spending on fixed and body-worn cameras; adding $2 million in funding for the watchdog group the Correctional Association of New York; and creating partnerships with prisoner advocacy groups.
There have been years of reports and lawsuits alleging abuse by staff at state prisons, including Marcy. A watchdog report detailing findings from monitors who visited Marcy Oct. 11-12, 2022 enumerated a long list of abuse claims.
Additionally, extensive reporting by The New York Times and The Marshall Project documented thousands of abuse claims by incarcerated people and the difficulty in holding correction officers accountable , even where repeat offenders were implicated. State hearings have covered the same ground. A lawyer representing dozens of men alleging abuse at the hands of CERT officers at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County said there was a familiar feature in the video of Brooks’ beating: a white rag.
“We have two clients who claim independently of each other that they were brought to Great Meadow and a rag was either wrapped around their face or stuffed in their mouth,” said Danielle Muscatello, a lawyer with Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco. “One of them claims to have his head dunked in water and the other had water poured over his face while he was laying on a gurney similar to where Robert Brooks was positioned” in the video, she said. According to Muscatello’s lawsuits, Charles Wright claims CERT officers waterboarded him for 45 seconds and Eugene Taylor claims he was repeatedly submerged in water during a racially infused, prolonged torture session laced with racial epithets.
Two other pending lawsuits involving more than 80 incarcerated men at Great Meadow and Sing Sing in Westchester accuse CERT officers of beating handcuffed inmates, gouging eyes, breaking inmates fingers and causing other injuries. The correction department declined interview requests about CERT techniques. In a statement, Mailey, the correction spokesperson, said CERT teams can only be activated at the order of the commissioner or deputy commissioner of the correction department.
He said no order was given on the night Brooks was beaten. The union representing CERT officers declined to comment beyond their initial condemnation of the beating. But attorney Muscatello said the CERT teams have been a persistent problem.
“ They’re given this extra perimeter of authority and force and strength, and they're just being let loose,” Muscatello said. While at Marcy, Chung was appointed as an inmate liaison and said he organized others to make numerous complaints about abuses by CERT officers. He said that only led to more abuse.
“Death threats, getting beat up, getting maced and all this crazy s—,” he said. “It seems like it's just the same thing reoccurring over and over and over. Nothing.
”.
