SPONSORING GENOCIDE BEHIND PRISON WALLS
There are horrors history condemns because nations chose to look away.
There are atrocities that leave scars upon generations because ordinary people convinced themselves that silence was neutrality.
And then there are the atrocities unfolding in real time—behind concrete walls, razor wire, and locked steel doors—where suffering is hidden from public view and human beings are slowly abandoned by the very institutions entrusted with preserving life.
When the State takes custody of a human being, it assumes an obligation.
Not a suggestion.
Not a favor.
An obligation.
It becomes responsible for their safety, their well-being, and their access to medical care. It becomes morally and constitutionally responsible for ensuring that punishment does not become torture and incarceration does not become a death sentence.
Yet, behind the walls of New York prisons, men continue to suffer, deteriorate, and die.
Not because medicine does not exist.
Not because treatments are unavailable.
But because indifference has become institutionalized.
Because accountability has become optional.
Because suffering has become normalized.
And because those screaming for help are too often hidden from the eyes of the public.
COMBATING CORRUPTION—EXCEPT BEHIND PRISON WALLS?
In a recent endorsement of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Attorney General Letitia James praised his stewardship and declared that, like him, she has spent her career combating corruption in New York State. Her remarks invite a question that thousands of incarcerated individuals, grieving families, whistleblowers, and advocates have been asking for years:
Has that commitment to fighting corruption extended to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision?
**Year after year, New York taxpayers spend an estimated $20 million to $40 million resolving lawsuits and claims arising from allegations of excessive force, retaliation, wrongful death, constitutional violations, and medical neglect occurring inside state correctional facilities.* *Investigations by The Marshall Project, City & State New York, Prison Legal News, and the Columbia University Center for Justice have documented disturbing patterns of preventable deaths, inadequate healthcare, unexplained fatalities, and institutional failures.
And yet, despite the enormous human and financial costs, many families continue asking where meaningful accountability has been.
The Office of the Attorney General is tasked with representing state agencies in civil litigation, including DOCCS. Critics have long argued that this creates a difficult tension between defending the State and pursuing accountability when allegations of misconduct arise. Families whose loved ones have died, suffered medical neglect, or endured retaliation continue questioning whether those responsible for systemic failures are being investigated with the same vigor that the Attorney General's Office applies elsewhere.
The issue is larger than politics.
It is larger than personalities.
It concerns whether accountability reaches every institution equally—or whether some systems become so insulated that they effectively investigate and defend themselves.
Meanwhile, the United States finds itself amid mounting economic uncertainty.
Families are struggling to pay rent.
Seniors are choosing between medicine and groceries.
Communities are pleading for resources.
Schools require funding.
Hospitals remain understaffed.
Mental health systems are overwhelmed.
Americans are repeatedly told that resources are limited.
Yet somehow there always seems to be money available to defend lawsuits after tragedy strikes.
Money to settle claims.
Money to compensate grieving families.
Money to protect institutions.
Money to pay attorneys.
Money to absorb the consequences of preventable suffering.
But when incarcerated human beings need cancer screenings, surgeries, MRIs, specialists, emergency care, or life-saving medication, resources suddenly become scarce.
The irony is staggering.
The State claims reform is expensive.
Yet it continually pays millions after people have already suffered.
**No money for prevention.
But money for litigation.
No money for healthcare.
But money for settlements.
No money for accountability.
But money for attorneys.
No money for reform.
But money for funerals.**
These figures represent only the cases that survive long enough to reach a courtroom.
The true human cost can never be calculated.
If corruption consists of the abuse of power, betrayal of public trust, and misuse of public resources, then what are taxpayers to make of an agency that continues generating millions upon millions in lawsuits while investigations document allegations of medical neglect, retaliation, excessive force, and preventable deaths?
Who is accountable?
Who investigates when oversight fails?
Who answers for the dead?
Who speaks for grieving mothers and widows?
And why are taxpayers continuing to finance a system that repeatedly pays for preventable tragedies instead of preventing them?
History teaches us that destruction is not always accomplished through violence alone.
Sometimes suffering is perpetuated through indifference.
Through delay.
Through bureaucracy.
Through silence.
Through institutions possessing both the means and the obligation to intervene, yet failing to do so.
International law defines genocide narrowly and requires specific intent. Whether particular patterns of neglect meet that definition is a matter of legal analysis and proof. But history has repeatedly condemned societies that normalized unnecessary human suffering while hiding behind procedure and institutional self-preservation.
Because nations are remembered not merely by the horrors they commit.
They are remembered by the horrors they knowingly tolerate.
And perhaps history's most uncomfortable question awaits us all:
When future generations look back upon what occurred behind these walls, will they ask why it happened—
Or will they ask why we paid for it?
Because history will not merely ask who was responsible.
History will ask what we tolerated.
History will ask whether we knew.
And history will ask why, during a time of economic hardship and national uncertainty, we continued funding suffering instead of preventing it.
May our answer never be that we did.
A NEW DEATH PENALTY
According to the Columbia University Center for Justice, 1,278 people died in New York State custody during the last decade—more than the number executed during New York's entire history under capital punishment.
A City & State investigation found that 269 deaths dating back to 2000 remain unexplained, redacted, or listed without publicly disclosed causes.
The Marshall Project documented more than thirty deaths from treatable medical conditions and findings by oversight bodies that described care as "grossly inadequate," involving "gross negligence" and "gross error."
If a commercial aircraft carrying 269 passengers vanished without explanation, America would demand answers.
But because these were incarcerated men and women, many disappeared into statistics.
And statistics do not cry.
Statistics do not leave behind children.
Statistics do not bury fathers.
People do.
DEATH THROUGH NEGLECT
The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976), established that deliberate indifference to serious medical needs violates the Constitution.
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994), held that officials cannot knowingly disregard substantial risks to life and safety.
New York Correction Law §47 mandates review of deaths occurring in custody.
The United Nations Mandela Rules require healthcare equivalent to that available in the community.
Yet people continue dying.
Not because treatment is impossible.
But because neglect has become routine.
Because delays have become policy.
Because suffering has become acceptable.
And because accountability remains elusive.
**
RAUL NUNEZ: SIX YEARS LATER, THE DEAD STILL HAVE TO FIGHT
**
Six years ago, Raul Nunez died following what his family and advocates maintain was medical neglect while incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility.
His death did not end the suffering.
It merely transferred it to those who loved him.
His widow, Toby Nunez, continues to fight for answers, just as countless mothers, wives, fathers, and children across New York continue advocating for loved ones who are no longer here to speak for themselves.
The dead should not require advocates.
Widows should not have to become investigators.
Yet that is exactly what has happened.
Families file complaints.
Families submit evidence.
Families write letters.
Families plead for help.
And too often, they encounter silence.
WHO INVESTIGATES THE INVESTIGATORS?
Families throughout New York repeatedly describe a system where complaints submitted to the Office of Special Investigations disappear into bureaucracy.
Grievances are processed.
Complaints are forwarded.
Concerns are elevated to Albany.
And far too often, families receive form letters, delayed responses, or no meaningful answers at all.
The appearance created is one no democracy should tolerate:
An institution investigating itself.
An administration policing itself.
And grieving families left carrying burdens that should belong to the state.
Who investigates when oversight itself fails?
Who speaks when complaints disappear?
Who answers when the dead cannot?
Justice cannot exist if transparency does not.
Accountability cannot exist if investigations merely circle back to the same institutions being accused.
JASON WASHINGTON: A CRY FOR HELP
Jason Washington, DIN 22B3650, became the plaintiff in a three-million-dollar Court of Claims action following an alleged staff assault in September 2025.
According to his mother, Tanika Washington, and documentation collected by advocates, retaliation allegedly followed.
Among the allegations:
• Meals withheld or tampered with.
• Legal papers and family photographs destroyed.
• Multiple uses of force.
• Denial of communication with family.
• Interference with privileges and incentives.
Most haunting were his own words.
He wrote that he needed help.
He expressed fears that staff would kill him.
History teaches us a painful lesson:
The cries ignored today often become the autopsies investigated tomorrow.
MICHAEL WALES: WAITING TO DIE
Michael Wales, incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility, underwent surgery to remove a groin mass.
Advocates report persistent infections, bleeding, diabetic complications, and repeated delays in specialist care.
Diabetes and infection are medical emergencies.
Delayed treatment kills.
No human being should spend their days wondering whether help will arrive before death does.
Yet many incarcerated people do.
JUSTUS HOLMES: A BODY BREAKING DOWN
Justus Holmes, DIN 20B0219, reportedly lost over thirty pounds while suffering severe gastrointestinal distress.
Advocates documented repeated collapses, missed medical escorts, delayed treatment, and allegations of retaliation.
No one should have to choose between constitutional rights and survival.
No one should fear punishment for seeking medical care.
Yet countless individuals do.
RETALIATION THROUGH FEAR
Families speak.
Whistleblowers speak.
Advocates speak.
And many tell the same story.
Fear.
Fear of filing grievances.
Fear of retaliation.
Fear of punishment.
Fear of speaking publicly.
The Marshall Project documented allegations of abuse occurring inside prison infirmaries.
Investigations surrounding the death of Robert Brooks raised disturbing concerns regarding violence occurring beyond camera coverage.
When fear becomes stronger than faith in the system, trust dies.
And when trust dies, legitimacy dies with it.
HOW MANY MORE?
How many more unexplained deaths?
How many more grieving mothers?
How many more widows?
How many more sons?
How many more cries for help?
How many more men must die waiting?
At what point does negligence become policy?
At what point does indifference become cruelty?
At what point does cruelty become something history remembers by another name?
Because when human beings suffer needlessly…
When families become investigators…
When oversight becomes bureaucracy…
When complaints vanish…
When accountability becomes a slogan…
And when preventable deaths continue—
History will not ask what excuses we offered.
History will ask what we tolerated.
And whether we knew.
May our answer never be that we did.
THE PRICE OF INDIFFERENCE
Beyond the human cost lies another reality few New Yorkers realize:
They are paying for this crisis.
According to data compiled from the New York State Comptroller, Prison Legal News, and multiple investigations, New York State pays tens of millions of dollars annually to resolve claims involving correctional misconduct, excessive force, wrongful deaths, civil rights violations, and medical neglect.
The New York State Court of Claims routinely handles hundreds of lawsuits filed against the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), and over the last decade New York taxpayers have paid an estimated $20 million to $40 million annually in settlements and judgments involving prisons and correctional facilities, with some years exceeding that amount depending upon verdicts and major settlements.**
Individual awards have ranged from hundreds of thousands of dollars to multi-million-dollar payouts:
$28.75 million awarded to former prisoner Donald Kelsey after a brutal assault by correction officers. $5.75 million settlement in the death of Jerome Murdough at Rikers Island after he was allegedly denied appropriate medical and psychiatric care. Millions more paid in wrongful death, excessive force, retaliation, and deliberate indifference cases.
Yet despite these mounting costs, systemic reform remains elusive.
New Yorkers are forced to pay twice.
First through their taxes.
And again through the human devastation left behind.
Every delayed diagnosis.
Every ignored medical emergency.
Every unnecessary death.
Every act of retaliation.
Every lawsuit.
Every settlement.
Every family left to bury a loved one.
The public ultimately bears the cost of institutional failures that should never have occurred.
And perhaps the most troubling question remains:
How many millions must taxpayers spend defending preventable tragedies before preventing them becomes the cheaper—and more humane—option?
THE BILL COMES DUE—AND TAXPAYERS KEEP PAYING
The cost of neglect is measured first in human lives.
But eventually, the bill reaches the taxpayers.
And New Yorkers continue paying millions for failures that should never have occurred.
According to investigations reviewed by Prison Legal News, New York State paid approximately $10 million in settlements and judgments involving correction officer brutality between 2010 and 2015 alone. Those figures did not include medical negligence claims, wrongful death actions, or other constitutional violations.
Individual cases involving denial of medical care have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements.
The death of incarcerated individuals denied treatment has led to settlements ranging from $2 million to $5.75 million, while catastrophic abuse cases have produced awards as high as $28.75 million.
In 2026, New York agreed to pay $600,000 to settle litigation involving prolonged solitary confinement and retaliation claims.
These are not abstract numbers.
These are taxpayer dollars.
Money that could have funded schools.
Mental health services.
Hospitals.
Communities.
Instead, year after year, New Yorkers are forced to underwrite the consequences of unconstitutional conduct, delayed medical treatment, brutality, retaliation, and institutional indifference.
The tragedy is that these payouts represent only the cases that survived long enough to reach a courtroom.
How many families lacked the resources to sue?
How many deaths never reached public scrutiny?
How many complaints disappeared into bureaucracy?
How many settlements remain hidden behind confidentiality agreements?
And perhaps the most troubling question of all:
If the system knows taxpayers will ultimately absorb the cost, where is the incentive to change?
Because accountability delayed becomes accountability denied.
And when negligence carries no personal consequences, the public becomes the insurer of institutional failure.
The people of New York are paying twice.
First through taxes.
And again through silence.
Every preventable death.
Every ignored diagnosis.
Every delayed surgery.
Every act of retaliation.
Every family forced into court.
Every settlement paid.
The price is measured not only in dollars—
But in fathers buried.
Mothers grieving.
Children growing up without answers.
And communities forever changed.
History will remember those who suffered.
But it will also remember those who funded the suffering while being told accountability already existed.
The question is no longer whether New Yorkers are paying for these failures.
They are.
The question is:
How many more lives—and how many more millions—must be sacrificed before reform becomes more valuable than defending the indefensible?
SOURCES
Recent Public Statements and Government Records
Public endorsement by New York Attorney General Letitia James of New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, in which Attorney General James stated that she and Comptroller DiNapoli have spent their careers combating corruption in New York State. New York State Comptroller Annual Financial Reports. New York State Court of Claims records and publicly reported verdicts and settlements involving the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS).
Investigative Journalism and Academic Research
Columbia University Center for Justice, New York's New Death Penalty: The Death Toll of Mass Incarceration in the Post-Execution Era, documenting 1,278 deaths in New York State custody during the last decade. The Marshall Project investigations documenting deaths from treatable medical conditions, allegations of abuse within prison infirmaries, findings of grossly inadequate healthcare, and systemic failures in New York prisons. City & State New York investigation identifying 269 deaths in New York State prisons with unexplained, redacted, or undisclosed causes. Prison Legal News, New York DOCCS Has Paid $10 Million to Prisoners Beaten by Guards Over Five-Year Period (2017), documenting settlements and judgments involving correction officer brutality. Prison Legal News, $5.75 Million Settlement for Death of Rikers Prisoner Denied Medical Care (2018), concerning the death of Jerome Murdough and litigation arising from allegations of medical neglect. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP reporting regarding the 2026 settlement involving Amin Booker and New York State concerning prolonged solitary confinement and retaliation claims.
Statutory and Constitutional Authorities
U.S. Constitution, Eighth Amendment. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976), establishing that deliberate indifference to serious medical needs constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994), holding that prison officials may be liable for knowingly disregarding substantial risks to health and safety. New York Correction Law §47, governing review of deaths occurring in custody. United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules), establishing that incarcerated persons are entitled to healthcare equivalent to that available in the community.
Financial Data
Estimates that New York taxpayers spend approximately $20 million to $40 million annually on settlements, judgments, and litigation involving correctional misconduct, excessive force, retaliation, wrongful death, and allegations of medical neglect are derived from New York State Comptroller reports, Court of Claims records, publicly reported verdicts, and investigative reporting. Actual yearly expenditures may vary depending upon verdicts, settlements, and pending litigation.
Case Documentation and Advocacy Records
Family correspondence, grievances, witness statements, photographs, medical records, advocacy files, and supporting documentation relating to: Raul Nunez, Green Haven Correctional Facility. Jason Washington, DIN 22B3650, Mid-State Correctional Facility. Michael Wales, DIN 16A0925, Attica Correctional Facility. Justus Holmes, DIN 20B0219, Coxsackie Correctional Facility.
Disclaimer: Specific allegations concerning individual cases represent claims and evidence provided by affected individuals, family members, advocates, witnesses, medical records, and supporting documentation. Findings of liability, misconduct, or criminal wrongdoing may depend upon ongoing investigations, administrative proceedings, or judicial determinations. References to "genocide" within the article are intended as moral and rhetorical commentary regarding alleged systemic indifference and preventable suffering and should not be construed as a legal determination under international law, which requires specific elements and proof.
