Amid the chaos of the 20-day wildcat prison guard strike, New York State investigators are looking into a supposed inmate petition circulated at Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo expressing “strong opposition” to continued installation of stationary and body-worn cameras in the prison, according to sources familiar with the letter.
“We believe these measures [cameras] are an unnecessary overreach that infringes on our right to privacy,” the neatly handwritten petition letter circulated soon after the strike began Feb. 17 states, adding the measures are “intrusive” and erode “the ability of staff and the incarcerated population to maintain professional and respectful relationships.”
Some observers who saw the letter were skeptical that inmates would object to cameras, especially after the Dec. 9 caught-on-body camera beating death of inmate Robert Brooks at Marcy CF in the Finger Lakes region led to indictments of 10 correction officers, including six on murder charges.
Indeed, in June, 2023, inmates at the prison specifically “conveyed a need for cameras at Wende” and facility leadership acknowledged the importance of cameras, according to a March 2024 report by the Correctional Association of New York.
The reported lack of video in the March 1 death of Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State CF also in Marcy also underscores the need for cameras, advocates said. That case is the subject of a pending criminal investigation of at least nine officers.
Stephen Chu of the Legal Aid Society said the public defense group has fielded numerous calls about health and safety threats during the strike, but none asking for less transparency.
“This so-called petition from Wende contradicts everything we’ve heard from currently incarcerated people,” said Chu, the director of the Criminal Appeals Bureau.
“Cameras were crucial in exposing the truth about Robert Brooks’s killing, and this letter raises serious concerns about officers’ intent to shield brutal and inhumane treatment.”
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
New York correction officers picket outside the Coxsackie Correctional Facility on Feb. 27. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Anthony Dixon, deputy director of Parole Prep, said men he spoke to at Wende alleged the letter was circulated by officers.
“The notion that incarcerated individuals at Wende would draft and circulate a petition opposing body-worn cameras for correctional staff — especially during a lockdown — is beyond belief,” Dixon said.
“Correction officers have aggressively resisted the implementation of BWCs, even resorting to strikes, because they know these cameras will expose the unchecked violence and misconduct that have long gone unpunished behind prison walls. Meanwhile, incarcerated individuals and advocates overwhelmingly support BWCs as a necessary safeguard against abuse.”
Wende is a maximum security prison with a medical wing just east of Buffalo that contained 773 prisoners as of Feb. 1, roughly 32% from the five boroughs, records show. Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, John Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman and the late Lufthansa heist planner Jimmy Burke were all housed there at one point or another.
A spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision declined comment.
The mother of an inmate at Wende told The News he told her officers were handling out the petition and asking prisoners to sign it or face extended lockdowns. Her son surreptitiously mailed a handwritten copy to her.
“He told me, ‘I’m going to send you something. I can’t tell you what it is,’” said the mother, who declined to be identified out of concern for her son. “Of course they want cameras. You can’t hear or see what’s going on behind closed doors without the cameras.”
The letter is addressed to Gov. Hochul and state Correction Commissioner Daniel Martuscello and states a petition signed by inmates is included. It goes on to say staff at the facility, “conduct themselves with professionalism, courtesy and dedication.”
The CANY report contained many positive marks for the prison but it also documented that about a third of inmates claimed they witnessed verbal and physical abuse by staff including “racialized abuse.”
