Officials eye conditions at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility

By JEFF MORRIS 

Concerns raised about conditions at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility continued this week, and state officials are investigating the matter.

As reported in The Recorder on March 13, state Sen. Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Chris Burdick sent a joint letter to the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision on March 6, calling for an investigation into recent suicides at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, which houses women.

They expressed concern about the conditions and treatment of incarcerated individuals after the March 4 death of 60-year-old Manuela Morgado. Morgado’s death was the third at the facility, and the second suicide,  in a four-week period.

Those deaths were part of a larger pattern that was cited by Harckham in the letter. “Reports that individuals are being denied access to basic services and are confined to their cells for excessive periods are deeply troubling,” he said. “I hope DOCCS will investigate these matters thoroughly so that we can identify solutions and prevent further tragedies.”

On April 4, the Albany Times-Union reported that advocates from 30 organizations had also sent a letter to DOCCS expressing these same concerns. That effort culminated in a demonstration outside the facility on Tuesday.

Harckham and Burdick responded to a request from The Recorder for a reaction to those developments with another joint statement.

“DOCCS has responded to our letter by reporting that investigators from the Office of Special Investigations are now reviewing the recent deaths at Bedford Hills, that Office of Mental Health experts have been on-site to assess facility conditions, and the facility administration is working to improve safety and mental health outcomes,” they said. “When lives are on the line, individuals and institutions must be accountable. We must ensure these measures mean real improvements and an end to these tragedies.”

Sharon Griest Ballen, who serves as chair of the town’s Prison Relations Advisory Committee, also responded to a request for comment. She said it was not a simple situation, and it is not possible to reduce it to a “good guy” and “bad guy” scenario. 

“I have spoken with DOCCS about the situation at BHCF several times and I have spoken to women inside several times,” said Ballen. “And that is why I believe that this is a very complicated situation.” 

She noted that a man formerly incarcerated at another facility told her that whenever a new higher-level staff member arrives at a facility, there is fear, there is anxiety, and “stories fly around faster than you can count.”  

“At BHCF, unfortunately, both a new superintendent and a new deputy of security arrived at basically the same time,” Ballen noted. “So all of those feelings, those anxieties, and the stories, real or not, were doubled.”

In Harckham and Burdick’s initial letter, they said the Correctional Association of New York has reported that suicides in state correctional facilities have increased in recent years. The organization attributed part of the rise to staffing shortages related to last year’s correction officers’ strike, which has reduced access to medical and mental health services as well as recreational programming.

When the legislators visited BHCF on Dec. 15, they met with members of the Incarcerated Liaison Committee. While the committee echoed some of the concerns raised by the Correctional Association, committee members also pointed to significant changes in their schedules and privileges following the arrival of the new deputy superintendent of security as a factor contributing to declining mental health among incarcerated individuals.

Harckham and Burdick were told by administrators that the measures were meant to be temporary and were only in response to recent violent outbursts from a small group of incarcerated individuals. However, a New York Focus article published March 5 said the restrictions were still in place as of three weeks earlier.

The legislators said individuals are now required to sign up in advance for all out-of-cell services, including showers, kitchen access, phone calls and laundry. That resulted in individuals spending significantly more time confined in their cells, which has a serious impact on their mental well-being, the legislators said. 

Ballen said she has been told, by two people present during that ILC meeting with the new deputy of security, that he was planning a memorial service for a woman who had committed suicide.

“They were initially quite hostile toward him, and by the end of the meeting, had a totally different impression of who he is,” said Ballen. That was consistent with what she had been told by the formerly incarcerated man, who said, ”Everyone is upset and worked up for a while, and then everyone calms down because they see that the new person was actually better than the previous person, or if they are not, they are then let go.” 

She also spoke positively about the state commissioner of DOCCS, Daniel F. Martuscello III. 

“I have been inside BHCF twice within the last few weeks, both times at events attended by the commissioner,” said Ballen. “The first was the memorial service of a woman who took her own life. When the commissioner learned of her death, he told his assistant to clear his calendar because he was coming to the service. After the service, I tried to reach the commissioner to speak with him, but he was surrounded by the incarcerated people, who were talking to him — and he was listening. While waiting my turn, two incarcerated women told me that the commissioner had driven down from Albany, not once for a perfunctory visit, but several times, to personally sort the packages in the package room so that the women would receive their packages for Christmas.” According to Ballen, he never mentioned this; it was the incarcerated women who told her, saying that the commissioner “truly and genuinely cares.” 

Ballen attended the performance of “Sister Act” at the facility last week, which was arranged  through Rehabilitation Through the Arts. She noted that following the show, “I did not even try to speak with the commissioner, as he stayed as long as anyone — incarcerated individuals, family members — and they all wanted to talk with him. I left long before he did.”  

Ballen pointed out that the job of a correction officer is hard, stressful, and not highly paid. 

“Are there correction officers who do bad things to those in their care? Yes, sadly, I know it will happen because it does everywhere, in every profession,” she said. “We should speak up, we should call them out, they should be removed, whatever their profession.”

“I applaud any and everyone who advocates for the humanity of our neighbors in a correctional facility,” said Ballen. “All human beings deserve to be treated with respect, care, compassion, and dignity. It is what I have spent my life as a social worker advocating for. Those of us in this field are all working toward the same goal: human and humane care for those who have not had a lot of it in their lives.”

Ballen concluded, “One thing most of us in this country are currently being reminded of is the importance of civil discussion to find solutions, rather than screaming accusations and profanities at each other. We must be better than that. We are better than that.”