Preliminary Injunction Halts Solitary Confinement of Mentally Ill Prisoners at New York Lockup Where Wildcat Guard Strike Began
On September 15, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction ordering the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to immediately begin complying with a state law that bars holding mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement conditions at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida. The lockup was the epicenter of a statewide wildcat guard strike earlier in the year which resulted in suspension of a landmark law passed to protect prisoners from prolonged isolation.
The nine prisoner Plaintiffs filed their suit in August 2025, alleging that they were isolated in their cells for 24 hours a day, in violation of 2008 Sess. Law News of N.Y. Ch. 1 (S. 6422). That law created the Residential Mental Health Unit (RMHU) where the prisoners were held and mandated that they get at least “four hours of structured out-of-cell therapeutic programming and/or mental health treatment,” as well as “three hours out-of-cell congregate programming, services, treatment, recreation, activities, and/or meals.” Together with “an additional one hour of recreation,” the law provides “for a total of seven hours of out-of-cell on a daily basis” for mentally ill prisoners.
The law was passed in 2008 to codify the terms of an agreement reached the year before, which in turn settled a 2002 suit filed on behalf of mentally ill prisoners by two nonprofits, Disability Advocates, Inc., and Prisoner Legal Services of New York, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, June 2007, p.17.] Attorneys with the two advocacy groups also filed the recent complaint that resulted in the preliminary injunction order.
DOCCS suspended most RMHU programming during a statewide wildcat strike by guards that began shortly after 13 of them were fired in February 2025 for their roles in the fatal beating of another prisoner at Marcy, Robert Brooks, 43. As part of an agreement to end the walkout that the state made with the guards’ union, the state Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, provisions were suspended of another state law that prohibits solitary-like confinement of all prisoners; however, even before the strike, the 2022 Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act was not being complied with in state lockups, according to an August 2024 report from the state Office of the Inspector General (OIG). See: Review of the First Two Years of HALT at the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. OIG (Aug. 2024).
Since the guard strike ended in March 2025, according to the prisoners’ complaint filed in September 2025, some 95 men held in Marcy’s RMHU have remained confined to their cells “all day, every day absent an emergency, outside visit, disciplinary hearing, or a brief medical encounter, such as for insulin injection.” Moreover, their hour of daily recreation occurs in a single-occupancy cage attached to their cells which is “filthy from both debris and human feces,” with “no exercise or recreation equipment” the complaint added.
DOCCS spokesman Tom Mailey told the Albany Times Union that “[t]here remain significant staffing shortages, as well as operational and security challenges that each facility must navigate as the decision is made to resume specific programming.” But absent guards to provide escorts, the only treatment provided to RMHU prisoners is in cell-side sessions with therapists sitting on the other side of a heavy steel door, speaking through grates or even Plexiglass, the complaint said.
That’s also the only way that prisoners can summon help, which often doesn’t come, explaining why two prisoners have died by suicide. One of the named plaintiffs, Tyrell Escobar, said that guard Robert Deep III responded to his request for help by calling him a “f***ing n***er” and “slammed [his] fingers in the window of the cell door.”
In her order, U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino said that DOCCS must immediately comply with the law’s requirements, including three hours of daily congregate programming and four hours of daily individual treatment, plus an hour of exercise. Since there is no individual treatment provided on weekends, prisoners must receive seven hours of congregate programming on Saturdays and Sundays.
As provided by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, the preliminary injunction automatically expires in 90 days. Accordingly, the district court also said that the parties must by then stipulate to renew it for another ninety days or provide “a proposed briefing schedule for Plaintiffs’ motion to renew.” See: Dunn v. N.Y. State Dep’t of Corr. and Comm. Supervision, USDC (N.D.N.Y.), Case No. 9:25-cv-01242.
Guards Convicted in
Brooks’ Death
One former guard charged with Brooks’ murder, Christopher Walrath, pleaded guilty in May 2025 to a reduced charge of manslaughter; he was sentenced to 15 years in prison the following August. That same month, former guard Nicholas Gentile pleaded down his felony evidence tampering charge to a misdemeanor, in exchange for a one-year conditional discharge—meaning he will face no cell time and see the charge dropped if he stays out of further trouble that long.
Two more former guards charged with murder were convicted in September 2025, when Nicholas Anzalone and Anthony Farina agreed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter and accept 22-year prison terms at sentencing in November. Two more former guards who took plea deals, Robert Kessler and Sgt. Glenn Trombley, testified against three others who turned down deals—Matthew Galliher, Nicholas Kieffer and David Kingsley—at their October 2025 trial; when it concluded on October 20, Kingsley was convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, while his co-defendants were found not guilty.
Two more former guards charged with second-degree manslaughter, Michael Mashaw and David Walters, agreed to plead guilty in September 2025 and serve prison terms of three-to-nine years and 28-months-to-seven years, respectively. Trial for Michael Fisher, a former guard also charged with second-degree manslaughter, is scheduled for January 2026.
Additional sources: Albany Times-Union, New York Times
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Related legal case
Dunn v. N.Y. State Dep’t of Corr. and Comm. Supervision,
| Year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (N.D.N.Y.), Case No. 9:25-cv-01242. |
| Level | District Court |