State reaches $24M settlement with the family of Robert Brooks, beaten to death by correction officers at Marcy in Dec. 2024; Hochul: "Robert Brooks should be alive today," pledges DOCCS facilities will be "fully reformed"
On Sept. 18 the state settled with the family of Robert Brooks, 43, of Rochester, for $24 million (figure from the governor's office, per Spectrum). Brooks died Dec. 10, 2024, hours after arriving at Marcy Correctional Facility, from neck compression and internal injuries; the medical examiner ruled it a homicide and body-camera footage released by the AG showed officers beating him while restrained. More than a dozen prison employees were fired; multiple officers were convicted or pleaded, two were acquitted at trial. Hochul's statement: "No family should ever have to endure what the family of Robert Brooks has been through... Robert Brooks should be alive today. Every individual who enters a DOCCS facility deserves to be safe, and I am committed to continuing to do everything in my power to ensure our correctional facilities are fully reformed and safe for all." Context for the race: the Brooks killing preceded the 2025 wildcat correction officers' strike and the firings that NYSCOPBA cited this week in its first-ever statewide endorsement, for Blakeman (Sept. 17). No promise-tracker row covers DOCCS reform, so this is logged as news only.