Fishkill Inmate Died After Fight With Officers, Report Says

Harrell was then dragged down the staircase, where witnesses said they saw him lying on the landing, his body twisted.

“His eyes were open”, according to an inmate, “but they weren’t looking at anything”. Authorities have not confirmed the prison officer identities. Only three inmates agreed to go public. According to several inmate witnesses, the officers included members of the so-called “Beat Up Squad”, and several of them were even shouting racial slurs at Harrell during the physical altercation. “A classification of homicide is a medical term that indicates the death occurred at the hands of other people, but it does not necessarily mean a crime was committed”, the New York Times report said. When the paramedics arrived, the officers mentioned Harrell had likely overdosed on synthetic marijuana.

A State Police spokesman told the Times that evidence surrounding Harrell’s death will soon be turned over to the Dutchess County district attorney.

Find out more details of this story on the New York Times.

Though some of the inmates were able to identify the corrections officers involved in the confrontation, their names are yet to be verified.

Building 21, the area where Harrell died, has a history of violence, including harassment and provocation by officers. The association, which found similar problems in 2005, briefed officials with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in fall 2013, including the acting commissioner, Anthony Annucci, as well as Fishkill’s superintendent, William J. Connolly, who resigned this month.

“We were also troubled to find a staff culture that considered people who attempted to harm themselves as “malingerers” rather than patients in crisis in need of treatment”, the report states.

Fishkill is no outlier when it comes to allegations of abuse in New York state detention facilities.

According to the New York Times, New York police are now investigating Harrell’s death and the Times notes that the prison, a medium security facility about 65 north of New York City, has a notorious record for violence towards inmates from guards. One inmate describes being beaten so severely in July that he lost his two front teeth, and had to be hospitalized.