Robert Brooks’ estate reaches $24 million deal with New York over Marcy prison killing

The estate of Robert Brooks, a state prisoner who died in 2024 after corrections officers beat him, will receive $24 million from New York State to resolve its lawsuit. Attorney Elizabeth Mazur confirmed the agreement Friday in a letter filed with a federal court in Binghamton. A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed the amount.

Officers attacked Brooks inside an infirmary at the Marcy Correctional Facility, and body-worn cameras recorded them kicking and punching him. He later died at a hospital close to the prison.

Convictions and prison oversight changes after the Robert Brooks case

In the criminal cases, one guard was convicted of murder and six more officers entered guilty pleas to manslaughter. Brooks’ death was followed by a wildcat strike by corrections officers that lasted three weeks. It also led lawmakers to require additional cameras throughout state prisons and to add other oversight measures.

The estate’s civil suit claimed that officials violated Brooks’ civil rights by ignoring abuse for years. Mazur did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What Hochul and prison officials said

Hochul again called the death a tragedy. “There is nothing that can erase the pain the Brooks family has endured,” she said in a statement. She said she hopes the settlement gives the family some relief.

State Sen. Julia Salazar, a Brooklyn Democrat, took a harsher view. In her own statement, she argued that mistreatment of incarcerated New Yorkers is common inside the state prison system. Had the corrections agency fired guards who took part in brutality and cover-ups, and had the state responded to decades of complaints about excessive force by its staff, Brooks might still be alive, she said. Salazar called on New York to act decisively to stop the abuse and the lack of accountability behind bars.

Tom Mailey, who speaks for the state corrections department, described the death as a “dark and painful chapter” in the agency’s history. He said the people responsible have faced criminal prosecution and that the department remains committed to learning from the case so it is never repeated.