Two men died hours apart on Wednesday afternoon inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility, bringing the total of deaths behind bars to three since correction officers at more than two dozen New York State facilities went on strike earlier this month.
Anthony Douglas, 67, who was locked up for nearly 40 years on a murder conviction against a drug dealer in Brooklyn, was found dead inside his cell at 4:25 p.m., according to Thomas Mailey, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
Officials said Douglas appeared to have taken his own life but the cause of death is yet to be determined, according to multiple prison advocates.
Just over four hours later, guards found 35-year-old Franklyn Dominguez “unresponsive in his cell” at 8:48 p.m., Mailey said. Staff tried to revive him and took life-saving measures including CPR and Narcan to reverse a possible overdose, Mailey added.
Dominguez had been in prison since July 2022 on an assault case in Manhattan, state records show.
It’s unclear if there is any connection between the two deaths in one day at the same facility, but for the last 10 days both men had been locked-down in their cells because of the ongoing strike, prison advocates said.
The strike has also blocked all inmates from visits with friends and family and locked them out of educational and social programs or counseling services.
At least three prisoners in all have died throughout the state since the wildcat strike started on Feb. 17.
On Saturday morning, Jonathan Grant, 61, was found dead at the Auburn Correctional Facility in Cayuga County, the New York Times reported.
Grant had been “unwell” and suffered a series of strokes, two prisoners at Auburn and a person who reviewed information about his health told the Times. The fellow inmates told the paper that Grant had asked for medical help days earlier but was ignored.
Criminal justice reformers say the prisoners upstate have more to gripe about than the guards.
“The officers claim to be complaining about safety. They are not dying. We are. So whose safety is really a concern here?” Jerome Wright, co-director of the #HALTsolitary Campaign, said in a statement issued Thursday morning.
Last Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul activated approximately 6,500 New York National Guard members to help run basic operations in multiple prisons. Many are sleeping inside the prisons where some have complained about deplorable conditions.
Corrections officers held a strike outside the Green Haven prison in Dutchess County, Feb. 20, 2025. Credit: Reuven Blau/THE CITY
“Each prison is different but across the board it’s just terrible. We all agree that Afghanistan was better than the conditions in these prisons,” one national guard member told News 12 Hudson Valley.
State correction officers at dozens of facilities, including Sing Sing and Auburn, have refused to come to work until Hochul signs an executive order to repeal the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary (HALT) Act.
That measure, signed into law by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, restricts the use of solitary confinement to 15 days and bans it for pregnant women and people with mental illness. It took full effect in March 2022.
On February 26, Daniel Martuscello, the commissioner of the prison system, announced that the department would pare back parts of the HALT Act “that cannot safely be operationalized under a prison-wide state of emergency.”
The move did not get the officers off picket lines, but outraged criminal justice reform advocates.
“Carrying out the memo would directly violate the HALT Solitary Law, illegally usurp the lawmaking function of the state legislature, and cause grave harm and likely death,” the HALT Solitary campaign said in a statement.
Even with the full HALT law in place, prison officials have repeatedly violated the 15-day limit, according to three years of investigations by New York Focus.
Supporters of the solitary confinement measure cite medical research that shows isolating people for long stretches is akin to torture and causes serious mental harm.
Correction officers began to walk off shortly after a Feb. 14 report in the Albany Times Union revealed that a group of officers would be criminally charged for their involvement in the beating death of Robert Brooks inside Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 10.
Brooks, 43, was kicked and punched by guards who held him down on a medical bed at the prison, according to body camera footage from officers involved. On Dec. 27, state Attorney General Letitia James released footage of four officers at the scene who apparently didn’t realize the cameras were recording. At least three sergeants and a nurse were also present during the beatdown, the videos show.
Last Thursday, the five officers seen beating Brooks on the video were hit with the top murder charges, according to Onondaga County District Attorney Willian J. Fitzpatrick. He’s handling the case after James named him as special prosecutor when she recused herself due to a possible conflict. James is representing two of the officers in a separate civil case brought by a former prisoner alleging similar abuse.
Three officers in the area who failed to stop the assault were hit with manslaughter charges.
The three deaths since Saturday also come as the overall number of fatalities in state prison is on the rise, according to DOCCS records.
All told, 143 people died last year inside a state prison — the highest total in five years, DOCCS data shows. That translated into approximately one death every three days, on average.
One hundred and seven incarcerated people died in 2023; 111 in 2022; 137 in 2021 during the pandemic; 115 in 2020; and 113 in 2019, state prison records show.
As for the strike, the New York State Correction Officers Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), the union representing jail officers, has not formally endorsed the walkout.
Under New York’s so-called Taylor Law, public employees are barred from striking. Enacted in 1967, the law gives municipal workers the ability to collectively bargain their contracts and other protections in return for outlawing strikes.
A “wildcat” strike is a worker action not supported by a union.
But the labor organization has had three days of negotiations with state-appointed mediator Martin Scheinman.
On Thursday morning, James Miller, NYSCOPBA’s spokesperson, said the union soon expects “that the state will have a formal offer to the demands.”
“I don’t have any information on any concessions or what demands will be met,” Miller told reporters in an email. “If that occurs today, then the offer will be presented to those members still refusing to work.”
A representative from Hochul’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Last week, the governor said all the striking officers would not be penalized if they returned to work by the end of the week. That never happened.
As a result, the state brought the case to court and an Erie County judge last week issued a temporary restraining order demanding the officers come back to work.
The striking officers have ignored that ruling.
Last Tuesday, Hochul in a press release vowed she’d “begin to take appropriate disciplinary action as necessary.”
But she hasn’t sought to take further action against the officers or penalize them in any way. They are all still being paid their full salaries and none face internal disciplinary charges.
Hochul and her staff have refused to disclose how much it has cost to pay for the 6,500 National Guard members.
In 2005, former Gov. George Pataki fined striking transit union workers two days pay for each day they didn’t come to work. Roger Toussaint, the president of the transit workers’ union at the time, was also sentenced to 10 days in jail for his role leading the illegal strike.
Pataki also yanked the union’s longstanding favorable setup of so-called automatic dues checkoff. That union-friendly system automatically took dues payments from members directly from their paychecks without having to independently do so.
“Sometimes law enforcement, or sort of quasi law enforcement workers, are treated a little differently than other public sector workers,” Joshua Freeman, a labor historian and professor emeritus at Queens College, told THE CITY.
Hochul’s response to the strike has been “relatively benign” as far as holding the union and the officers responsible under the Taylor Law, he added.
“I think the governor is concentrating on trying to get the workers back on their jobs.”
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
The post Two Sing Sing Prisoners Die Hours Apart as Illegal Guard Strike Drags On appeared first on THE CITY – NYC News.
