Racial Bias in New York’s State Prisons Have Never Been Investigated

In December 2016, The New York Times reported that the levels of racial bias in the maximum-security penitentiaries — Attica, Clinton, Great Meadow — were increasingly high.

In those rural areas, the population is almost entirely white and nearly every officer is too, which is still not an excuse for the terrible behavior that was recounted by some inmates.

Inmates describe being called porch monkeys, spear chuckers and worse. There are cases of guards ripping out dreadlocks. One inmate, John Richard, reported that he was jumped at Clinton Correctional Facility by a guard who threatened to “serve up some black mashed potatoes with tomato sauce.”

The New York Times looked over tens of thousands of disciplinary cases against inmates in 2015, hundreds of pages of internal reports and three years of parole decisions.

Results were horrifying, Blacks and Latinos were disciplined at higher rates than whites. In some cases, twice as often, they also were sent to solitary confinement more frequently and for longer duration.

One in four white men were released at their first parole hearing; fewer than one in six black or Hispanic men were released after their first hearing.

Same year, following the reports, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered an investigation into racial bias in the state prison system.

However, two years later, nothing was done. There were no findings or recommendations released by the state inspector general.

“The inspector general’s investigation, which includes broader and more recent data than previously reported on by The Times, remains open and will be reported out expeditiously once responsibly finalized,”said John Milgrim, a spokesman for the inspector general.

Bias in prison is a dangerous phenomenon, which has a huge impact on lives of many. It prevents prisoners from accessing jobs and educational and therapeutic programs, diminishing an inmate’s chances of being paroled. And each denial is likely to add two more years behind bars.