Health staff must report on all prison injuries |
In the upcoming 2026 New York State legislative session, a critical bill — End Health Professionals’ Complicity in the Torture of Detained or Incarcerated Individuals Act will be considered. Sponsored by Sen. Julia Salazar and Assemblymember Anna Kelles, in its essence, this bill requires health care professionals to report abuse of incarcerated individuals at the hands of correctional staff.
An immediate question would ask why a law is needed to ensure ethical behavior by the helping professions — those considered to be on high moral ground to begin with. The assumption is that they would naturally report or otherwise intervene in any brutality.
Yet, in the widely viewed videos of the murder of Robert Brooks at New York’s Marcy Correctional Facility, the public saw otherwise. As the handcuffed Brooks was being mercilessly beaten to death by officers, the cameras also captured nurses who stood by impassively.
While these nurses represent the extreme end of the spectrum, inside correctional facilities, powerful forces inhibit normal ethical behavior, something I learned in my five-year tenure in the Rikers Island mental health........