An inmate died two days after an Oct. 22 assault at Franklin Correctional Facility, according to a corrections officers union release describing a week of violence and weapon seizures at the state prison in Malone.
The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association said the man died Oct. 24 at Albany Medical Center after suffering a traumatic brain injury.
The union said staff responding to a dormitory assault found one inmate repeatedly kicking another in the head and used pepper spray after orders to stop were ignored.
The injured man was unresponsive, and multiple doses of Narcan did not revive him, according to the release.
He was taken by ambulance to an outside hospital and then airlifted to Albany Medical Center, the union said.
The union described a preliminary inquiry that found the man who died had entered the other inmate's living cube and initiated an attack before both men fell over a divider.
The other man then gained control and punched and kicked him, according to the union's account.
State police were notified and responded, and the investigation remained ongoing when the union issued its release.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision's death list records an Oct. 24 death involving a person housed at Franklin but does not state a cause.
The union also described several other assaults between Oct. 18 and Oct. 23, including attacks in dormitory living cubes, a bathroom and a mess hall.
On Oct. 18, two inmates attacked another man in his cube, leaving puncture wounds, while a separate three-on-one dormitory attack left another man with cheek and jaw lacerations, the union said.
Weapons were not recovered in either incident, according to the release.
On Oct. 19, two inmates attacked another in the mess hall, and staff used force to stop one assailant who continued after the other complied with orders, the union said.
The injured man required treatment at an outside hospital.
On Oct. 23, one man was attacked in his cube and again by a second assailant after fleeing into a bathroom, while another man approached a National Guardsman with a facial cut inflicted by an unidentified inmate, according to the union.
Staff also recovered ice-pick-style or other makeshift weapons during pat frisks and a locker search on Oct. 17, 18 and 19, the release said.
An Oct. 21 search assisted by a K9 team found a weapon in a sneaker, three more makeshift weapons in living cubes, a cellphone and charger, about two gallons of homemade alcohol and paper suspected of being soaked with drugs, according to the union.
The union said inmates involved in the reported violence and contraband incidents were placed in special housing units pending disciplinary charges.
NYSCOPBA Northern Region Vice President Dana Grammo called for more staffing, resources and security measures and said staff had responded to more than five dozen inmates intoxicated on unknown substances in the preceding week.
That account did not identify the substances or provide testing results.
DOCCS classifies Franklin Correctional Facility as a medium-security prison for men.
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