CANY Pilots Intensive Monitoring at Six Correctional Facilities – Including Marcy and Mid-State – to Strengthen Oversight of State Prisons
Promising New Model Threatened by State Budget Cuts
April 1, 2026
Contact: media@correctionalassociation.org
Brooklyn, NY – CANY announces the pilot of a new, data-driven model for oversight within the New York State prison system, as detailed in the publication released today: Process Report and Status of the Intensive Monitoring Initiative.
CANY piloted the Intensive Monitoring Initiative with funding provided by Governor Hochul following the murders of Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi and an unauthorized work stoppage by correctional officers. But the future of the Intensive Monitoring Initiative is uncertain: Governor Hochul’s proposed budget discontinued funding for this innovative pilot after less than one year of operation.
The Intensive Monitoring Initiative draws on CANY’s interviews with incarcerated individuals, extensive engagement with facility staff and leadership, and analysis of state agency records to identify priority issues and track progress over time using KPIs. The pilot involved in-depth monitoring to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) at six correctional facilities with documented challenges: Albion, Bedford Hills, Five Points, Green Haven, Marcy, and Mid-State Correctional Facilities.
Key Findings:
System-wide challenges: Across all 6 facilities, stakeholders identified recurring issues including safety concerns, limited access to programs, and delays in medical care. Staffing shortages emerged as a common denominator driving these challenges.
Data Gaps: In some cases, discrepancies between interview data and official records highlighted gaps in data quality, structure, and availability, reinforcing the need for modernization to support evidence-based decision-making.
Solutions: Short-term improvements are possible, but long-term issues require structural change. Facility-level data shows that some targeted interventions such as reinstating programs or piloting new program delivery models can yield progress in the short term. However, persistent challenges like staffing shortages, institutional culture, and system-wide policy failures require sustained focus and a long-term vision to achieve meaningful change.
Data-Driven Oversight: The use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as rates of assaults, medical wait times, program participation, grievance rates, and staffing vacancies, creates a standardized framework to track conditions over time. Across facilities, these metrics allow CANY and stakeholders to compare trends, evaluate interventions, and identify whether conditions are improving, stagnating, or worsening.
“CANY’s partnership with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) throughout the Intensive Monitoring Initiative pilot has yielded significant return on investment,” said Jennifer Scaife, Executive Director of the Correctional Association of New York. “We urge Governor Hochul and lawmakers to restore CANY’s funding in the enacted budget so that we can continue the important work of strengthening transparency, improving accountability, and proposing data-driven solutions to persistent challenges across New York’s correctional facilities.”
About CANY
CANY, under §146 of New York’s Correction Law, is charged with visiting and examining the state's correctional facilities to identify and report on prison conditions, the treatment of incarcerated individuals, and the administration of policy promulgated by the executive and legislature. Founded in 1844 by concerned citizens of the state and deputized by the state to provide monitoring and oversight of the state’s prisons in 1846, CANY is one of the first organizations in the country prescribed to administer civilian oversight of prisons.
