CANY Publishes 2025 Data on Assaults, Contraband, and Other Incidents in New York State Prisons
September 22, 2026
Contact: media@correctionalassociation.org
Newly Published 2025 Data Reveals Decreases in Assaults and Contraband, Increases in Suicide Attempts and Hunger Strikes
Brooklyn, NY – The Correctional Association of New York (CANY) today announced a comprehensive update to its public Unusual Incidents (UI) dashboard tracking data from New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) facilities. The update incorporates the latest available data across multiple metrics, including incidents such as assaults, staff use of weapons, contraband, deaths, disruptive behavior, accidents, escapes, self-inflicted injuries, and suicide attempts in 2025.
Key Findings Include:
A nine percent (9%) decrease in Unusual Incidents overall in 2025.
A ten percent (10%) overall decrease in assaults, including a 15% decrease in assaults on security staff and an 11% decrease in assaults on incarcerated people. Assaults on civilian staff increased by 45%.
Incidents involving contraband decreased overall by nine percent (9%), driven by a dip in contraband UIs in February 2025 and a 17% decrease in weapons contraband. Incidents involving electronics contraband increased by 71%.
Reported Narcan use increased by 51% from 811 incidents in 2024 to 1,071 in 2025
Documented hunger strikes increased by 140% in 2025, rising from 10 in 2024 to 24 in 2025. Green Haven Correctional Facility reported 12 hunger strike incidents, half of the total, in 2025.
A 14% increase in suicide attempts in 2025. Suicide attempts at Mid-State Correctional Facility rose from four in 2024 to 24 in 2025, marking a 500% increase.
Coxsackie, Fishkill, and Auburn, respectively, had the highest rates of Unusual Incidents monthly.
View CANY’s updated Unusual Incidents dashboard at: CANY Data Portal | Unusual Incidents
View CANY’s updated Unusual Incidents dashboard at:
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.
