Lawmakers and activists say Westchester prison for women is in crisis

Prison reform advocates are ringing the alarm bells about the conditions at a state correctional facility after several recent deaths. It just might not be the one you’re thinking of. 

Activists and lawmakers rallied outside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester and virtually on Tuesday to draw attention to what they say are poor conditions at New York’s only maximum-security prison for women. Since the beginning of the year, the prison has reported three deaths among incarcerated individuals, with two of those considered suicides. Advocates for incarcerated people and lawmakers representing the area say a lack of access to basic amenities like daily showers and any recreation outside specific programs have had severe impacts on the mental health of those detained at Bedford Hills.  

Manuela Morgado died by apparent suicide at Bedford Hills last month, the most recent death at the facility. Her friend behind bars Pamela Smart wrote a letter about Morgado to New Hour for Women and Children Long Island, an organization that advocates for women and children impacted by the carcaral system. Serena Martin, the group’s executive director and a friend of Smart’s, called the letter “chilling.” 

Smart wrote that Morgado had spoken to her the night before her death about a disciplinary ticket she had received that could have gotten her kicked out of the “honor” floor known as Fiske cottage, which is reserved for inmates who maintain good behavior. Morgado had spent 17 years in Fiske, which came with better living amenities. “Her ticket was pending, she hadn't even been found guilty yet,” Martin told City & State. “But she knew she would be found guilty, because you almost always are, and that's when she decided to hang herself.”

The reason relayed in the letter was because Morgado had told Smart she could not imagine returning to the conditions in the general population. “‘This ticket has broken me,’ is what she said,” Martin recalled. “Eeveryone is struggling when they're behind bars, but she was thriving.” According to Martin, Morgado was involved in the arts program, enjoyed singing and worked with the parenting center. “This is not a woman who is manically depressed,” Martin said. “And frankly, this issue is what threw her over the edge.”

Advocates attribute a troubling decline in conditions and restriction of movement to the assignment of Deputy Superintendent for Security Michael Blot. Advocates for incarcerated people have pointed to past allegations of abuse against Blot as cause for concern, though he has never been found guilty nor faced disciplinary action. In the fall, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision moved him to Bedford Hills to oversee initiatives to reduce violence at the facility following a series of fights that had broken out. But what was meant to be temporary measures continued for months. “Since the arrival of (Blot), conditions have only worsened, and the consequences have been devastating,” Tamika Mallory, a social justice activist, said during the virtual portion of Tuesday’s rally. 

Assembly Member Anna Kelles, another virtual rally attendee, said she visited Bedford Hills in December, where she said countless women offered similar accounts of poor conditions, restricted movement and general lack of access to resources. “When you see it once, it's not really great data,” she said. “When you're seeing something consistent throughout an entire building, the likelihood that there is something there is significantly higher.”

Kelles said her experience at the facility prompted her to write a six-page letter to DOCCS Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III. “I met women who had not taken a shower in weeks,” she recalled. “That is unconscionable. That is not what we should be establishing and allowing in our prison settings.”

Morgado’s death prompted state Sen. Peter Harckham and Assembly Member Chris Burdick to pen a letter to Martuscello early last month requesting an investigation into the conditions at Bedford Hills. Burdick told City & State he saw Martuscello at the correctional facility last week when both attended a performance put on by incarcerated women through a rehabilitation through the arts program. “I had a chance to speak to him because of my concern … about very harsh treatment over there,” Burdick said. “My concern there is it could be contributing to depression and to a sense of hopelessness that women may have.”

According to Burdick, Martuscello “did not dismiss” his concerns and did in fact instigate an investigation, calling in the state attorney general’s office for assistance. (A spokesperson for the attorney general was not familiar with any such investigation.) Martin also described a meeting with Martuscello and a representative for Gov. Kathy Hochul about Bedford Hills, in which the commissioner at least seemed receptive – but so far, activists have not seen concrete action taken to improve conditions. “All the things that we're doing are just not resulting in any real change,” Martin said. “We're getting letters from the commissioner, basically saying, ‘I'm aware and I'm going to look into this,’ but nothing's happened.”

In a statement, a DOCCS spokesperson disputed the characterization of poor conditions at Bedford Hills and the specific allegations against Blot. “The allegations that operational changes at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility created poor conditions are inaccurate and misleading,” the spokesperson said. They cited the previous violence at the facility as justification for Blot’s reassignment and noted his efficacy in implementing changes. “As a result of these actions, between September 2025 and March 2026, there were 4 incarcerated on incarcerated assaults compared to 46 for the same time period the year prior, a 91% decrease,” the spokesperson said. “Commissioner Martuscello does not tolerate violence or abuse of any kind in our correctional facilities.”

Prisons in New York have been under a microscope since the end of 2024, when corrections officers fatally beat Robert Brooks, who had been incarcerated at Marcy Correctional Facility. Months after Brooks death, a similar incident happened at Mid-State Correctional Facility when corrections officers beat Messiah Nantwi to death. Those deaths prompted outcry and demands for prison reform. 

The state’s prison system also remains in a state of crisis following a wildcat strike that saw tens of thousands of corrections officers walk off the job last year. DOCCS has struggled with recruitment to replace several thousand prison guards who were permanently fired after the strike, exacerbating existing staffing difficulties.

But most of the attention has focused on men’s prisons rather than women’s prisons like Bedford Hills, even though it has the highest occurrence of sexual assault at women’s prisons around the country. “I think women's issues are always seen as less important, they're not covered as often,” Martin said. “And I think it sort of speaks to the fact that the community at large really see prisons as a place that men go, and they don't understand that women are … the largest growing population behind bars.”