ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The death of inmate Robert Brooks, who was serving time at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, is gaining attention by the day. 

Body camera footage was released last week after the New York Attorney General’s office launched an investigation. However, cameras were turned on to standby mode, but no audio was recorded. It showed multiple correctional officers hitting Brooks on Dec. 9. He died the next day at a hospital in Utica. The Department of Justice and the FBI have joined in on the investigation.

Agencies across the state are calling for change.

"By the grace of God, [the correctional officers] participated in beating Robert Brooks until he was what appears to be nothing less than graveyard dead," Bishop Dwight Fowler said. "We have witnessed a type of slave patrol and a type of slave annihilation of our brother -- what one might call [the actions against Brooks], for lack of a better term, a despicable, barbaric, ruthless [and] dehumanizing type of slave patrol behavior. And we have come to make it unequivocally clear here and now that their actions were and are unacceptable.”

The United Christian Leadership Ministry of Western New York Inc. held a press conference Monday morning condemning the actions of the correctional officers involved.

“We want to rid America of correctional officers who are misfits and we want them to be replaced with COs, that is corrections officers, who exhibit integrity, commitment and excellence,” Fowler said.

Lentory Johnson lost her son to gun violence in 2019, but says she can’t fathom her son's killer being treated as the body-worn camera footage with Brooks displayed.

“At the end of the day, justice is justice," she said. "And to me, that would have been OK. You got to go away. You got to serve. You got to pay for your sin that you've committed. And you're taking of a life, right? But you are still entitled to your humanity or your dignity. They ripped that young man closed down. I mean, they perpetrated the worst things they have on his body, even when he laid back on that table."

UCLM leaders say they work with those who have been incarcerated frequently and say they’ve heard of the violence that occurs from corrections officers, as well as inmates.

“Goon squads in prisons are not uncommon," Johnson said. "These situations are not uncommon. But most times when people are given and go to prison, as they should if you’re guilty, right? They’re subjected to whatever environment with the other inmates. But even worse, [they are subjected to] the people that are supposed to be the correctional officers at the facility."

That’s why the ministry is calling for change. It’s calling for the correctional officers involved to be suspended without pay, fired and tried in a court of law. If found guilty, Fowler says he’s asking for them to be sentenced in the highest degree appropriate with the law. They’re hoping these initiatives would prevent another, what they refer to as, “merciless onslaught.”

“Even now, in certain parts of the country, we have government officials who have invoked laws that are adamantly opposed to our children and other children from being cognizant of the barbaric, inhuman treatment that their forefathers have engaged in and utilized toward the African American,” Fowler said.

Fowler suggests ridding America of the correction officers who are “misfits” and replacing them with officers who exhibit integrity, commitment and excellence. It's something Johnson says should never be that difficult.

“Why is it so hard to feel beyond color? Because that's a construct," she said. "That's all it is. It's another way of dividing us. Because at the end of the year, you and I [are] humans. So why can't we just feel for each other? That’s how I feel about it."

“They become fit by exhibiting this thing called integrity [and] exhibiting this thing called commitment [and] exhibiting this thing called excellence," Fowler said. "We want them to be F.A.T. from an acronym perspective - faithful, available and trustworthy."

The UCLM is also asking for a thorough investigation to be done first at Mercy Correctional, followed by every correctional facility across the state, to ensure no correctional officer will engage with an inmate without his or her body camera footage on.

“Until this happens, we will cry loud and spare not," Fowler said. "We will not give up and we will not give in until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Some lawmakers have suggested closing Marcy Correctional Facility, but Fowler says the solution will come from within.

“Closing the facility doesn't fix the problem," he said. "It just moves to a different locality. We want the problem fixed. We don’t want that particular institution necessarily closed, but if they choose to close that institution, we want to make sure that any institution in the state of New York has body-worn cameras on the correctional officers, and that they’re on whenever they encounter an inmate."

The ministry is left praying for the Brooks family. Johnson is particularly thinking of his mother.

“I don't know about this lady, but it's going to take a lot of love," she said. "It's going to take people giving her space [and] the same time to process at the funeral. But I want them to know [that] I love them, and I feel for them and what they're going through. It is the very beginning of the journey. And there's so much to go.”

The New York State’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has responded to the incident and says they’re already making changes. That includes requiring correctional officers to have their body cams on any time they are interacting with an inmate and requiring senior leaders to be present for at least one hour per shift. An "officer of the day" will also be required to evaluate staff and inmates following any use of force incidents. Meanwhile, one staff member in that incident has already resigned and more than a dozen others are suspended without pay.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday also announced that she has directed the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to make immediate changes to protect staff and inmates. This includes expediting $400 million to install fixed cameras and distribute body-worn cameras in all DOCCS facilities and directing DOCCS to engage an outside firm to conduct a review of the culture, patterns and practices, not only in Marcy, but across the correctional system.