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Former AG Eric Schneiderman becomes unexpected ally in prison reform push
By
Jimmy Vielkind
Published Feb 11, 2025
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Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
By
Jimmy Vielkind
Published Feb 11, 2025
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The father of a man beaten to death at an upstate prison will visit the State Capitol on Wednesday to advocate for reform, officials said, and he’s getting support from an unexpected ally: former state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who resigned in 2018.
Robert Ricks is the father of Robert Brooks, who died in December after he was beaten by guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility outside of Utica. Bodycam videos show Brooks was handcuffed as guards struck him. A medical examiner ruled Brooks’ death a homicide.
Schneiderman has kept a relatively low-profile since his resignation in 2018, when multiple women said he physically and verbally abused them. His involvement in the reform push is his first public return to the political scene, and several state Senate officials with direct knowledge of the trip said they believed the former AG would be accompanying Ricks.
Ricks will meet with members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus and be introduced in the state Senate chamber, according to state Senate officials familiar with his trip. He will testify about the need for reform of the state’s correctional system during a budget hearing on Thursday, the officials said.
Schneiderman confirmed in a text message that he is advising Ricks but didn’t say whether he would accompany him to the Capitol. Schneiderman, a Democrat, represented the Upper West Side and various parts of Upper Manhattan in the state Senate from 1999 until 2010, when he was elected attorney general.
Schneiderman worked to reform sentencing and promote alternatives to incarceration in both offices. He swiftly resigned from office in May of 2018 after The New Yorker reported he had choked and slapped several women, including intimate partners.
Prosecutors declined to press charges in connection with the abuse and Schneiderman said in September 2018 that he apologized “for any and all pain that I have caused, and I apologize to the people of the state of New York for disappointing them after they put their trust in me.”
He completed a monthlong alcohol rehabilitation program and has publicly acknowledged that he is a recovering alcoholic, according to a 2021 court ruling that suspended his law license for a year.
Brooks’ death has catalyzed the push for reform of the state’s correctional system. State Sen. Julia Salazar, a Democrat from Brooklyn who chairs the chamber’s Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, has called for Marcy's closure.
She’s sponsoring bills that would create an independent entity to investigate incidents of abuse in prisons and make it easier to fire correctional officers who are involved.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she wants to see charges filed against the officers involved in Brooks’ death. A spokesperson for the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, which is examining the case, has said investigators are presenting evidence to a grand jury this week.
A spokesman for the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association previously said the footage of Brooks’ beating was “incomprehensible” and “not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day.”
Tagged
Albany
new york state
Politics
Jimmy Vielkind
Jimmy Vielkind covers how state government and politics affect people throughout New York. He has covered Albany since 2008, most recently as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Jimmy led a team of reporters that won a New York Press Club award for coverage of Andrew Cuomo’s downfall and was on a team that won a Gerald Loeb Award for coverage of Amazon’s HQ2 process. A native of the Capitol Region, Jimmy has two degrees in urban planning. His position is funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Reach Jimmy at [email protected].
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