Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
"They Sent Us To Just Fade Away And Die": Men Incarcerated at Cuomo’s Prison Nursing Home Say They Can’t Access Medical Care
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Aug 23, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Aug 23, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
An 80-year-old man, suffering from osteoporosis, ordered to do manual labor. A 63-year-old with AIDS deprived of a routine blood test. A 64-year-old with chronic lung disease unable to see a doctor.
These are some of the stories from men incarcerated at the Adirondack Correctional Facility, a prison in Ray Brook, New York, just south of the Canadian border. Nearly 100 inmates over the age of 60 were hastily transferred there in June, as COVID-19 was spreading through downstate prisons.
But now some of them say they’re denied basic medical care and fear succumbing to treatable conditions.
“We’re in a room by ourselves so naturally that would be more protection. But if we’re not gonna get the proper medical attention, I’m gonna die of something else,” said 80-year-old Claude Holland, who said he has osteoporosis and arthritis. He was told by his previous doctor at Otisville Correctional Facility that he’d need surgery to alleviate the pain. “It’s like they sent us to just fade away and die.”
Listen to Gwynne Hogan’s report on WNYC:
In addition to being in chronic pain, Holland told WNYC/Gothamist that medical staff at Adirondack didn’t approve him to be “medically unassigned,” meaning he’s expected to do manual labor, like mopping and sweeping around the facility, which he described as “porter’s work.”
“I refuse,” said Holland, who has been in state custody since 1977 for his involvement in the murder an off-duty police officer during a robbery. Two men Holland knew were convicted in the killing, and while prosecutors said Holland was in the getaway car, he still maintains he was at work at the time. “But they threaten to send me to solitary confinement, you know, the box.”
Another man incarcerated at Adirondack Correctional Facility said he has AIDS and has been showing up at the daily sick call asking to see a specialist.
“I’ve been seeing the HIV specialist in the state facility for over ten years in every facility,” said 63-year-old John Cavanaugh, who’s serving 12 years to life for attempted burglary.
“How could you tell me you don’t have an HIV doctor for me to see? She says, ‘Well, we don’t,’” he said, describing a recent conversation with a nurse.
Edward MacKenzie, 64, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, wrote a letter to the prison’s superintendent, Jeffrey Tedford, on Aug. 16th.
“This facility is now...populated with senior citizens 60 years old and older, most of which have serious underlying medical problems,” he wrote. “You do not even have a doctor.”
A secretary for Adirondack Correctional Facility’s superintendent deferred comment to the state. Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the State’s Corrections Department, declined to comment on specific people’s cases, but said that all Corrections facilities have medical staff on site and people can request daily care at sick call.
Chronic or terminally ill patients are sent to facilities with special medical units, he said, adding that everyone at Adirondack Correctional Facility is capable of independent living and people can be sent to hospitals if they need additional care.
But Stefen Short, a lawyer with the Prisoners Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, said his office has been fielding similar concerns about access to medical care for men with chronic issues since they were transferred.
“We’re very concerned. This is now a facility where folks with serious medical needs have been transferred to and yet the department hasn't evinced any intention to provide the kind of intensive medical treatment that would be needed.”
Leading up its transformation as a facility for older inmates, Adirondack Correctional Facility, which has the capacity for more than 500 people, was housing just ten teenagers who were transferred to the custody of the Office of Children and Family Services, according to the state.
John Roberts, the union representative who oversees the Adirondack facility for the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said the threat of closure was a “major concern,” because it would lead to the loss of union jobs.
“OK, we’re changing out to an adult facility,” he said. “Everyone was happy.”
But even before the pandemic struck, Governor Andrew Cuomo had been outlining plans to move adults to the facility. And some inmates question whether the move had anything to do with protecting them from COVID-19 at all. They point to a lack of regular testing for COVID-19 at the facility and the fact that there are around 4,000 more people who are over the age of 55 who remain at other prisons in the state.
“In Fishkill, there were older and feebler [guys] than me, so I don’t really know what their selection process was,” said Bradford Applegate, 61, who has been incarcerated for 32 years for murder. “I think this is more about Governor Cuomo saving correction officers’ jobs than it is protecting us from COVID.”
Some men sent to Adirondack facility said they had to pack their belongings in a matter of hours and still didn’t know where they were headed hours into the bus ride north.
Hector Martinez said he spent the ride reading road signs trying to guess his destination: “When I see that we had passed Lake Placid, where they had done the Winter Olympics, I said, holy crap, we are way up here.”
Advocates on the outside have been urging Cuomo for months to take more sweeping measures to release elderly and medically frail inmates before a likely second wave of COVID-19. During the first wave of COVID-19 in state prisons, at least 17 incarcerated people and five employees with the corrections department died of the virus.
Insha Rahman, a strategic director with the Vera Institute of Justice, noted that elderly inmates pose some of the lowest risks of re-arrest, and cost taxpayers the most to incarcerate. Analysing state data, the Vera Institute found 4,788 people who are scheduled for mandatory release within a year; 3,809 people who are eligible for parole; and 3,735 people who will become eligible for parole in the next year.
“How do we prevent this virus from getting inside our jails and prisons? The most effective way is just simply releasing people,” Rahman said. States like California and Kentucky have moved to release larger percentages of the people in their state prisons, she said. “We need to be prioritizing both public safety and public health.”
John Roberts with the Corrections Officers Union pushed back on that thinking.
“If somebody was sentenced to 50 years to life, do I believe they should be released just because they’re old? Probably not,” he said. “You also would have to remember there’s a family, a victim of some kind, there’s a reason that they're in there for so long.”
As of mid-August, the Corrections Department said it had released 2,263 people early, most of whom were 90 days away from release or were being held on technical parole violations. Overall, there are 37,398 people still incarcerated, the lowest number since 1986.
Still, some men at Adirondack agree with advocates that the state should be doing more to free elderly people. Martinez, 63, has been in custody since 2003, serving a sentence of 20 years to life for burglary.
“There’s some guys in here that, really, I don’t understand why the State hasn’t released these guys,” he said. “What possible threat could this poor, frail, dried up human being pose to society? Let him go, man.”
Tagged
COVID-19
Governor Andrew Cuomo
coronavirus
prison
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
ICE agent shoots, injures immigrant man in NYC's Marble Hill, DHS says
The agency says the man is alive and hospitalized.
By
Giulia Heyward
and
Arya Sundaram
Published Oct 8, 2026 at 5:33 p.m. ET
Modified Oct 8, 2026 at 9:16 p.m. ET
Lazy drivers in Prospect Heights lose chance for 1 less day of alternate-side parking
A pilot found that drivers actually complied with alternate-side less when fewer days were in effect.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Lazy drivers in Prospect Heights lose chance for 1 less day of alternate-side parking
A pilot found that drivers actually complied with alternate-side less when fewer days were in effect.
By
Liam Quigley
Jersey City mayor shakes up staff amid $255M budget gap
By
Michael Sol Warren
Bronx residents will be exempt from new Medicaid work rule, state officials say
By
Caroline Lewis
MTA chair accuses Andy Byford, who's leading Penn Station rebuild, of going 'full MAGA'
By
Stephen Nessen
and
Carol Chen
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .