Top 6 Prisons With The Most Deaths In New York

The New York State Department of Corrections released a report of how many incarcerated individuals have died in its facilities for the year.

Over the past ten years, there have been a total of 1,353 inmate deaths at state-run facilities. These deaths include all facilities - maximum, medium, and minimum security prisons, as well as Regional Medical Units.

Here's how many incarcerated prisoners have died from all causes over the past decade:

2014 - 131
2015 - 124
2016 - 152
2017 - 158
2018 - 142
2019 - 118
2020 - 130
2021 - 137
2022 - 154
2023 - 107

The totals include all manners of deaths - accident, homicide, natural, suicide, and unknown. For clarification, the manner of death is not necessarily the same as the cause of death,

Pursuant to NYS County Law §671 and §674, the official cause of death for all incarcerated individual deaths is determined by the county coroner or medical examiner. County Law §677 leaves it to county coroner and medical examiner to determine if results will be released and to whom. Therefore, the manner of death is presented in this report, not cause of death.

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These 9 Prisons Had The Most Prisoner Deaths In 2023

The facilities with the most deaths in 2023 were three of the four medical units - Coxsackie RMU, Walsh RMU, and Wende RMU and Green Haven. A total of 47 inmates died at these facilities with 40 being classified as natural deaths.

All rates presented are per 10,000 incarcerated individuals. Between 2019 and 2023, the mortality rate for deaths at DOCCS was 29.97 per 10,000 or 299.7 per 100,000. The mortality rate declined for the second year in a row, following a high point in 2021. The 2023 rate of 33.38 was slightly
higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 31.09 in 2019. Based on the most recent national figures for deaths in state prisons between 2001 and 2019, New York’s mortality rate was about the same as or lower than other large states.