Criminal Justice New York State

Controversial Security Leader Transferred From Women’s Prison After Outcry

Michel Blot was reassigned from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility to Sing Sing after prisoners and advocates raised concerns.

Rebecca McCray · May 11, 2026

A train pulls into the Bedford Hills Metro North station.

The transfer followed New York Focus reporting and activism from incarcerated people and advocates. | Daniel Case, Wikimedia Commons

BlueSky Tweet Share Email

Sign up for Staying Focused, our newsletter keeping readers up to speed on New York politics.

In mid-April, following three deaths and amid mounting frustration, Deputy Superintendent of Security Michel Blot was transferred from his role in the state’s maximum security women’s prison back to Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

The transfer followed New York Focus reporting on the prison and a strong push from incarcerated people and advocates to oust Blot, who they said created dangerous and inhumane conditions for incarcerated people. His tenure was marked by limited access to showers, increased use of force by staff, and “lock-ins” that kept people in their cells for extended periods of time, they said.

The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision denied any wrongdoing on his part.

Blot was assigned to Bedford Hills last summer “to oversee the implementation of violence reduction initiatives,” according to prison agency spokesperson Nicole March, who noted there had been an increase in violence between incarcerated people. Following what the agency called a successful effort to reduce violence, Blot was sent back to Sing Sing, a maximum-security men’s prison. She called his return to the prison a “planned reassignment.”

This plan came as a surprise to Serena Martin, executive director of New Hour for Women and Children, who helped lead a campaign calling for Blot to be removed from Bedford Hills and fired.

She was glad to hear the news of his transfer but disappointed that he retained a job with the department. “I think that he’s a liability,” said Martin. “At a minimum, he should not be in contact with the incarcerated population.”

Third Death in Four Weeks Rocks Bedford Hills Women’s Prison

Rebecca McCray

“We’re relieved that he’s not at Bedford, but if he’s anywhere where he’s causing harm, we also don’t want to support that,” Martin added. “Our heart goes out to the men at Sing Sing.”

Blot has a history of civil cases filed against him during his time at facilities, including Sing Sing and Green Haven prison, alleging that he used excessive force and sexually assaulted an incarcerated person. March noted that he has “never been disciplined during his career.”

Martin said she and Robert Ricks, father of the late Robert Brooks, who was murdered by staff at Marcy Correctional Facility in December 2024, met with prison agency Commissioner Daniel Martuscello in mid-March to discuss their concerns about conditions in the state’s prisons, particularly Bedford Hills.

She said the commissioner and his legal counsel never mentioned any plans to reassign Blot. “That’s never been a talking point that they’ve ever given us, so that’s shocking,” said Martin.

To Martin and other advocates, the idea that Blot was brought in to reduce violence is hard to swallow. In the span of just four weeks earlier this year, three women died in the prison, two of them by suicide, according to currently and formerly incarcerated people and advocates. Lawmakers called for an investigation into the deaths and conditions at Bedford Hills, citing reporting by New York Focus.

Manuela Morgado, one of the women who died by suicide, expressed despair and anxiety over changes in conditions at the prison in emails sent just days before her death, shared with New York Focus by a close friend. Morgado had received a disciplinary ticket that threatened to send her back to the general population from Fiske Cottage, an honor dorm where she lived. According to the friend, Céline Fischer, Morgado was afraid of the living conditions outside of Fiske, where incarcerated people were regularly being denied recreation time and shower access.

“Dep. Blot wanted to make an example of me,” Morgado wrote to Fischer one day before her death. Blot did not respond to a request for comment. March declined to comment on the email from Morgado, saying, “Any suggestion that a disciplinary determination caused an individual’s death is speculative and irresponsible.”

Anna Adams, who is serving a sentence for second-degree murder at Bedford Hills, said she was prevented by staff from showering before her court date in November because of the policy implemented by Blot.

“I begged and begged to shower but I was told that the new [deputy of security] said we could no longer shower before 8 am,” Adams wrote in an email to New York Focus. “I then explained I had my menstrual and was unable to wash in my cell because the cell sinks aren’t designed to wash in.”

Lawmakers Call for Investigation Into Women’s Prison, Citing New York Focus Article

Rebecca McCray

“No matter how much I begged, I went to court foul. I felt like dirt, so ashamed of myself,” she said. “I felt so humiliated. It was the cruelest experience I had my entire incarceration.”

The prison agency did not comment on Adams’s claim.

When Adams heard the news of Blot’s transfer, she said she was “elated,” but said the restrictive showering schedule remains in place. According to March, “Incarcerated individuals now sign up for showers, kitchen access, phones, and laundry using scheduled time slots to ensure fair access.”

For advocates who called for Blot’s firing, his transfer to Sing Sing is a mixed outcome. F2L Network, a prison abolitionist group supporting queer and trans incarcerated people of color, was one of several organizations that signed onto a letter led by the Legal Aid Society in early March highlighting the impact of changing policies at Bedford Hills. Among other things, the letter called for Blot to be removed from “any role requiring direct interaction with incarcerated individuals or oversight of security staff.”

“[Commissioner Martuscello] was fully aware of the violations of law taking place and refused to do anything,” said F2L spokesperson mitchyll mora in a statement to New York Focus. “F2L continues to demand that Michel Blot be fired and there be a thorough outside investigation into the 3 deaths that occurred.”