New York’s state prison commissioner, Daniel Martuscello III, is catching flak from every direction.

Since December, when the state attorney general released video of prison guards beating an incarcerated man to death, Martsucello has faced calls for resignation from prisoners’ rights activists and corrections officers alike. Some of the former see him as the kingpin of a brutally violent system; the latter as a gutless reformer who doesn’t have their backs. He’s faced protests, national outrage, aggressive inquiries from horrified legislators — and, most recently, a wildcat strike from his guards. Through mediated talks with the officers’ union on one hand and promises for reform on the other, he’s been working around the clock to keep both his commissionership and the state prison system itself from falling apart.

How did Martuscello find himself here? While his tenure as prison chief is less than two years old, he’s no stranger to New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS. He came of age in the agency, and knows its ugly side better than anyone.

This week, New York Focus published an in-depth investigation into Martuscello’s ascent. The result of a year and a half of reporting, the article reveals his role as scion of a state prison dynasty. It details not only the commissioner’s rise to power, but his father’s, brother’s, siblings’, in-laws’, and that of his family’s friends across the system.

Thousands of pages of previously unreleased documents and testimony from incarcerated people, advocates, officials, and over a dozen current and former DOCCS staff tell the story of a man who’s found himself at the center of a firestorm, torn between his professed progressivism and his background in a shadowy system.

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A man in a green prison uniform, his face bleeding and wrists shackled behind his back, slouches on a medical examination table. A uniformed guard shoves an object into his mouth, while another grips his throat, and several more take turns beating him. They hit him all over his body. When he loses consciousness, they lift him by his collar and throw him against a window.

The killing of Robert Brooks at a central New York prison became a media sensation. Body-worn camera footage of the deadly beatdown, released in December, triggered a flurry of coverage, from local headlines to rolling cable news stories, directing national outrage at a state prison system that often evades scrutiny.

It caused a particular headache for the state prison commissioner, Daniel Martuscello III. A self-styled reformer, he responded to the public disgust by announcing a suite of initiatives aimed at reducing violence and holding abusive officers to account. Backlash followed, with the corrections officers union issuing a rare vote of no confidence against him last month. The following week, an annual budget hearing — normally a polite affair — saw the commissioner dodging activist protesters, escaping a gaggle of reporters, and fielding three hours of questions from horrified legislators.

Then, the guards went on strike. The state’s prisons locked down, threatening system-wide collapse. Like the activists, picketing corrections officers, convinced that Martuscello had abandoned them, called for his resignation.

This probably isn’t how Martuscello imagined his time as prison chief would go. Officially confirmed last May, he’d been the top job’s heir apparent for years. He’s the scion of a New York prison dynasty and came of age in the system, brought up by an ambitious, well-connected family that helped propel him to power.

New York state is one step closer to banning fossil fuels in new buildings.

On Friday, the State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council voted to recommend major updates to the state’s building code, which is updated every five years and sets minimum standards for construction statewide. The draft updates include rules requiring most new buildings to be all electric starting in 2026, as mandated by a law passed two years ago.

The vote came after the code council went missing in action for more than two months, leaving some advocates nervous that the state might be wavering on the gas ban. With the rules now entering the final stage of the approval process, New York remains on track to be the first state to enact such a ban.

The new draft code also tightens a slew of other standards in a bid to make buildings more energy efficient and save residents money over the long term. But it leaves out several key provisions recommended in the state’s climate plan — possibly running afoul of a 2022 law.

Thousands of parents in New York City are set to lose state-provided child care assistance as soon as April, according to records obtained by New York Focus and interviews with advocates recently alerted to the upcoming funding cliff.

Unless Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature opt to put more money into the Child Care Assistance Program, New York City will soon start turning down new program applicants — even if their income qualifies them for the subsidies. Some families currently enrolled in the program will also lose their benefits when they try to recertify, which happens every six or 12 months.

The Administration for Children’s Services recently told child care advocates in a briefing document that 4,000–7,000 children will soon lose assistance each month, “as the City would have insufficient funds to recertify their care.”