Suicides doubled in New York's prisons in 2024, reaching highest in last decade

And cannabis dispensaries are being offered a reprieve by one state lawmaker.

Good afternoon — it’s Tuesday and Couscous Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• The number of suicides in state prisons doubled last year to the highest recorded in at least a decade.

• Environmental advocates will march this week with Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado in New York City to get Hochul’s attention.

• After the Office of Cannabis Management realized 152 dispensaries were too close to schools, a new bill seeks to offer a reprieve for those stores.

• Hochul will soon decide if New York should enact a mandatory waiting period for tort settlements.

Names in today’s CapCon: Daniel F. Martuscello III, Jennifer Scaife, Kathy Hochul, Antonio Delgado, Jumaane Williams, Brad Lander, Luis Speulveda

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❗CapCon Note: Hi all! I woke up not feeling great today so today’s CapCon will be a bit shorter so I can get some rest. I’ll (hopefully) be back at it tomorrow.

(Getty Images/fStop)

📈 Suicides doubled in state prisons in 2024, watchdog group finds

We learned in May that, by then, 46 people had already died in state prisons in 2025.

State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III had shared that number with members of the state Legislature at a public hearing that ultimately resulted in a package of bills intended to improve oversight of state prisons.

Given that at least one person has died in a state prison each month since at least 2020, it’s likely that number’s gone up. In the year prior to May, 138 people had died in state prisons.

But we learned Tuesday about a trend in deaths at state prisons last year that could be described as unsettling.

The number of suicides in state prisons doubled last year compared to 2023 — a 108% increase — according to the Correctional Association of New York.