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In late May, guards at Green Haven Correctional Facility, in Dutchess County, locked Rahkeem Brown in a room in the prison鈥檚 medical unit. The room had a mattress on the floor and resembled a cell, he said, but its sole window didn鈥檛 open, and there was no running water.

The guards had accused Brown of hiding contraband in his rectum, though they didn鈥檛 say what the contraband was, and Brown denied having anything. Still, he says they replaced his prison uniform with a hospital gown 鈥� which he said was stained and smelled like feces 鈥� gave him what he described as a 鈥渂ucket,鈥� and told him to pass the banned item and give it to them.

Brown says he spent the next eight days in the room, giving officers stool after stool. None had any foreign objects in them, but he says the guards told him the stool was always an 鈥渋nsufficient amount鈥� and thus didn鈥檛 prove his innocence. They gave him cups of water, but it was barely enough to drink and clean himself. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 shower, I got defecation all over my body,鈥� he told and . As the days passed, the room鈥檚 overhead lights never turned off.

鈥淚 was literally losing my mind in there,鈥� Brown said.

Corrections officers keep incarcerated people in similar rooms across New York鈥檚 state prison system. According to a , officers can confine someone in one of the rooms if they have 鈥減robable cause鈥� to believe they鈥檝e swallowed contraband or inserted it into their rectal cavity. Officially called 鈥渟pecial watch鈥� or 鈥渃ontraband watch鈥� rooms, they鈥檙e meant to facilitate the safe recovery of drugs, weapons, or other prohibited items that prisoners have hidden in their bodies.

Incarcerated people call them by a different name 鈥� 鈥渟hit rooms鈥� 鈥� and say they鈥檙e ripe for abuse.

鈥淚t is part and parcel of the torture, brutality, and abuse endemic to New York鈥檚 prisons,鈥� said Jerome Wright, the formerly incarcerated co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign, a New York-based advocacy group.

The rooms stirred up in 2019, when a formerly incarcerated man sued Elmira Correctional Facility for holding him in a 鈥渄efecation room鈥� for 61 days. Officers claimed that X-rays showed a 鈥渞azor-type weapon鈥� in his rectum, but they never recovered one. Federal and courts dismissed the suit, asserting that the prison was maintaining 鈥渟ecurity.鈥�

Since then, the rooms have eluded public scrutiny, though prisoners to allege mistreatment within them. In 2021, another man for keeping him in a watch room in Elmira for over two months without recovering any contraband; a court ruled in his favor, awarding him $6,390 for wrongful confinement. Yet another man claimed that officers at the now-closed Great Meadow Correctional Facility, in northeastern New York, locked him in a special watch room for five days with . He was hospitalized for dehydration, he alleged in a lawsuit, and then locked back in the room for another week. Officers said they later found drugs in the Great Meadow watch room; the man claimed they planted them. The prison agency denied the allegations in the lawsuit, which was ultimately dismissed on procedural grounds.

In a statement, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), which runs the state prison system, said that 鈥渟pecial watch is a security measure designed to prevent the introduction of dangerous contraband into correctional facilities and to protect incarcerated individuals, staff, and visitors.鈥� It said that prisoners on special watch are given hygiene items and a basin of water to wash themselves, and that 鈥渓ighting is maintained throughout the watch to facilitate continuous observation and ensure the safety and security of the individual and staff.鈥�

Critics argue that the rooms are cruel overkill.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a completely inhumane practice,鈥� said state Senator Julia Salazar, who heads her chamber鈥檚 corrections committee. While drugs remain a particularly serious safety issue in prisons, she said, the rooms are a misguided way of intercepting them.

鈥淭he response is crazy and no longer about mitigating harm,鈥� Salazar said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e really lost the thread.鈥�

In 2023, Jayquan Griffin was in a recreation yard at Woodbourne Correctional Facility, in the Catskills, when a fellow prisoner , breaking his jaw.

Officers took him to a hospital, where a CT scan revealed a metallic object in his 鈥渞ectal area.鈥� He later told medical providers that he had accidentally swallowed a razor blade that he had wrapped in plastic and stowed in his mouth. Prison records indicate that DOCCS staff were convinced that he had inserted the weapon into his rectum.

Whatever the case, guards then transported Griffin, still with a broken jaw and a razor in his body, to nearby Eastern Correctional Facility, and placed him in a special watch room, according to two lawsuits he filed against and .

Griffin tried to pass the weapon, but couldn鈥檛. He told guards that the razor wouldn鈥檛 come out, but they insisted that he defecate it. After a day, officers took him to another outside hospital for X-rays, which showed that the blade was still inside him, but left without getting him treatment and took him back to the defecation room.

Hours passed, then days. As with Brown, Griffin wore a hospital gown in the room and couldn鈥檛 leave. There was no running water, and the lights stayed on at night. He was caught in a cycle of misery.

鈥淚鈥檓 shitting, I鈥檓 giving it to them. My jaw is broke, I can鈥檛 eat. I鈥檓 in pain, I鈥檓 crying,鈥� he told New York Focus. With the razor still in his intestines, he began to panic.

鈥淚 got something in me that could potentially take my life,鈥� he said.

Griffin says he began complaining about everything he could think of, like chest pains, hoping officers would take him back to the hospital. After six nights under contraband watch at Eastern, they finally took him to Albany Medical Center, where doctors performed a colonoscopy to remove the blade and inserted titanium plates in his face. He remained hospitalized for nine days.

DOCCS said that it 鈥渄oes not comment on the specific circumstances of an individual case.鈥�

During his ordeal, officers filed disciplinary tickets against Griffin for fighting, 鈥渧iolent conduct,鈥� smuggling, and other infractions. He fought the charges and eventually got them reversed 鈥� but only after he鈥檇 spent most of the three months after his hospital stay serving out an isolation sentence, according to the lawsuits.

To Griffin, the experience illustrates a broader pattern of inhumane practices across the prison system.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just treat people like animals,鈥� he said.

According to DOCCS鈥檚 directive, prisons should generally release people from contraband watch within 48 hours, unless they fail to submit two 鈥渘egative defecations鈥� 鈥� though it doesn鈥檛 define that term nor limit how long staff can extend the watch period. If staff are relying on an X-ray or other radiological scan to accuse someone of holding contraband, the directive allows them to keep prisoners in watch rooms for up to seven days.

In practice, the convoluted parameters offer prisons wide discretion in determining how long to keep prisoners on watch. In response to the 2019 lawsuit against Elmira prison, a that DOCCS staff were allowed to repeatedly restart the special watch process each time they discovered 鈥渘ew evidence鈥� that the incarcerated man was holding a razor in his rectum, resulting in his 61-day stint in the defecation room that ended with no contraband recovered.

In the years after that lawsuit, New York overhauled the laws governing isolation in prisons and jails. The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act, which went into effect in 2022, strictly limits the scenarios in which facilities can keep incarcerated people locked in a room for more than 17 hours a day. , that severe form of isolation longer than 15 days, and it must include at least four hours of daily out-of-cell time. Prisons also can鈥檛 hold incarcerated people in those strict conditions unless they鈥檝e scheduled a prompt hearing to determine whether the person that makes them eligible for punitive isolation.

Extended contraband watch violates those requirements, according to both Salazar, who sponsored the HALT bill, and the HALT Solitary Campaign, which led the movement to pass it. It鈥檚 one of over the past four years in which DOCCS either ignored the law or sought to carve out exceptions to it, the advocates allege.

In its statement, DOCCS said that 鈥渃ontraband watch is a security and safety measure, not a disciplinary action.鈥�

鈥淭he procedures are separate from the disciplinary confinement process addressed by HALT,鈥� the agency said.

罢丑补迟鈥檚 that exists in the law, advocates argue. While HALT carves out exceptions for medical care and facility-wide emergencies, its limits on isolation apply to 鈥渁ny form of cell confinement,鈥� according to the text of the law.

Brown鈥檚 first trip to the Green Haven defecation room came after a visit with his wife, Megan Murtagh.

In 2025, DOCCS enacted a policy requiring most visitors to pass through advanced imaging body scanners before seeing their incarcerated loved ones. Countless visitors 鈥� particularly women 鈥� have alleged that DOCCS staff misread their scans, banning them from facilities after mistaking tampons, contraceptive devices, piercings, scars, and other bodily anomalies as hidden contraband, as last December.

If they want to avoid a strip search, incarcerated people must also go through the body scanners after visits. On May 27, when Brown passed through a scanner after a visit with Murtagh, he says guards claimed to see something. Throughout his eight days in the defecation room, he says he asked the guards to scan him again, but they refused.

A week after he was released from contraband watch, Murtagh returned to Green Haven. No longer trusting the body scanners, Brown chose to end the visit with a strip frisk. This time, an officer who searched him reported that he 鈥渟uspected鈥� that Brown was 鈥渉iding contraband in his rectum area,鈥� according to a . When guards told Brown they were taking him back to contraband watch, he got upset and pulled away, at which point seven officers shoved him against the wall and forced him to the ground, according to .

Brown says he then spent another week in the defecation room. Again, prison staff didn鈥檛 say what the alleged contraband was and never recovered anything. They charged Brown with assaulting staff and refusing an order, among other violations, and released him from contraband watch directly to solitary confinement. Jeffrey Parks, a paralegal from Prisoners鈥� Legal Services of New York, represented Brown in his disciplinary proceedings and was later able to get most of those charges overturned.

Separately, Murtagh received a letter from DOCCS in mid-June stating that the agency was indefinitely suspending her visitation privileges because her husband had allegedly 鈥渇ailed to clear the body scanner and was later found to be in possession of contraband,鈥� then was 鈥渁gain found to be in possession of contraband.鈥� Murtagh is appealing the suspension. She and Brown both deny possessing or hiding any contraband, and Parks said that the prison never substantiated any of its claims that Brown was attempting to smuggle banned items.

Asked about the lack of evidence, DOCCS alleged that a woman who visited Brown at a different facility in 2024 was caught with 22 grams of marijuana. It didn鈥檛 comment on the allegations from May and June.

鈥淚 have never once seen any articulation of what the contraband was supposed to have been,鈥� Parks wrote in an email, 鈥減robably because it never existed.鈥�

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