(The Center Square) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling up the National Guard in response to prison strikes that have prompted lockdowns and public safety concerns inside the facilities.
Hochul said she has directed state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello and senior administration officials to meet with leaders from the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association to resolve the situation. If the work stoppage doesn’t end by Wednesday, the National Guard will be deployed to staff the facilities, she said.
“The illegal and unlawful actions being taken by a number of correction officers must end immediately,” Hochul said in a statement. “We will not allow these individuals to jeopardize the safety of their colleagues, incarcerated people, and the residents of communities surrounding our correctional facilities.”
New York correctional officers have been on strike at several upstate facilities since Monday, though union officials say the job action wasn’t sanctioned. The work stoppages — which are illegal under New York law — come in response to a lockdown last week when rioting inmates injured three guards and simmering complaints about understaffing and mandatory overtime in state prisons.
Correctional officials announced on Tuesday that visitation at several state prisons has been canceled until further notice, including Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone and Clinton Correctional Facility.
NYSCOPBA says it “denounces all strikes, job actions, slowdowns, call-ins and other similar actions” and called for work stoppages to “cease immediately.” Union leaders claim workers could face disciplinary action, including docked pay and possible termination for participating in the ‘illegal’ strikes.
“Union officials have a legal obligation to condemn and stop all strikes, job actions, slowdowns, call-ins or other similar actions, and a failure to do so could jeopardize NYSCOPBA’s ability to represent the interests of its membership,” the letter said.
Hochul said her administration has worked with union leaders to improve salaries and working conditions for correctional officers, including a collective bargaining agreement reached last year that includes increased salaries, hazardous duty pay, fully paid parental leave and other benefits.
The governor also touted her support for legislative and policy changes to help protect correction officers, such as authorizing body scanners in facilities and reducing the amount of contraband entering the facilities.
But Republicans argue that the strikes are the culmination of years of neglect for the prison system by Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administrations. They have echoed demands from correctional officers to end mandatory overtime and suspend the HALT Act, which puts limits on solitary confinement.
“Demonstrations like this should not come as a surprise to Gov. Hochul and her friends in the Majority,” state Assemblyman Steve Hawley, R-Batavia, said in a statement. “These are the kinds of drastic measures that happen when you push these law enforcement officers to their limits.”