New York Gov. Kathy Hochul moved forward to shut down multiplying prison strikes across the state on Wednesday by deploying 3,500 National Guard members to correctional facilities and invoking a temporary restraining order against the strikes.
The number of correctional facilities where strikes are happening has grown to approximately 30 of the prison system’s 42 facilities, according to the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA). But an Erie County judge signed an order to halt the walkouts.
In a statement, Hochul called the strikes “disruptive” and “unsanctioned” and said they must end.
“They are jeopardizing the safety of their colleagues, the prison population, and causing undue fear for the residents in the surrounding communities,” Hochul said in a statement.
The set of actions from the Democratic governor makes good on her promise to intervene by Wednesday as correction officers began protesting on Monday, citing severe understaffing and poor working conditions, and are demanding the governor repeal the HALT Act, which limits the use of solitary confinement in prisons.
“NYSCOPBA has not sanctioned or condoned these actions,” James Miller, the association’s director of public relations, wrote in a statement regarding the strikes.
In issuing the executive orders, Hochul invoked her powers through the Taylor Law, a provision that prohibits public sector strikes and allows the governor to shut them down through the courts. While the governor had the authority to pursue such action the moment the strikes began, Hochul delayed the move until now.
Lawmakers and critics warn that putting members of the National Guard into prisons could further endanger correctional officers, as well as incarcerated individuals.
“Sending the National Guard into prisons to do the job of our correction officers is not the best use of these brave New Yorkers,” Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, who previously served in the New York National Guard, said in a post on X. “It would be much easier for the Governor and Legislature to do their jobs and pass legislation that addresses the issues.”
Having members of the National Guard in correctional facilities would be putting them up to jobs that they are “not trained for” that makes for “increased danger,” Empire Center for Public Policy Research Director Ken Girardin said in an interview conducted before Hochul made the order.
“Either (correctional officers) or inmates are going to get hurt or killed amidst that disorder,” Girardin said.
Hochul is bringing in an independent mediator, Martin Scheinman, to facilitate efforts to bring correctional officers back to work. She’s offered to compensate those who do with overtime pay.
