It’s been almost two months since corrections officers began a three-week long strike that halted operations in prisons across New York.
As corrections facilities are trying to regroup from that tumultuous period, the state will have to address these key issues going forward:
Staffing Levels
The state fired 2,000 corrections officers because of the strike, which only exacerbated longstanding staffing shortages across New York’s prisons. Just days before the strike, Daniel Martuscello, who is the commissioner of the prison system, wrote that 70% staffing levels would be the new 100%. Prisons were already short 2,000 officers at the time.
State prison officials said with the firing of striking corrections officers, there are only about 10,000 officers managing facilities, while there normally would be about 14,000.
As the state struggles to regain its footing, Martuscello said his department launched an officer training academy in late March, which has seen higher-than-average interest.
“Right now, we're in the recovery phase, and then the recruit and ... the rebuild (phases),” Martuscello said. “My focus is to make sure we're building back our workforce.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, proposed reducing the minimum age requirement from 21 years old to 18 years old. Leaders, including Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, a Staten Island Democrat, said she supports the proposal.
“I think that this is an opportunity to get the younger generation involved,” said Solages, who also leads the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian caucus in the Legislature. “And I really believe in the younger generation, because they have compassion, and they have a vision for our future.”
But she emphasized that the state would have to recruit individuals from diverse backgrounds if it is serious about reforming prisons.
Prison Closures and Early Release
Martuscello and the state have tried to address the strain caused by staffing shortages in other ways.
That includes potential early release for individuals convicted of lower-level offenses. When Martuscello made the announcement in early April, he said only those who have not committed any serious felonies or don’t have any sex offenses would qualify. That approach, however, has angered Republican lawmakers who say it is no way to bring justice to victims.
“Instead of addressing the issue at hand and making the jail safer for the inmates and for the corrections officers, their answer is to release more people into the street so more corrections officers aren’t needed. It is disgraceful,” said Assemblymember Michael Tannousis, R-Staten Island. “It is short sighted.”
In the meantime, the fallout from the strike is costing the state “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to Blake Washington, the state’s budget director. That’s mainly to pay National Guard troops deployed to state prisons since late February to help offset the staffing shortage.
“We want to make sure that safety is secure,” Washington said. “So however long it takes.”
Staffing constraints also prompted Hochul to suggest closing up to five state prisons. The proposal was a late addition to her budget plan, which she released earlier this year.
Republicans say that idea also is shortsighted, as it would presumably increase populations in the remaining prisons without any guarantee that staff will follow. Washington says two main factors will determine which prisons close — if it has aging facilities and if it can attract new workers.
The HALT Act
While staffing levels and pay were key drivers for corrections officers to go on strike, many also channeled their concerns for prison safety into demands that the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, or HALT Act, be repealed.
The law limits the use of solitary confinement to 15 consecutive days and 20 days within a 60 day period. And it requires four hours of different programmatic activities for individuals in solitary confinement each day.
Corrections officers and conservative lawmakers have pushed back against the law ever since it was enacted in 2022. They argue that some individuals who are more “violent” require more time to be separated from the rest of the prison population to protect everyone’s safety.
But the Democratic-controlled state Legislature is unlikely to repeal the law. “We need to begin by actually implementing the HALT Act rather than seeking to change something that has been proven to reduce violence in jurisdictions where it’s actually been implemented,” said state Sen. Julia Salazar, D-Brooklyn.
A recent report from the state Inspector General found that some facilities were not fulfilling all of the requirements listed in the law.
“We’re not going to return to a system that allows people to be tortured through solitary confinement,” said Salazar, who also chairs the Senate’s Crime Victims, Crime and Correction committee.
Since the strike, a growing number of corrections officers have broken from the original rallying cry to repeal HALT, and instead voiced support for keeping some sort of limitations to solitary confinement.
“We thought in the beginning it was all HALT's fault,” said Kimberly Cole, who comes from a family of corrections officers. “And you know what? It's not.”
But Cole says there need to be changes to how the law is implemented. As part of the deal between striking corrections officers and the state that ultimately ended the strike, Martuscello and the Department of Corrections and Supervision is conducting a review of the implementation of HALT.
Investigating Culture of Prison Systems
Hochul ordered an external review of the state’s prison system after the killing of Robert Brooks last December at Marcy Correctional Facility and amid calls for criminal justice reform by progressive lawmakers. That work, which began in February, was affected by the strike, a spokesperson for the governor said — but did not elaborate how. The outside review, being led by the law firm WilmerHale, should have initial findings and recommendations later this year.
