N.Y. Governor Calls on National Guard to Staff Prisons in Wake of Strike

A wave of strikes and demonstrations have swept across the ranks of corrections officers working in New York's prisons, and hundreds of prison staff and their families were rallying Monday in their communities across New York.

Protests at facilities including Gouverneur, Riverview, Franklin and others in the north country coupled with others at prisons across the state, are coming as conditions in the state prison system continue to deteriorate. Limited work stoppages, apparently not occurring at every facility with a demonstration, have led to state officials calling in the National Guard to continue operating prisons, as first reported by City and State.

Work stoppages have occurred in at least three prisons: Collins and Elmira correctional facilities in Chemung County, and Groveland in Livingston County. These are unsanctioned by the union and illegal under state law that generally requires prison workers remain at their posts during labor disputes.

Informal groups of COs and their families have been sharing details on the strikes online, and information from those groups indicates that at least some staff plan to strike at more than 30 prisons across the system by Wednesday, including all facilities located in the north country.

"The illegal and unlawful actions being taken by a number of correction officers must end immediately," Gov. Hochul said in a statement Tuesday afternoon, announcing the rollout of the National Guard troops. "We will not allow these individuals to jeopardize the safety of their colleagues, incarcerated people, and the residents of communities surrounding our correctional facilities."

Hochul's executive staff are working with union leadership to negotiate the situation, but the governor has called up as many as 7,700 National Guardsmen to continue operating the state prisons if a solution isn't agreed to by Wednesday. Additionally, according to COs within the state prisons midday Tuesday, all officers on-shift at that time were asked to work until at least Saturday. Officers were either not permitted to go home, or asked to sign a pledge to return to the prison within 2 hours of leaving to retrieve needed medication or other items.

Senior governor's office staff, Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III and union leaders met in Albany on Tuesday to negotiate a solution, while the governor herself was in New York City meeting with leaders there about the ongoing allegations of corruption against Mayor Eric Adams.

The governor also warned that illegal strikers would be met with disciplinary action if the strike continues.

A union spokesperson said in a statement that the strikes are in no way sanctioned or organized by the union, and are in response to COs' "discontentment with current working conditions." The spokesperson said the union is continuing to monitor the situation.

COs and their supporters are asking for policy changes, with an eye towards safety. They're critical of state policies like those put in place by the HALT Act passed in 2019, which broadly limits the length of time a prisoner can spend in solitary confinement as well as other types of disciplinary punishment historically used in state prisons, like meal restriction.

State Sen. Mark C. Walczyk, R- Watertown, visited the demonstrations at Riverview and Gouverneur Correctional Facilities on Tuesday. He said the people he spoke to reported COs at their breaking points.

"We've known these failed policies were going to cause problems, and those problems have continued to compound," he said.

"They're asking for safety for themselves and the inmates in their facilities," Walczyk said. "They want either a full repeal or at least some flexibility on HALT, so they can have some disciplinary measures," he added.

Assemblyman Scott A. Gray, R- Watertown, also visited the St. Lawrence County prisons on Tuesday. In a statement, he said he is wholeheartedly with the COs and supports their demands.

"It is evident that change and improved working conditions are urgently needed to ensure the safety and well-being of both the officers and their families," he said.

Last week, members of the correction officers unit of the state police union passed a "vote of no confidence" in Martuscello, part of a long breakdown in relations between the COs and the department. Martuscello, recently confirmed to oversee the 42 prisons, 14,000 CO's and 33,000 incarcerated people, has seen a number of high-profile incidents in recent months.

In December, an inmate at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County was killed, an incident caught on video where a group of about 5 COs beat the man to death while 10 other supervisors, COs and nurses watched without intervening.

In January, staff at Upstate Correctional Facility in Franklin County reported being exposed to a synthetic drug in two separate incidents, although nothing was discovered by state hazmat teams who responded.

In general, attacks on staff have become more prevalent in the prison system, even as incarcerated headcounts have dropped while CO headcounts have decreased less rapidly. In 2024, DOCCS recorded 1,938 attacks on staff and 2,697 attacks on prisoners between January and December 1. In 2019, there were 1,043 attacks on staff and 1,267 attacks on prisoners the entire year.

Last week, acknowledging a years-long slump in recruitment and an ongoing shortage of CO's to fill open positions, Martuscello announced that state prisons would be moving forward with permanent staffing reductions in mind: reducing what the system considers "fully staffed" by 30%.

"While this is a multi-faceted problem with various touch points, one that we must tackle immediately is how we redefine the work," Martuscello said in a memo obtained by the Watertown Daily Times. "The broader community is discussing that 70% of our original staffing model is the new 100%."

In a statement shared Tuesday, DOCCS officials stressed that the strike is illegal, and said the move jeopardizes safety and security at all facilities involved.

The department detailed the demands it has been made aware of from the strikers, who are not represented directly by the union. The department said the strikers have requested that the HALT law be repealed, that staff on higher pension plan tiers be moved to lower, more advantageous tiers, that state prisons start using a secure vendor program to control where packages sent to prisons can come from, stricter letter mail regulations or the end of physical mail deliveries to inmates, mandated body scans for all prison visitors, pay grade bumps, more leeway for prison superintendents to lock their facilities down, and a separation of prison COs from the current collective bargaining agreement that COs have with the department through DOCCS.

The DOCCC spokesperson said many of these demands would require legislative action, and can't be solved by independent gubernatorial or commissariat action. They also said that some of the striker's requests are unclear, or seem to represent a desire to break away from union representation.

"The striking corrections officers have made demands that would require changing laws and violating their own collective bargaining agreement," the spokesperson said.

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