Threats, Incentives Used to Get Striking N.Y. Corrections Officers to Return
Where the strike stands
A deal reached story with the union representing New York corrections officers—who aren't allowed to strike—but protests have continued, and hundreds of officers remain on strike. Roughly 10 officers were fired over the weekend as the beginning of enhanced penalties against striking officers. Officers also could lose health insurance.
By Alex Gault
Source Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
State officials are continuing their efforts to get striking prison corrections officers back to work, using a combination of incentives and threats of penalties for those who continue to miss their shifts.
In a press conference delivered via Zoom on Monday morning, Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III and state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Jackie Bray said that while they've seen many officers return to work since the announcement of a mediated deal addressing some of their concerns on Thursday, a significant number of COs remain on strike.
The officers have been demanding changes to state regulations centered on safety, punishment and rehabilitative programming for incarcerated people, as well as a pay bump and better benefits. Central to their demands has been a call to suspend or significantly alter the HALT Act, which requires hours of programming for all incarcerated people and restricts the use of solitary confinement as a punishment.
The deal reached Thursday, struck between the union that represents COs — but which hasn't authorized the strikes — and DOCCS officials, made some changes to HALT programming rules and other safety issues, and promised not to further punish officers who returned to work by March 1.
But protests continued over the weekend, and it appears that while a few hundred of the striking COs have returned to work, hundreds more remained on strike by Monday.
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Bray said Monday that about 10 corrections officers were fired on Sunday — the first step in the enhanced penalties being enforced against the striking officers.
"We have only, at this point, terminated a handful, less than 10, corrections officers," she said. "These are officers who have been AWOL for 10 days in a row on their work days and then missed that 11th shift. That will continue to evolve over the next several days."
Effective Monday, striking COs who haven't missed 11 shifts will also lose their health insurance, retroactive to the date of their first absence. Those fired will also lose access to their state pensions.
Over the term of this strike, a few hundred COs have stayed at work in the prisons, and their numbers have been buoyed by a deployment of more than 6,000 New York National Guard troops.
Bray said that Guard troops were deployed to 41 of the 42 open state prisons at the peak of the strike, but they've been pulled out of an unspecified number of prisons as more COs have returned to work.
"That is a moving and fluid target, given that we are successfully getting facilities back," Bray said.
Bray didn't say how long the state expects to keep National Guard troops in the prisons. With expanding firings and an expectation of ongoing resignations, it's not clear how long it will take for most prisons to return to normal operations.
Martuscello noted that the National Guard troops have been learning the job of a CO on the fly, and have expanded their duties and abilities as they've gotten more comfortable.
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Incarcerated people remain on lockdown within the facilities. Programming has been suspended, as has regular meal service. Inmates are largely being kept in their dorms or cells with food being brought to them. Visitation has been suspended, and releases have been delayed, too.
The state prison system was already facing a structural staffing deficit of at least 30%; losing more COs only exacerbates that issue. Bray said that the National Guard has been very effective stepping in, and she isn't worried about relying on the troops for a longer period of time.
"They've been doing a phenomenal job," she said.
The long-term plan, she said, is to recruit more COs to fill in the staffing gaps. The agreement outlined last week included a commitment to pay boosts in overtime and a $3,000 referral bonus for COs who refer a new employee to the agency.
"It has been exceedingly hard, even before the pandemic, but really accelerated by the pandemic and after the pandemic, to remain fully staffed," she said. "That's one of the reasons why this consent award included important things to help incentivize staffing."
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