National Guard sent in to ‘secure’ New York prisons where staff is on strike – NBC New York

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Wednesday dispatching National Guard members to New York state prisons where corrections officers are holding unauthorized strikes.

The executive order, issued to guarantee “public order and protection of public property” at the facilities, also allows for corrections officers who are showing up to work to receive overtime pay and directs the state corrections department to bring in an independent mediator to help resolve the strike.

“These disruptive and unsanctioned work stoppages by some correction officers must end as 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.

More than 3,500 National Guard members reported for duty earlier Wednesday to assess the greater needs before issuing a larger deployment, the governor’s office said in a news release announcing the action. The guard members will maintain general order in the prisons in addition to distributing meals and medication to the inmates, officials added.

The officers’ job action began Monday and has spread to at least a dozen prisons where they say staffing shortages and dangerous conditions are placing their safety at risk. Most recently, the Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County was locked down last week after employees said they were threatened and inmates barricaded themselves inside of dorms.

The officers’ union, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said the walkouts and demonstrations outside of facilities, including Collins, have been unsanctioned as leadership attempts to negotiate a resolution with the governor’s office and the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

The officers are asking for safer working conditions, including more stringent security checks of prison visitors, and have voiced frustration over insufficient staffing and a need for higher pay.

“My administration and I have been and will continue meeting with union leadership to resolve this situation immediately,” Hochul said in a video address Wednesday. “But if it is not resolved, I will send in the National Guard to secure the facilities in question. They’ve already been deployed and are ready to stabilize the situation.” 

Earlier Wednesday, New York state filed an injunction under a state labor law to halt the job action, the governor’s office said, and a judge granted a temporary restraining order to cease the strikes.

The union did not immediately respond to the governor’s decision to deploy the National Guard and the conitnued actions by members. It previously said that “staff chose to not enter for their work shifts as a result of their discontentment with current working conditions.”

Daniel Martuscello, the commissioner of the state corrections department, had asked corrections officers Tuesday to return to work amid negotiations.

“We will continue to develop strategies to reduce assaults and to bring more staff on board with NYSCOPBA, the recognized bargaining agency for correction officers and sergeants,” Martuscello said in a statement. “There is always room for progress and for disagreements and we welcome continued dialogue with the union at the table. At this time, I am urging all those on strike to end this job action.”

Hochul has previously deployed National Guard members in a show of authority.

In March, hundreds were sent to New York City’s subway system to help deter crime and protect commuters and transit workers.

The calling up of National Guard members comes at a tense time between state leaders, who in recent years have closed prisons amid chronic staffing shortages, and workers who say recent laws that allow for the near-elimination of punitive segregation hamstring their safety.

But prisoner advocates say safety also remains an issue for inmates, as underscored by the fatal beating in December of Robert Brooks, a handcuffed prisoner who had been transferred to the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County.

The beating was caught on officers’ bodycam videos.

Brooks, 43, died as the result of compression of the neck and multiple blunt force injuries, according to an autopsy report shared by his family’s lawyer.

Seventeen employees, including corrections officers and nurses, were suspended without pay or have resigned. State corrections officials also announced institutional changes, including expanding its body camera policy. The officers’ union condemned the beating as “incomprehensible.”

A special prosecutor was assigned to the case to determine any criminal charges, and a possible indictment could be unsealed as soon as Thursday, according to reports.

Jerome Wright, co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign, which seeks to end solitary confinement in prisons and jails, described conditions within the state’s facilities as “a powder keg,” with inmates complaining of treatment by staff, visiting restrictions and the use of restrictive housing.

Attica Correctional Facility in Wyoming County was the scene of one of the nation’s deadliest prison riots more than 50 years ago, with inmates rebelling against poor sanitary and living conditions.

“How many warnings will officials ignore before the powder keg explodes?” Wright said in a statement. “No one wants the horrors and deaths of an Attica 2.0.”

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