Will Waldron/Times Union
Will Waldron/Times Union
Will Waldron/Times Union
Will Waldron/Times Union
Will Waldron/Times Union
Will Waldron/Times Union
Provided Photo
Will Waldron/Times Union
ALBANY — A coach bus owned by a vendor of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision was set on fire earlier this week in Cayuga County, as conditions are declining inside more than 30 New York prisons where thousands of correction officers have been on strike for six days.
On Saturday, striking correction officers also were being informed that they are not being paid and have been listed as “absent without leave” during their “illegal work action.” In addition, they were cautioned that their health insurance coverage is being terminated. Nine probationary correction officers are being terminated or demoted for taking part in the strike, according to their union.
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“In addition, those participating in the illegal job action will face administrative penalties along with department discipline for violating the state’s Taylor Law and a judge’s temporary restraining order,” Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said in a statement Saturday.
The large bus that was set on fire Wednesday had been parked at a repair shop in central New York, about 25 miles west of Syracuse, next to a second corrections department bus that was spray painted with the words: “Now you’ll hear us,” according to a source briefed on the investigation. The buses each cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The nearest prison is Auburn Correctional Facility, which is about 19 miles south of where the buses were vandalized.
“Two DOCCS full-size coach buses, parked in a heavy duty repair shop parking in Cato, were vandalized,” said Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the department, in response to questions about the incident. “One was spray painted and the other set on fire. The investigation into who committed these acts is ongoing.”
The unsanctioned strike that began Monday at three correctional facilities in western New York has spread to prisons across the state, prompting Gov. Kathy Hochul to activate National Guard troops to augment security at the understaffed prisons. State Police also are assisting with security at multiple prisons; a missive shared with members on Friday said that officials at the agency’s headquarters had “sent out a request to compile a list of all troopers with prior NY state Department of Corrections experience.”
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Thus far, State Police have been assisting with only perimeter security at prisons.
The labor standoff is ongoing as conditions inside the prisons are increasingly deteriorating. Attorneys for inmates have reported that in some prisons, including the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton County, inmates have not been allowed to shower in a week, are eating cold meals, not receiving medical care, and that inmates are screaming incessantly as violent incidents are surging.
Hochul’s administration has struggled to quickly resolve the strike and has enlisted a mediator who is scheduled to meet beginning Monday with state corrections officials and representatives of the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents more than 13,000 correction officers.
In an attempt to spur some of the officers to return to work, state officials on Thursday had said workers who returned to duty by midnight that day would not face discipline for participating in the unlawful strike, which violated New York’s Taylor Law, a statute governing state government employees. It prohibits and places limits on when public employees can walk off the job in protest.
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But the timing of the strikes for correction officers has faced pushback from many lawmakers, as well as prisoners rights advocates, who have suggested it may, in part, be intended to deflect from the Dec. 9 fatal beating of Robert L. Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County. That incident led to the indictment last week of 10 correction officers, including nine who have been charged with murder or manslaughter.
Hochul’s executive order calling up thousands of New York National Guard troopers this week also provided for additional overtime compensation for correction officers and other staff who have been reporting for duty. In some prisons, officers and their family members had reported that they were not being allowed to leave the facilities, working 24-hour shifts and sleeping in cots.
One of the most controversial steps the governor took — as a concession to the striking workers — was to temporarily suspend the provisions of a 2022 law that prohibits inmates from being held in solitary confinement for longer than 15 days. Correction officers have for several years complained that the law has emboldened misconduct and violence in the facilities, leading to increased assaults, including on staff members.
Hochul’s order said the suspension of elements of that law must be for “exceptional circumstances” that “create a significant and unreasonable risk to the safety and security of other incarcerated persons, staff or the facility.”
“Accordingly, we are suspending the elements of the (Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act) that cannot safely be operationalized under a prison wide state of emergency until we can safely operate the prisons,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
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The governor also rescinded the provisions of a Feb. 10 memorandum issued to prison superintendents by corrections Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III, that indicated staffing shortages had prompted the agency to “redefine” its work and “70% of our original staffing model is the new 100%.”
That memo triggered a backlash from correction officers who contend they are underpaid, under-staffed and being forced to work mandatory shifts of 16 hours or more in unsafe conditions.
Two days after it was issued, Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County was locked down after officers retreated from inmate dorms for what a sergeant had alleged were unsafe conditions. The incident became a tipping point for correction officers, who began strikes five days later at Collins state prison and Elmira Correctional Facility in Chemung County. Within 24 hours, the strikes spread to nearly two dozen prisons across New York.
The Times Union reported on Feb. 19 that questions had surfaced about whether the officers at Collins state prison needed to abandon their posts prior to the Feb. 12 lockdown. The newspaper reported that a state corrections department sergeant is under investigation for his actions that triggered the lockdown.
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“The preliminary investigation has revealed initial reports by staff were inaccurate thanks to recovered body-worn camera footage,” Mailey, the spokesman for the corrections department, told the Times Union. “We will continue working with New York State Police to determine the cause of the incident and if any criminal charges are appropriate.”
Correction officers also retreated from inmate dorms at Riverview Correctional Facility in St. Lawrence County early Thursday during an incident also alleged to be connected to the labor shortage.
Correctional Emergency Response Teams and police were called to the medium-security facility in Ogdensburg and eventually regained control of the dorms that had been abandoned by officers.
A spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision confirmed that “staff vacated their posts leaving the dorms unsupervised” and that the dorms were left in control of inmates.
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“In response, the Albany Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT), along with the Riverview CERT Team — including several members who stepped off the picket line, DOCCS Office of Special Investigations and the (New York) State Police — have intervened to restore order and ensure the safety of all individuals inside,” the spokesman said. “Their efforts were instrumental in regaining control of the facility and preventing further escalation.”
The state also filed a petition in state Supreme Court in Erie County earlier this week against the correction officers union — invoking New York’s Taylor Law governing public employees — that sought a court order compelling the correction officers to return to work. A judge signed a temporary restraining order mandating the striking correction officers to “cease the illegal activity.”
The injunction has not brought an end to the strikes.
Chris Summers, the union’s president, issued a statement to his members late Tuesday saying that during the meeting with the governor’s office, “we discussed at length the issues we have raised for years that have fallen on deaf ears and that have ultimately contributed to the memberships’ walking off the job.”
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“We also argued for several of the demands that have been drafted by the membership after walking off the job,” Summers wrote. “DOCCS, in turn, proposed certain monetary incentives to potentially entice the membership to return to work. At this point, the executive board communicated its belief that the membership needs to see several drastic improvements to working conditions before they would even consider returning to work. The membership is completely burnt out and past their limit.”
That day, the union gave the administration its demands, which included no penalties for officers who walked off the job, the suspension of the state law that places restrictions on the use of long-term solitary confinement of inmates, a two-pay-grade increase for correction officers and sergeants to boost recruitment efforts, and the retention of a mediator to discuss “all outstanding financial, staffing, and working condition issues.”
