Dozens of corrections officers formed a picket line Wednesday, Feb. 19, outside Ossining’s Sing Sing correctional facility, in solidarity with striking officers at other New York state prisons over what one officer said are staffing shortages, dangerous work conditions, and shifts that can last 16 hours or longer.
“Because of the state’s inability to get more people on the job, they have us working 16-hour shifts mandatory, 24-hour shifts mandatory, and it’s hurting us,” said corrections officer Danny Texidor, adding: “We need the state to understand this is serious: Our safety, all right, is in doubt. Every day we walk inside those walls, we have no idea if we’re going to walk out the same way we walked in.”
Texidor said there are officers with deteriorating health and with the hours, “We see the inmates’ families more than we see our own families.” He said those picketing were showing their solidarity with officers at the other state correctional facilities.
Gov. Kathy Hochul calls correctional officer strikes in NY ‘illegal’
Governor Kathy Hochul said in a Tuesday news release, responding to actions at other state prisons that occurred on Tuesday, that she “is preparing to deploy members of the New York National Guard to [correctional] facilities,” calling the actions Tuesday an illegal strike.
The New York Times reported that officers at two prisons did not come to work in order to raise concern about staff shortages as well as other issues and that strikes had occurred a other prisons by Tuesday.
“The illegal and unlawful actions being taken by a number of correction officers must end immediately,” Hochul stated Tuesday. “We will not allow these individuals to jeopardize the safety of their colleagues, incarcerated people, and the residents of communities surrounding our correctional facilities. I have directed my Administration to meet with union leadership to resolve this situation and have also ordered the National Guard be mobilized to secure our correctional facilities in the event it is not resolved by tomorrow.
(This is a developing story and will update.)
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