By Diane Pineiro-Zucker
Daily Freeman, Kingston, N.Y.
NEW YORK — New York’s top corrections official declared a “prison-wide state of emergency” Thursday and temporarily suspended parts of the HALT Act — which limits the use of solitary confinement — in response to a wildcat strike by corrections officers statewide.
In a press release Thursday, Daniel F. Martuscello III, commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), said an order issued by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday, Feb. 18, authorizing deployment of National Guard troops to state prisons where corrections officers are striking also allows for additional overtime at state prisons.
Martuscello said he has authorized additional overtime “for correction officers and other staff who are reporting for duty and actively working to secure our facilities.”
Additionally, Martuscello said the state will not discipline striking COs “who immediately report to work (Thursday), before 11:59 p.m., regardless of the employee’s schedule or shift, (and) who were participating in the job action.”
Just 15 to 20 COs were on duty for around 500 inmates at Riverview Correctional Facility when unrest broke out, forcing the COs to retreat and CERT to intervene
In addition to the National Guard and increased overtime, DOCCS said, “provisions of the HALT legislation permit temporary suspension of specific elements of HALT under ‘exceptional circumstances’ where these circumstances ‘create a significant and unreasonable risk to the safety and security of other incarcerated persons, staff or the facility.”
The HALT Act limits the use of solitary confinement at state prisons. The striking workers are calling for its immediate repeal.
In Napanoch, corrections officers corrections officers walked out at Eastern Correctional, a maximum security prison for men, and at Ulster Correctional, a medium-security prison for men. At a demonstration Wednesday at the Institution Drive entrance to both facilities, many in the crowd held signs calling for the repeal of the HALT Act.
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“Accordingly,” Martuscello said, “We are suspending the elements of HALT that cannot safely be operationalized under a prison wide state of emergency until we can safely operate the prisons.”
Additionally, the commissioner said corrections officers who continue to report to work “for the duration of the emergency” will be paid overtime at a rate of 2.5 times their regular rate. He said the additional compensation “was authorized in the Executive Order and negotiated between NYSCOPBA (the New York State Corrections Officers Police Benevolent Association ) and the state to be implemented by the Comptroller’s Office.”
NYSCOPBA represents the corrections officers but has not sanctioned or condoned the strike, which is prohibited by state law.
The National Guard will remain in place until prisons are stabilized and DOCCS can “ensure the safety of officers returning to work, the incarcerated population and the surrounding communities,” Martuscello said.
Martuscello said he will continue to work with NYSCOPBA’s president and his executive board, the legislature and other stakeholders “to address our ongoing recruitment, retention and overall safety issues.”
He said, “The safety and security of the staff and incarcerated population is paramount to me. I value the hard work and commitment of the men and women at DOCCS who have had to sacrifice time with their families due to the current staffing shortage. At this time, I am urging all those on strike to return to the facilities today in order to restore the safety and security to our facilities.”
The striking corrections officers are also demanding a 20-year retirement; incentive hiring bonuses; 2.5 times overtime pay on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays; two times overtime pay on Mondays through Thursdays; no overtime mandates over 16 hours; step raise adjustments and a retention benefit.
The corrections officers’ demands include reversing solitary confinement limits, higher salaries and enhanced visitor security, but DOCCS says some require legislative action
In a statement Thursday, Jerome Wright, co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign and a survivor of nearly a decade in solitary confinement, condemned the governor’s indefinite suspension of the HALT act and amnesty for guards “who abandoned their jobs and left incarcerated people on lockdown with limited or no access to food, medicine, medical care, programs, or visits.”
“The HALT Solitary Confinement Law was enacted with supermajority support in both houses of the state legislature and signed into law. Governor Hochul herself praised the law when it was signed. She cannot now unilaterally undo that,” Wright said in a press release.
“Let’s be clear about what we’re talking about: People with serious mental health conditions and physical disabilities will be tortured with long-term solitary confinement if this order isn’t reversed. People will die — by suicide, by overdose, and at the hands of emboldened guards who know they can get away with anything simply by disappearing their abuse victims in solitary confinement,” Wright said.
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