NEW YORK STATE — New York State has ended health insurance coverage for corrections officers who continue to strike outside of prisons instead of returning to work.

Leaders of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision gave an update on Monday on the strikes. They say the number of state prisons holding picket lines has gone down from 38 to 32.

State officials are also threatening to fire corrections officers who have gone 10 straight days without showing up for their scheduled shifts. DOCCS says that, so far, fewer than 10 corrections officers have been fired but many have gotten warning letters. After conversations with striking guards at Groveland Correctional Facility, it does not appear any guards there have been fired.

The New York State Conservative Party Chairman, Gerard Kassar, released a statement saying in part, “New York State Corrections Officers are striking because the Hochul Administration has failed to adequately protect officers, male and female, from years of inmate assaults spurred on by lax progressive ‘reforms.’ Now, because she failed to do her job protecting state employees, Governor Hochul is erroneously citing the Taylor Law to fire longstanding Corrections Officers, stripping their families of both income and healthcare benefits.  It’s outrageous.”

Monday marks day 15 of the strikes. It comes after the union representing prison staff and DOCCS leaders reached a tentative agreement on working conditions. Some retired corrections officers who News10NBC spoke with at the picket line outside of Groveland Correctional Facility in Livingston County said the agreement doesn’t go far enough with safety protections.

DOCCS leaders said during Monday’s update that 5,300 National Guard members remain mobilized in prisons to maintain order. They say the strike has cost the state $25 million and would cost $106 million per month if it continued.

As part of the agreement reached on Thursday night, prison staff had until the start of their shift on Saturday to return to their post without any consequences.

Prison staff went on strike to demand higher staffing levels, no mandated overtime over 16 hours, and increased measures to keep them safe.

David Washburn, a retired New York State Correctional Officer, emphasized the need for incentives to attract new staff. “There needs to be an incentive. This whole thing isn’t about money but there needs to be some incentive to take this job,” Washburn said. “And if you can’t fix the safety aspect, you are not going to get people to take this job.”

While the deal addressed some of their demands, it hasn’t permanently repealed the HALT Act.

The HALT Act limits solitary confinement to 15 straight days and bans solitary for pregnant people, those with disabilities, and anyone older than 55 or younger than 21. The deal suspends it for 90 days, but employees say that’s not good enough.

A correction officer who spoke with News10NBC and didn’t want to be named said the HALT Act takes away the heaviest consequence for bad behavior. He said it has led to an increase in both inmate-on-inmate violence and inmate-on-guard violence since it was implemented in 2022 and wants to see it gone.

Instead of solitary confinement, inmates are sometimes put in the SHU, special housing units that are rooms instead of old-school cells. Afterward, they go to a residential rehab unit away from the general population, where they have access to rehabilitative therapy, taught by civilians. Activists have called solitary confinement torture and have pointed to the harm it’s caused some prisoners.

The union, the NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, did not authorize the strikes. It’s illegal for some public employees, including teachers and law enforcement, to go on strike in New York State.

In response to the strikes, the state plans to implement new measures to enhance safety during prison visitations, including full-body imaging for visitors. However, visitors can choose to have non-contact visits instead. A retired guard said in practice, it won’t do much.

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