ALBANY, N.Y. – The state and the union of correctional officers are in their third day of talks, with one of the key issues being mandatory overtime and nearly-consecutive days of 24-hour shifts for prison guards.

Kelly, a former corrections officer who has a loved one currently working as a CO, spoke to News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean about the conditions prison guards are facing.

“Never was it 24 hours, never was it 24 hours shifts, three of them in five days,” Kelly said.

Kelly, who comes from a family of correction officers, described one of the scenarios prison guards are facing.

“Three 24 hours shifts in five days with maybe five hours of sleep in between that. And then told don’t forget to come back in five hours for your next, wait, 16 no make that 24 shift,” Kelly said.

The state corrections system is short 2,200 guards and a thousand people to fill civilian jobs.

“They’ll pay you more. But again, what is the pay? This not about the pay. This is about not only keeping the officers safe but the officers are responsible for keeping the inmates safe. How do they do that when they’ve been there for 24 hours?” Kelly said.

Today marks the 10th straight day of prison guard strikes at state prisons across New York. The administration of Governor Kathy Hochul is moving closer to taking legal action over the unauthorized strikes, as it is illegal for public workers to strike in New York.

According to the Albany Times Union, the names of more than 330 striking guards were added to an amended court petition filed in state Supreme Court in Erie County this week. The guards could be held in contempt of a court order that told them to return to work last week.

The guards say they’re striking for safer working conditions, including an end to restrictions on solitary confinement, as well as work hours and staffing shortages.

“Certainly the staffing issue in the department of corrections is the number one issue in the state of New York of any agency that we have,” said State Sen. Robert Rolison.

Sen. Rolison is a republican senator from Poughkeepsie with two prisons in his district. He questioned the commissioner of corrections at a hearing just days before the strike began.

“I believe we’re over two thousand uniformed officers short, a thousand civilian staff. Those numbers are absolutely staggering,” Sen. Rolison said to Commissioner Daniel Martuscello.

“We are down 2,200 correction officers but yet we’re still manning, we’re still putting staff on posts as we did 20 and 30 years ago,” Martuscello said.

Commissioner Martuscello says they are trying to get around staffing rules from decades ago to free prison guards up.

“Mandatory overtime, sometimes triple overtime. And it makes me wonder – who would want to do this job?” asked Assemblyman Philip Palmesano at the same hearing.

Assemblyman Palmesano is from Corning with Elmira Prison in his district.

“We need to pay more and have better benefits and that will help solve this problem,” Assemblyman Palmesano said.

Daniel Martuscello, Commissioner of Corrections: “We increased the starting salary of the correction officer position by over $6,700.”

Assemblyman Palmesano: “But still $56,000 is woefully inadequate. Woefully inadequate.”

Martuscello: “Okay. Then we entered into a collective bargaining agreement which the membership ratified with raises across the board.”

“I appreciate what you say but I think we need to pump that pay higher, we need more recruitment bonuses and retention bonuses to keep them in,” Assemblyman Palmesano said.

The state is waiving a residency rule so it can now hire people from bordering states like the rest of the country. For example, they had a job fair for COs at Elmira and the commissioner said they got 600 calls from Pennsylvania that they couldn’t consider before but now will.

“The longer this illegal strike continues the greater the risk becomes to the stability of these facilities and for the people inside them,” Corrections spokesman Tom Mailey said in an email to News10NBC. “Those who are reporting to work continue to work incredibly long hours and are receiving increased overtime compensation.”

There are 14,095 prison guards in New York state, down 36 percent in the last 20 years. There are 33,677 inmates, down 53 percent since 2003.

In her proposed state budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul is trying to get authorization to close 5 more prisons this year.

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