(WBEN) - The corrections officers strike against prisons managed by the New York State Department of Corrections is nearing a week in duration, is showing no signs of an end and is putting pressure on more than 30 facilities statewide.
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Mediation involving the two sides has been accelerated and is expected to begin Monday.
"At the initial meeting today, Feb. 21, 2025, NYSCOPBA pressed for formal mediation to start more quickly," mediator Martin F. Scheinman stated Friday. "Based upon NYSCOPBA’s arguments, I suggested it was a good idea to begin earlier and the Commissioner of DOCCS; and his Chief of Staff, and the Director of OER, readily agreed. Therefore, the formal mediation will begin Monday, Feb. 24, 2025.”
In Western New York, picketing continues into the weekend outside the Attica, Wende, Collins and Wyoming correctional facilities.
Republican State Sen. George Borrello will be visiting three of the facilities in a show of support for striking corrections officers Saturday.
New York State Assembly Republicans have also drafted a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul urging the administration to immediately address the crisis happening in state correctional facilities. The lawmakers are urgin the governor to include a repeal of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act.
“To help mitigate the immediate crisis members of the Assembly Minority Conference urged you to repeal the HALT Act in your 30-day budget amendments. This would have sent a clear signal that your administration is listening to the concerns of public employees desperate for help. Instead, you used the 30-day amendment process as an opportunity to add a provision to close up to five more prisons in fiscal year 2026… Whatever the motivation behind the decision to include more closures, it simply validates the belief that correctional staff and their families have been ignored, mistreated, and put directly in harm’s way.” (READ Complete Letter)
Since 2009, the lawmakers say, more than 30 correctional facilities have closed, leading to overcrowding and increased responsibilities and stressors for correctional officers. These closures, they say, are a major factor behind the emergency situation in the state prison system today.
Gov. Hochul has deployed 3,500 members of the National Guard to the corrections facilities in an effort to maintain order.
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