Albany, N.Y. (WBEN) - Republican lawmakers in the New York state capital are expressing their concerns over the state-wide corrections officers strike, and are demanding Gov. Kathy Hochul to resolve the issue.
During a meeting of the New York Republican Assembly on Monday, Western New York Assemblyman David DiPietro says the legal system has been taking massive blows over the past few years, blaming Hochul and policies like bail reform, clean slate, and the HALT Act for making the situation worse.
"Let me make this real clear: This is not by accident, folks. This has been on purpose. It's deliberate, soft-on-crime policies that embolden violent criminals while tying the hands of law enforcement," said DiPietro on Monday in Albany. "The HALT Act has been one of the worst policies to come out of this state in years, by restricting the use of disciplinary measures against violent inmates, halt has given dangerous criminals the freedom to terrorize prison staff and inmates with little to no consequences, even inmates themselves have admitted in letters that the system is out of control."
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Assemblyman Phil Palmesano says prison closures, staffing shortage, and polices have created a "powder-keg environment" inside New York prisons.
"We are seeing record highs of inmate-on-staff and inmate-on-inmate assaults (up 76% and 169% respectively) since the implementation of the dangerous HALT Act, which restricts and sometimes eliminates the ability of our COs to segregate the most dangerous and violent inmates from the rest of the general population. More COs are retiring and resigning each year than are coming in. Currently, there are more than 2,200 CO vacancies. This is unacceptable, dangerous and unsustainable and must be addressed now,” stated Palmesano.
Also addressing the ongoing corrections officers strike in New York on Monday was the Senate Republican caucus, led by Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt. He says there's been a ton of prison reform and changes over the years, but, ironically, they haven't made anyone safer.
"They were a political effort to demonize police officers in the case of bail, and demonize corrections officers in the case of HALT and that demonization continues. The narrative that the people who are in jail, the rapists, the murderers, the drug dealers, the robbers, that these folks are the victims and that the corrections officers are the bad guys or the perpetrators. It's an inversion that is, as one family member put it, is unnecessary," said Ortt on Monday in Albany. "We can keep everybody safe. We can be fair to everybody, but we have to be realistic about the job that we ask our corrections officers to do and what we ask their families to endure."
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