Authorities in New York have started dismissing state prison guards who did not follow through with an agreement to end their unlawful labor strike, which has now gone on for three weeks.
Jackie Bray, the state’s homeland security commissioner, revealed that the process of terminations commenced on Sunday. Additionally, health insurance coverage for correctional officers who persist in striking, as well as their family members, is being revoked by the state starting on Monday.
Fewer than 10 officers have been fired and thousands are slated to lose their health insurance benefits, according to Bray.
“None of these actions we take lightly,” Bray said. “We have tried at every turn to get people back to work without taking these actions.”
During this period of the labor strike, another inmate named Jonathon Grant, aged 61, was discovered lifeless in his cell at the Auburn Correctional Facility. Unfortunately, it remains uncertain whether the staffing shortage at the prison contributed to his demise.
The manner in which Grant died will be determined by a medical examiner. The public defender’s office that provided legal counsel to him expressed concern that the strike may have impacted medical care for inmates.
Officers began walking out on Feb. 17 to protest working conditions at the state’s prisons.
Jose Saldana, the director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, said guards were striking as a “distraction” from the attention on inmate abuse.
“To put it more bluntly, guards are holding hostage tens of thousands of incarcerated people, whose basic survival needs are often going unmet, in order to demand even more power to harm those in their custody,” Saldana said.
The deal between the state and officers’ union to end the officers’ strike included ways to address staffing shortages and minimize mandatory 24-hour overtime shifts. The agreement also offers a temporary increase in overtime pay and a potential change in pay scale.
Correctional officers and their supporters demonstrate in sight of Coxsackie Correctional Facility in the Hudson Valley., Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, in Coxsackie, New York. (AP)
A 90-day suspension of a law limiting the use of solitary confinement was also included in the agreement. During the pause, the state must evaluate if reinstating the law would “create an unreasonable risk” to staff and inmate safety.
Hochul deployed the National Guard to some prisons to fill in for striking workers.
Corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello said Monday that the number of facilities with striking workers dipped from 38 to 32, although visits remained suspended at all state prisons.
“No matter when this ends or how this ends, our long-term plan must be and is to recruit more corrections officers because our facilities run safer when we’re fully staffed,” Bray said. “That work can’t really begin in earnest until folks return to work and we end the strike.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to New York Homeland Security and the officers’ union, the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
