Gov. Hochul: State troopers serving court orders on striking prison guards

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul said state police are starting to serve court orders on 380 correction officers who have mounted an unauthorized strike at state prisons since Feb. 17, which Hochul said is "putting the entire state at risk."

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said the strikers "are violating the law."

"Those participating in the illegal job action will face administrative penalties along with department discipline for violating the state’s Taylor Law and a judge’s temporary restraining order," said department spokesman Thomas Mailey in a written statement.

Strikes are now ongoing at 38 of 42 state prisons.

Hochul said Tuesday that state police are serving the civil court orders in "batches," rather than all at once.

"If it has no effect, we are going to continue the process," Hochul said.

State officials said nine of 10 correction officers are now involved in the illegal strike that workers have said is over the need to protect safety for guards and prisoners and to reduce mandatory overtime. By union estimates, that means about 12,500 members were involved in the work stoppage as of Tuesday, with about 1,500 still on the job.

Hochul said Tuesday that state police began serving the court orders over the weekend. She said state officials had hoped the action would have spurred the illegal strikers to return to their jobs, but it didn’t. The closest state prison to Long Island is in Queens.

"We have a situation that is untenable," Hochul told reporters in Albany. "Let me be clear: The illegal action … is putting the entire state at risk."

She has directed National Guard soldiers, as many as 6,500 by Tuesday, to "secure" the prisons. She said the troopers help assure the safety of staff that provide medical attention and food service, as well as to protect prisoners. The state also has transported some prisoners to facilities where there is more staff, including some county jails. In addition, other state and county workers have been used to help keep prisons functioning.

Hochul said the correction officers in the work stoppage that began two weeks ago at a single prison near Buffalo isn’t sanctioned or condoned by their union. She said the strikers are now considered absent without leave.

"If you are striking, if you are AWOL, you no longer get health insurance benefits from the state," Hochul said at the news conference. She also said the union won’t pay for the strikers’ lawyers because the strike isn’t approved by the union and violates the state Taylor Law, which prohibits most state employees from striking.

The union, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association had no immediate comment.

Hochul said the state has made changes intended to entice workers back. That includes suspending provisions of a law known as the HALT Act intended to require more "humane" treatment of prisoners by reducing use of solitary confinement as punishment. The state has also worked to reduce double and triple shifts because of short staffing, which the strikers blame in part for a rise in assaults on correction officers.

Officers who remain on the job are being paid at a temporary higher rate.

A second meeting between state officials and the striking correction officers before a mediator was scheduled for Tuesday.

"I’m asking … what they want," Hochul said Tuesday. "It can’t be pay and benefits because we just recently negotiated a very generous package."

Many correction officers are paid a base pay over more than $80,000 a year, and overtime pay and other compensation can double or triple that, according to state payroll records.

Spokesmen for correction officers, however, have said the issue is safety.

"Whose safety are they talking about?" Hochul said. "Leaving almost the entire incarcerated population and the members of our state workforce who feed them and provide medical care … leaving them along unprotected is not my definition of public safety."

By Michael Gormley

michael.gormley@newsday.com@GormleyAlbany

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.