Stec says concerns of officers universal
DANNEMORA — With more correctional facilities in his district than any other state lawmaker, State Sen. Dan Stec said he has heard plenty from striking correction officers about their safety concerns on the job.
'Every facility, more or less, has the same issues and they are very remarkably consistent,' Stec (R-Queensbury) said.
'The bottom line is from what I've heard at all of the facilities is so far a list of almost identical concerns. Their number-one concern is the unsafe environment that the HALT Act has created.'
TOURED PRISONS
Stec completed a two-day tour of all seven correctional facilities in his district on Friday with visits to Washington, Adirondack and Altona Correctional Facilities. On Thursday he went to Bare Hill, Franklin and Upstate Correctional Facilities in Malone and Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.
Officers across the state have been participating in a wildcat strike not sanctioned by their union, the New York State Correction Officers Police Benevolent Association, since Monday.
They are protesting conditions inside the prisons, saying they are unsafe due to a lack of staff and the Humane Alternative to Long Term Incarceration Act that strictly limits the amount of time inmates can be sent to special housing units.
VIOLENCE LEVELS
Officers cite the sharp rise in inmate on inmate and inmate on staff assaults that have occurred since HALT was implemented in 2022.
Stec said the public should understand that the issue is not about money, but rather safety.
'The data shows inmate on staff and inmate on inmate assaults have gone through the roof,' he said.
'And you've got a retention and recruitment problem because word is out that it's not a good place or a safe place to work.'
Since the officers have hit the picket lines, prisons have been functioning with those who have decided to show up for work. Many of those officers have been forced to stay inside, working multiple shifts without leaving the facility.
Gov. Kathy Hochul activated the National Guard on Wednesday to help cover shifts at several prisons across the state.
Stec said that he saw Guard units at the Malone-area prisons on Thursday and was told that Guard units would be arriving at Clinton Thursday night.
The governor and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III offered some concessions on Thursday and called for several sessions with a mediator set for next week.
The state offered a temporary suspension of portions of HALT as well as offering that any officer picketing would not face punishment for the illegal strike if they reported to work as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday.
Stec said he did not know if any officers opted to go back to work as of the midnight deadline, but said as a group, the state's offers were not well received by the picketing officers.
'I've gotten reactions from people on that memo from all five facilities (that he had visited) and to a person... they laugh because it doesn't nearly go far enough,' Stec said.
'To a person, they rejected it because it doesn't go nearly far enough and more importantly, they don't trust the commissioner or the governor as far as their reliability to deliver on it.'
Word from the picket line in Dannemora Friday afternoon was that no officers crossed the picket line on Thursday.
RUNNING OUT THE CLOCK
Stec said he hopes the mediation sessions can help, but the officers are not confident that they will, and they are suspicious of the mediator, Martin F. Scheinman, who reportedly has donated thousands of dollars to Hochul's campaign.
'They (officers) are already suspicious of that, but they are also bothered that this mediation isn't being proposed to start until next Thursday or something like that,' Stec said.
'They get a sense that the governor is playing run out the clock, and the governor is basically saying, 'I'm not going to talk to talk to you for another six days.' She's trying to wear them out.'
Late Friday afternoon, Scheinman issued a statement saying that mediation sessions would start on Monday rather than later next week.
'At the initial meeting today, Feb. 21, 2025, NYSCOPBA pressed for formal mediation to start more quickly. 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,' Scheinman said.
'Therefore, the formal mediation will begin Monday, February 24, 2025.'
Stec said the officers on strike seemed resolved to stick it out as long as it takes.
'My observation, moving from group to group as I have the last two days, is they are all basically saying the same thing, that this (state offer) doesn't go far enough and it isn't changing anything so we are going to be here,' he said.
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