Life after strike: Former Collins Corrections officer speaks out
Cain Luther, who served as a CO for over ten years, said the problems that they were standing up for had been happening years before the wildcat strike. In his view, there was a toxic culture, ineffective discipline, and the state was unreceptive to their complaints inside New York State Prisons.
The former CO said everything changed once the HALT Act was implemented. The act was a testament to reforming solitary confinement practices. While state officials argued the law was a step towards more humane treatment for the incarcerated, Luther claimed the inside of NYS facilities is anything but that.
'The first letter in HALT stands for 'humane,'' Luther said. 'But there's nothing humane about what's happening in there. Guys are overdosing in front of you, flopping on the ground, puking on themselves—and there's no meaningful discipline anymore. Five years ago, that would have been a violation. Now? We carry them to the infirmary, and they're back on the unit later that shift.'
According to Luther, the HALT Act has stripped COs of their ability to enforce rules, even with minor consequences. He explained that when inmates would smoke before the HALT Act, it would be a violation. But that has changed.
'Now they laugh at you,' Luther said. 'You write the misbehavior ticket, they say, 'waste your ink.' That's what we're dealing with.'
He described the inside of the facilities being filled with thick smoke in housing units. Luther also said there were unknown chemicals in the air, which have caused him symptoms such as headaches, eye irritation, and dizziness — all hitting within minutes of stepping into a unit.
Weeks after the strike, Luther shared that the conditions for current COs are still awful, with them being locked into 12-hour shifts, and the common practice of shift swapping has been eliminated.
Many corrections officers who participated in a recent strike, according to Luther, are now being punished for it. He is one of several former employees who claim they've been blackballed from future employment, denied unemployment benefits, and cut off from programs like SNAP and HEAP.
'They're doing whatever they can to make things hard for us,' he said.
One former officer, Dave Hilberger, who was a friend of Luther's, passed away on April 9 in the Groveland Correctional Facility. Luther believes his death could have been prevented.
'Dave had been feeling sick for a week, but he couldn't call out. They'd mark you AWOL,' Luther said. 'And this was someone who'd been asking for help publicly for months, saying 'we're tired, we need help.' But no one listened.'
More than 2,000 New York State corrections officers were terminated after the wildcat strike that ended March 10 earlier this year. Now, many are claiming that they were wrongfully terminated.
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