Corrections officers on historic strike at Albion, Orleans prisons

COs want more staffing in prisons, end to HALT Act

Photos by Tom Rivers: This group is out in the bitter cold across from the Orleans Correctional Facility on Gaines Basin Road for a strike. About 100 correction officers gathered outside the prison to demand more staffing and an end to the Halt Act which limits solitary confinement among incarcerated people. The HALT Act has made the prisons less safe for both inmates and staff, officers said.

ALBION – Corrections officers are on an historic strike at prisons around the state today, including the two in Orleans County: Orleans and Albion correctional facilities.

The staff were supposed to show up to work at 6:45 a.m. for a shift change. But instead about 100 corrections officers gathered outside the facilities for a strike.

 Officers are demanding the HALT Act be rescinded. That state law has limited how inmates can be put in solitary confinement. It has taken punishment and deterrents away from officers in trying to keep the facility safe for both staff and other incarcerated people, COs said at the strike today.

“It is absolutely horribly unsafe,” one striking corrections officer said outside Orleans Correctional, a medium security men’s prison.

Corrections officers say the HALT Act keeps many violent inmates in the general population, putting the facility at risk for both staff and incarcerated people.

About 100 staff were outside Orleans Correctional on Gaines Basin Road, standing in bitter cold temperatures. It was about 10 degrees out with blowing snow, and a wind chill below zero.

Another group was outside on strike at Albion Correctional, a women’s prison at the end of Washington Street.

Orleans Correctional is down about 60 COs. It should have 281 but currently only has 220, one corrections officer said. That was required lots of mandatory overtime. One CO said many new hires quit because of the long hours and safety inside the prison walls. COs also said drugs regularly enter the prison, adding to the unsafe conditions. Drugs are often sent in packages and the understaffed facility can’t fully check all of the packages and mail, COs said.

“This is as serious as it’s got in my 40 years,” said retired Sgt. Arnold Jonathan of Orleans Correctional. “I thank God every day I’m retired.”

He drove from Niagara County to be at the strike in a show of solidarity. He said the last strike was in 1979.

The officers are on strike knowing they could lose their jobs as part of the Taylor Law which prevents a strike from public employees. The strike at Albion and Orleans follows a strike on Monday at Elmira and Collins correctional facilities. COs interviewed at Orleans said those strikes prompted a much larger response across the state today. More than 20 prisons out of the 44 total are expected to have striking COs today.

COs also oppose mandatory overtime. One officer drives an hour to work at Orleans, He said he has regularly been working 80 hours a week and seldom gets to spend time with his family.

The union representing the corrections officers, the New York State Correction Officers Police Benevolent Association, is not sanctioning the strikes.

This sign blames Gov. Kathy Hochul and Daniel F. Martuscello III, the commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, for unsafe conditions in the prisons that prompted the strike.