Orleans wants order rescinded that doesn’t allow counties to hire terminated COs

Legislators also want HALT Act repealed in prisons

Photo by Tom Rivers: The Orleans County Courthouse dome was illumined in blue on Feb. 25 in a show of support for corrections officers.

ALBION – The County Legislature is planning to go on the record opposing an executive order from the governor that prohibits counties from hiring terminated corrections officers.

The County legislature is calling a special meeting for 2:30 p.m. on Thursday and will vote on a resolution calling for the governor to rescind its prohibition for counties to hire terminated corrections officers.

The state fired 2,000 COs on March 10 who refused to report for work after beign on strike for about three weeks.

A draft of the resolution from the County Legislature states the county “has experienced significant staffing shortages for county employees,” and has received several applications from corrections officers who were fired from the prisons.

The corrections officers were on strike due to unsafe working conditions, the resolution states. Due to the Taylor Law, COs aren’t legally allowed to go on strike.

The resolution from the Legislature states Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed the executive order, prohibiting counties from hiring the COs “to punish striking New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision employees—and to chill such labor strikes—by imposing strict, punitive, and arbitrary barriers on their ability to obtain future employment, without affording such employees due process of law and in violation of the New York State Constitution and statutes.

Legislators, the resolution, said the governor’s executive order “is an abuse of authority and discretion, and unlawfully intrudes upon the County’s powers of Home Rule secured by Article IX of the New York State Constitution, and illegally impacts the hiring efforts on all levels of government.”

Legislators said counties should have their own discretion in who they hire.

“This overreaching executive order unjustly punishes Corrections Officers by wrongfully preventing them from gaining future employment,” the resolution states. “These former Corrections Officers are members of our community and counties should be able to decide who they hire and the reasons for said hire.”

Legislators also plan to vote on a resolution calling for the repeal of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act (HALT Act), which was signed into law on March 31, 2022, and took effect the following day.

The HALT Act was one of the main reasons for the strike, saying it has made prisons less safe for staff and inmates.

The HALT Act limits segregated or disciplinary confinement of inmates to the Special Housing Unit (SHU) or in a separate keeplock housing unit to a maximum of 15 consecutive days, or 20 total days within any 60-day period, according to the draft resolution from the County Legislature.

“Under the HALT Act, these time limits may not be meaningfully extended even where an inmate has committed such serious acts as attempted escape, physical or sexual assault on staff and other inmates, or even homicide,” the resolution states. “The HALT Act essentially eliminates any meaningful disciplinary sanctions for inmates who commit violent acts.”

Legislators say assaults in state prisons have increased 124% over the last 10 years, reaching a record number of 1,173 assaults on staff in 2021.

“Since the HALT Act went into effect on April 1, 2022, the number of daily assaults in NYS correctional facilities has gone up from 6.8 to 8.1 a day, an increase of 25%,” according to the resolution.

Prior the HALT Act, inmates in solitary confinement and confined to the Special Housing Unit (SHU) still had access to outdoor recreation, personal visits, and commissary, the resolution states.

The HALT Act prohibits segregated confinement for “special populations,” inmates who are 21 or younger, who are typically the most unpredictable and violent population, the resolution states.

“The HALT act is causing meaningful programs for general population inmates to be canceled due to lack of staff,” according to the resolution. “The staff that should be instructing these programs are being redeployed to cover the HALT law mandated programs, thus punishing the general population inmates that are complying with facility rules, which causes more idle time and friction inside the facility.”