PLATTSBURGH — State Sen. Dan Stec (R-Queensbury) criticized a state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision decision to release certain inmates early to alleviate staffing shortages after the recent 22-day correction officers’ strike.
“In view of the current staffing crisis, and in order to have the appropriate balance between the safety and well-being of those working and residing in DOCCS corrections facilities and public safety, it is appropriate that I, as commissioner, exercise my authority … to move individuals from the department’s general confinement facilities into residential treatment outcount status,” state corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello wrote Monday, in an internal memo, which the department released to The Press-Republican.
Those convicted of violent and non-violent felonies non-drug-related felonies, Class B-to-E violent felonies, and sex offenses would not be eligible for early release.
To be released early, qualifying inmates must have a department-approved resident to be released to, other than a homeless shelter or Department of Social Services placement.
“Commissioner Martuscello has directed that a list of incarcerated individuals who are scheduled to be released in the next few months be reviewed for their transition into residential treatment,” said Thomas Mailey, a department spokesman.
“Governor Hochul’s top priority is the safety and well-being of all New Yorkers. The Governor is aware of Commissioner Martuscello’s memo and supports his efforts to safely address staffing shortages and personnel concerns,” Gov. Kathy Hochul Spokeswoman Jess D’Amelia, said in a statement.
Return the officers
Stec argued that a better way to deal with the staffing shortage is for Hochul to rescind her ban on state employment for about 2,000 correction officers who did not return to work after the strike.
“This move is a slap in the face to correction officers, who went on strike for 22 days to call for better conditions, and to all law-abiding citizens,” Stec said, in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Assemblyman Billy Jones (D-Chateaugay Lake), a former correction officer himself, agreed with Stec.
“It’s been weeks since correctional officers returned to work, but there has been no real progress towards resolving short staffing and safety issues,” Jones said.
“I have been working the last couple of weeks to find a solution to get correction officers back to work but we must work together to find a path forward for Corrections in our state.’
Jones said the DOCCS decision to release prisoners early due to the short staffing issues, is, “simply ridiculous and unacceptable.”
“A better solution to this problem would be to hire correction officers who were wrongfully terminated. Those who had legitimate excuses to miss work such as family or sick leave, or workman’s compensation. They want to return to work, and New York state needs to allow this to happen.”
Jones said state owes it to the workforce and the correction officers who work in prisons and to the families of the officers impacted.
“Releasing convicted felons early is not the solution our taxpayers and law-abiding citizens deserve,” he said.
Union
New York State Correction Officers Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents correction officers, was still reviewing details of the early release policy on Tuesday afternoon, said Matt Keough, the union’s executive vice president, in a telephone interview.
“Obviously, I think it’s best that people complete their sentences, but we don’t make that decision,” he said.
The state has had difficulty recruiting correction officers, even before the recent correction officers’ strike in which about 2,000 officers did not return to work.
Before the strike, there were about 2,000 vacant correction officer positions in the system, and now that number has doubled to about 4,000 vacant positions, said Mailey, the department spokesman.
The job has a starting annual base pay of $56,465, including during training, increasing in increments to $72,904 annually after seven years, yet it has been difficult to maintain adequate staffing.
Explanations for the long-standing shortage of correction officers are myriad, including the aging of Baby Boom era officers, changes in state law that have reduced the proportion of less-violent offenders incarcerated, the delay of correction officer academy sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and general labor shortages.
The pandemic played a big role in the shortages, said Keough, of NYSCOPBA.
“That was two years without a single person going through the (correction officer training) academy, he said.
The state has a number of initiatives to rebuild staffing levels, said Mailey, including officer cash bonuses to correction officers who refer applicants who become new correction officers.
The referring officer receives $1,500 when the new officer graduates from the academy, and a second $1,500 payment when the new officer completes a 52-week probationary period.
A “large-scale” social media and video recruitment campaign began in February focusing on upstate community college students and military personnel.
The department is operating recruitment enters in the Destiny USA mall at Syracuse and Champlain Centre mall at Plattsburgh.
An “advanced placement initiative” offers applicants with correction officer experience a pay rate commensurate to their experience.
Budget
Hochul’s state budget proposal includes language to amend the public officers’ law, in relation to residency requirements for certain positions as a correction officer, allowing recruiting from other states which could greatly expand the number of potential applicants.
Stec is skeptical the state will be able to rebuild staffing levels anytime soon, given current discontent among the workforce.
“The National Guard is going to be in these facilities for months, if not beyond the end of the year,” Stec said in a recent telephone interview.
“The National Guard will remain in a support posture and begin to draw down as staff return to work,” Mailey said
“The overall support and draw down will remain under the Governor’s discretion. National Guard that remains in place will be used to help prevent an employee from being mandated to work a 24-hour overtime shift.”
Stec said he does not foresee a strong interest in corrections jobs unless the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement, commonly known as the HALT Act, is repealed.
“They will lose people faster than they can replace them,” he said.
The legislation limits long-term solitary confinement to 15 days, the maximum duration under a United Nations standard, and allows solitary confinement to be served in traditional cells, among other changes in procedures.
HALT
Stec said the HALT Act has contributed directly to the staffing shortage, because guarding inmates outside solitary confinement is more labor intensive, and indirectly, because HALT has diminished correction officer morale.
Martuscello, the DOCCS commissioner, has temporarily suspended certain provisions of HALT for 90 days, and in early April will begin evaluating on a facility-to-facility basis whether reinstating suspended provisions would create a safety risk, Mailey said.
A committee of union and state government representatives will make recommendations to the Legislature on potential changes to the HALT Act.
Stec said the debate over the HALT Act is largely geographical and partisan.
A handful of Democrats voted against the legislation in 2022, but he does not foresee enough Democrats switching course now to repeal the law.
He said he suspects that’s because there are no state correctional facilities within New York City. With few or no correction officers and families of officers living in those districts, New York City legislators do not face constituent advocacy to repeal HALT, he said.
Keough, of NYSCOPBA, said the union is encouraged that a new class of correction officer trainees started at the academy on Sunday.
The union is advocating that the state increase the Civil Service classification of correction officer from Level 14 to Level 17, which would increase the pay.
“That should certainly help with recruitment and retention,” Keough said.