On March 10, a three-week wildcat strike by thousands of correction officers at New York State prisons protesting their working conditions ended when their union, the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, reached a deal with Gov. Kathy Hochul. The agreement included overtime provisions and a 90-day suspension of a law that limits prisoner solitary confinement. During the strike, at least 10 inmates died. Two thousand COs were fired when they refused to return to work.
A state law called the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement, or HALT Act, was passed by the New York legislature in 2021 and was scheduled to be fully implemented in 2022. The law protects vulnerable classes of people — those with mental illness, physical disability, pregnant women or nursing mothers, those under 21 and over 55 — from spending time in solitary confinement.
The correction officer’s strike was portrayed as being caused by opposition to HALT Act implementation, but some prisoners’ rights advocates disagree. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Jerome R. Wright, a formerly incarcerated person who was subjected to periods of solitary confinement. He’s co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign and director of the New York State Jails Justice Network. Here he discusses the correction officers strike and the HALT Act’s goal of reducing prison violence, benefiting both prisoners and officers.
For more information, visit the New York State Jails Justice Network at nysjailsjustice.org and the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement at nycaic.org.
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