A group of corrections officers from the state-run Adirondack Correctional prison in Ray Brook strike outside the facility on Tuesday in the cold. The striking workers did not want their faces photographed, for fear of retribution. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

RAY BROOK — As the state threatens disciplinary action for corrections officers across the state who have been on an unsanctioned work stoppage this week — demanding safer working conditions and less-grueling hours — COs at Adirondack Correctional are staying on strike amid below-freezing temperatures.

Some of the COs, who asked to remain anonymous, fearing retribution, say they’re keeping up the strike because of support from the community. Across the street from the medium security prison, folding tables and the bed of a pickup truck were full of pizzas, waters, coffee, homemade meals and wood for their burn barrels.

“The public has been amazing,” one CO said. “We wouldn’t be out here if it wasn’t for them.”

They said civilians, retirees and families have been dropping off supplies, driving down the remote road to talk and reaching out with support.

It’s been, as one CO put it, “Cold as f***.”

On Thursday, the third day of the strike, the line of cars winding down Ray Brook Road was just as long as the first day. Officers estimated that 40-50% of the workforce at Adirondack Correctional is on strike.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order on Wednesday authorizing the state National Guard to be deployed to state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision facilities to “ensure their safety and security.” The Enterprise was unable to reach DOCCS to verify if the National Guard was being stationed at Adirondack Correctional by press time on Thursday. DOCCS has also suspended visitations at all of its prisons.

Hochul’s order also provides 2.5 times additional overtime pay for COs and other staff who remain at work for extended hours during the strike.

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Risking discipline

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DOCCS Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III, whom striking COs have demanded be removed or resign, sent a memo to all local DOCCS superintendents on Thursday titled “Path to Restoring Workforce.”

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association union, which striking COs are members of, has not sanctioned these strikes, and the state is calling them illegal.

The state’s “Taylor Law” requires union permission for public employees to strike. Employees violating this law have their pay deducted up to twice their daily pay rate for every day they’re on strike. COs at Adirondack Correctional said the prison has filed temporary restraining orders on all of them from the prison grounds. The Enterprise was not able to verify this with DOCCS, or get details on the restraining orders from the state.

Martuscello has pledged to not pursue discipline against any employees who reported to work before 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. COs at Adirondack Correctional said they’re not stopping.

None of the striking COs wanted to speak to the paper on the record with their names.

They say they’re risking discipline because they’re fighting for their families and for everyone they work with, including the staff inside not participating in the strike. Striking COs said these officers are working longer shifts, sleeping in the jail and that most can’t go home.

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HALT

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The striking officers have a list of demands.

While the statewide list of demands has several bullet points about raising pay, Adirondack Correctional COs said that’s not the case here.

Their demands all center around going home — not being injured or killed on the job, and not being kept for grueling 24-hour shifts away from their families.

They want increased use of body scanners and mail scanners to keep contraband from entering prisons. They want more staff to reduce the 24-long mandatory overtime shifts they work. And they want inmates held accountable for fights or drug use. The latter is made through the demand that the state repeal its HALT Act.

The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act was signed into law in March 2022.

The HALT law changed the length and reasons an inmate could be put in solitary confinement, stating that long-term solitary confinement is torture. Previously, solitary confinement could be used from up to 23 hours a day over many consecutive days, months or years. HALT reduced the length of time and violations that it could be used in. Under the act, holding an inmate in any cell for more than 17 hours a day is generally limited to 15 consecutive days, or 20 days in any 60-day period. There are exceptions for violations rising to a level making it necessary, which requires an evidentiary hearing.

Martuscello’s memo says that DOCCS is “suspending the elements of HALT that cannot safely be operationalized under a prisonwide state of emergency.”

The HALT Act allows for temporary suspension of specific elements under “exceptional circumstances” which “create a significant and unreasonable risk to the safety and security of other incarcerated persons, staff or the facility.”

The COs outside Adirondack Correctional threw their copies of the memo into garbage cans.

“Temporary,” they said, reading the memo. That’s the key word. It’s not the permanent fix they are demanding.

The state says several of the workers’ demands would require changing state law — a difficult process — or violating their own collective bargaining agreement through NYSCOPBA. It also says it is making steps to address some of the concerns already.

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‘We all die young’

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Hochul’s executive order says DOCCS will immediately rescind the “70/30” memo which, in part, contributed to these strikes starting.

This is a Feb. 10 memo from Martuscello in which he said that DOCCS is missing around 2,200 COs statewide and that “70% (staffing) … is the new 100%.”

DOCCS Spokesman Thomas Mailey clarified Martuscello was not talking about a staffing cut, but eliminating vacant positions or realigning posts to identify efficiencies.

This is similar to the “augmentation” practice at the nearby federal FCI Ray Brook prison, which union leaders there have long had complaints and concerns about.

It is unclear if this rescinding of the memo will be permanent or temporary, but local COs believe it is more than likely temporary. COs said this memo told them that DOCCS is not anticipating any increase in staffing levels soon.

Officers said Adirondack Correctional has around 300 inmates with 100 officers divided among three shifts.

To read more about the demands and state response on the first day of Adirondack Correctional’s strike, go to tinyurl.com/6adw7wm2.

“No amount of money is worth your life,” one officer said on Thursday. “My wife would rather have me around than a death benefit.”

The COs with kids say they miss their children and their kids miss them.

“We want to be able to go home to our families every day after we leave for our shift,” one said.

It is common for COs at Adirondack Correctional to work 24-hour shifts — sometimes multiple times in a week.

“You’re getting 4 hours of sleep if you’re lucky between your shifts,” one said.

They said that other facilities have had mandated 72 hour shifts. They say if they fall asleep, they get fired or fined — essentially negating all the overtime money they earned working for three straight days.

At the end of these shifts, they feel drunk. It’s hard to stay awake that long. The lack of sleep makes them sick. Some of them drive here for work all the way from Watertown — two-and-a-half hours away. This exhaustion makes the drive home dangerous.

Several pointed out that corrections officers have reduced life spans. On average, they die at age 59, compared to the national average of 75, according to a 2013 U.S. Department of Justice Office research paper. They chalked this up to the mental pressure, physical stress and lack of sleep in the job. Research also shows post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide contribute to the lowered life expedience.

“We all die young,” one CO said as he lit a cigarillo.

According to DOCCS, 43 COs have died on the job since 1861. The last death was in 2011. COs are worried they’ll be the next one.

DOCCS data shows that, statewide, in 2024, there were 2,070 assaults on staff. Data going back to 2018 shows staff assaults were around or below 1,000 from 2018 to 2022, rising slightly before 2022 and then increasing more sharply until today. Assaults on inmates have followed a similar track, increasing even more sharply in 2023. So far, in the first 51 days of 2025, there have been 160 recorded assaults on staff, mostly at maximum security facilities. The vast majority of reported assaults result in no injury, with a handful rising to the level of severe injury.

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Inmate advocacy group reacts

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On Thursday, DOCCS cancelled visitations at all of its prisons.

The Center for Community Alternatives, an advocacy group for inmates, said this is “further isolating incarcerated people and cutting them off from vital support.”

“Incarcerated people are suffering delayed or denied access to food, medication, heat, electricity, showers and vital programs,” a CCA news release states. “Now, they are also being denied the basic human right to see and speak with their families and legal counsel.”

“This crisis was not caused by incarcerated people,” CCA Community Organizer Thomas Gant said in a statement. “It was manufactured by a group of rogue corrections officers who abandoned their posts in a deliberate attempt to sabotage reforms designed to protect incarcerated people from abuse.”

Gant mentioned that on Thursday, five COs from Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County were charged with murdering inmate Robert Brooks by beating him to death in December.

“The strikes are demanding the repeal of the HALT act, alongside claims that reforms to solitary confinement have led to safety issues,” a CCA news release states. “In reality, DOCCS has never implemented HALT with fidelity.”

A review by the state Inspector General on the first two years of the law, finding inadequacies in its implementation, can be found at tinyurl.com/pycfzxm9.

CCA called for the state to pass the Second Look Act, Earned Time Act and Marvin Mayfield Act.

The Second Look Act would allow judges to release inmates who have “demonstrated growth and accountability” after 10 years in prison.

“Keeping people in prison past the point of transformation does nothing for safety — it only wastes taxpayer money and weakens communities,” CCA said in a press release.

The Earned Time Act would create incentivizes for education, work and rehabilitative programs, which it says would reduce violence inside prisons and improve public safety upon release.

The Marvin Mayfield Act would restore judicial discretion at sentencing and end mandatory minimum sentences.

CCA cites polling by EMC Research which found that 74% of New Yorkers support the Earned Time Act and 68% of New Yorkers support the Second Look Act.

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Elected leaders react

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Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, a former corrections officer, said he visited Clinton, Malone and Altona Correctional facilities this week.

“What is clear is that they want to get rid of the HALT Act to restore disciplinary measures to the facilities and want safer staffing,” he said in a statement. “Working double or triple shifts and mandated overtime is causing correctional officers and staff at correctional facilities to experience burnout and that is no way to run these facilities.”

Republican North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik also weighed in, saying she’s been in direct contact with many correctional officers and their families.

“Hochul and Far Left Albany Democrats passed the devastating HALT Act which resulted in assaults on officers skyrocketing by 76%, extreme working hours for correctional officers including 48 to even 72-hour shifts, and staffing shortages causing chaos and grave danger at our prisons.”

Striking COs on Thursday said it is hard for them to tell if there’s hope that their demands will be met. They expect the state to push back first and then compromise later.