A group of corrections officers from the state-run Adirondack Correctional prison in Ray Brook strike outside the facility on Monday around a burn barrel with the words “ADK STRONG” punched into the side. The striking workers did not want their faces photographed, for fear of retribution. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

RAY BROOK — The state says it is ramping up its consequences for corrections officers who have been on an unsanctioned, illegal strike, but local COs — who say the strike is necessary to get the state to hear their concerns — believe the state is bluffing and are not going back to work until their demands are met.

For two weeks now, around half of Adirondack Correctional’s COs have been on a “wildcat” strike, demanding safer working conditions and less-grueling hours.

After an agreement between the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association union representing the COs failed to meet the striking COs’ demands last week, the state says it is accelerating punishments for corrections officers participating in the wildcat strikes around the state.

Essentially, the state plans to fire these COs, technically labeling their extended absence from work as “resignations.” DOCCS said terminations of anyone who had been out of work on an unauthorized absence for more than 10 days began Sunday. It has only confirmed fewer than 10 terminations so far. On Monday, DOCCS said it began terminating state-sponsored health insurance for thousands of striking COs and their dependents.

The state’s Taylor Law requires union permission for public employees to strike. NYSCOPBA has not authorized these strikes. Employees violating the Taylor Law have their pay deducted up to twice their daily pay rate for each day they’re on strike.

“None of these actions we take lightly,” state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Jackie Bray said. “We have tried, at every turn to get people back to work without taking these actions.”

But striking COs are skeptical. They say they haven’t seen anything official and believe the state is bluffing — or threatening — them to come back to work.

“They’ve told us, what, four times now that they’re going to (terminate us)?” one Adirondack Correctional CO said on Monday. The punishment dates from the state have shifted back several times throughout the two-week-long strikes.

They say they’ve all checked their insurance and said it wasn’t cancelled as of Monday afternoon.

“Nothing’s changed,” another said.

None of the striking COs wanted to speak to the paper on the record with their names, fearing retribution. The Enterprise was able to speak with several of them on the condition of anonymity.

On Friday, COs, who gathered around burn barrels outside the medium-security prison, said some of their striking co-workers went back in to work, but that the crowd outside is holding out.

They say the state is desperate, sitting at the table with no cards to play.

They’re still hopeful the state will come back to the bargaining table, but have no faith in their union, NYSCOPBA, to represent their demands. They say union leadership agreed to the compromise, but they didn’t agree. There have been no votes in the union during these unsanctioned strikes.

COs said the agreement makes everything worse than it is. They point out that it allows for more overtime than they’re being mandated currently. To read more about that agreement, go to tinyurl.com/5xby5rwp.

The agreement amounts to a court order, and COs can be found in contempt if they do not follow it. But it would only become active once the strikes are ended.

Around six prisons have ended their strikes, according to DOCCS. But the majority of the 42 state prisons have large portions of their COs staying on strike — including Adirondack Correctional. Four prisons never went on strike.

But striking COs at Adirondack Correctional believe the reports of strikes ending is “nothing more than propaganda.” They say they’re in contact with officers from other facilities who contradict the state.

Martuscello said “more staff (are) returning to duty each and every day, but it’s not allowing for us to implement the consent award and continue our ongoing dialogue.”

Martuscello said several demands could not be met because DOCCS has no authority over changing laws. This was repeated by attorney Martin Scheinman, who mediated the agreement between the state and the union.

“HALT cannot be repealed in mediation and the commissioner does not have the legal authority to ignore HALT in its entirety,” Scheinman wrote. “Frankly, as I understand it, neither does the governor. I am convinced, the pausing of provisions regarding HALT went as far as the law would allow.”

In Martuscello’s “final push” for COs to return to work, he promised an “open dialogue on making facilities safer places to work.” On Sunday, he issued a memo with a policy update for body scanners. This policy would require that visitors are scanned on entry to the prison. If a visitor declines, they’ll be further processed and, if cleared, limited to a non-contact meeting with physical partitions and no physical embrace. If a visitor is pregnant or has a documented medical condition, they could be searched with an alternative method.

State Sen. Dan Stec called this policy change a “first step,” but pushed for a more permanent change by calling for the passage of a bill he introduced in February which would make body scanner use mandatory.

Hochul has deployed around 5,300 National Guard members to state prisons to maintain safety. COs outside Adirondack Correctional estimated there are around 40 here. The prison has close to 300 inmates and, before the strike, around 100 COs, according to striking officers.

Inside, they hear that everybody’s getting pretty burned out.

“They don’t have to stay in there, though,” one said.

Conditions for inmates living at the prisons have also deteriorated, as there are fewer staff to provide services. Visitations at all state prisons have been canceled since the beginning of the strikes.

State Police are investigating the death of a prisoner at Mid-State Correctional Facility on Saturday. The New York Times reported that inmates there say Messiah Nantwi, 22, was beaten to death by corrections officers after a disagreement with National Guard members. Mid-State is across the street from Marcy Correctional, where an inmate, Robert Brooks, was fatally beaten by officers in December.

Nantwi is the fifth inmate to die during the strikes. One other death is suspected to be a suicide and the others are of unknown causes. The suspected suicide and one other death took place in solitary confinement cells.

The striking COs’ 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.

Currently, elements of HALT are being suspended during the strikes.

COs say the HALT Act has increased violence in prisons, pointing to statistics that assaults on officers have risen by 76% since it was adopted. They are calling for a complete repeal of HALT. Inmate advocacy groups point to state reviews of the HALT Act, showing it has not been fully implemented. They are calling for the act to be fully implemented.

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 2025, there have been more than 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.

According to Bray, the strikes have cost the state $25 million so far, and she estimated they could cost $106 million a month if they continue. She also said the Taylor Law allows the state to fine striking COs equal to what the state is spending as a result of the strikes.