By Alex Gault
Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s prisons are still in a state of emergency, lacking the staff they need to run properly and relying on a detachment of National Guard troops to shore up security staff headcounts. But for the roughly 10,000 people still working as corrections officers within those prisons, the special enhanced overtime pay meant to make the job more attractive has expired.
After the wildcat strike of thousands of New York corrections officers and sergeants in February and March, the state prison system has been turned on its head. An estimated 8,000 officers or more were on strike at one point or another during the 22-day job action, and efforts to get those officers back to work had mixed results.
In order to get those officers back to work in early March, state officials offered a series of terms: a 90-day suspension of a law that restricted the use of solitary confinement and required rehabilitative programming for almost all inmates every day, a commitment to ending 24-hour shifts for COs, promises to enhance safety screenings for visitors and packages, and a commitment to listening to the officers on issues of safety more regularly.
On top of that, officials agreed to pay those who came back to work an enhanced overtime rate of 250% of their regular rate for work over the 40-hour limit.
That enhanced overtime was originally part of the memorandum of understanding, or MOU between the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and the striking officers, part of a commitment to get the officers back to work.
It was always pitched as a temporary move. Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul gave explicit power to DOCCS to pay those increased rates in her executive orders declaring an emergency within the state prisons. Those orders have been renewed three times. But the specific overtime boost was authorized by the MOU, not the executive orders, and the terms of that MOU have been met. The original MOU outlined 30 days of overtime pay, but DOCCS extended that overtime for another 30 days on April 7 .
More permanent changes to compensation have already been approved. Trainees, COs and sergeants were each bumped up a pay grade last week, netting about $4,000 more per year for COs and trainees and $5,000 more per year for sergeants. And state officials approved a $5,000 bump to location pay, for when an officer has to travel a long distance to get to work.
But the state prisons are still operating in an emergency posture, now more than 3 months after the strike started. DOCCS has not been able to significantly add to CO headcounts above the roughly 10,000 that it had once the strike ended — and even the pre-strike staffing numbers weren’t optimal.
About 2,000 jobs were already open across the 42 facilities before the strike began, and after the strike, the prisons are operating with only about 65% of their optimal numbers. Efforts to right the ship have been slow-moving; besides efforts to open up recruitment to 18-year-olds and out-of-state residents, officials have also boosted pay grades and location pay for distant assignments, as well as committing to regular dialogue with security staff on safety within the prisons.
Officers inside the prisons report dismal working conditions. They’re still being asked to work extended, 12-hour shifts, and a previous commitment to break 12-hour shifts up in blocks of two days at a time has been reversed. Multiple officers at facilities across the district said they and their colleagues are seriously reconsidering employment in the prisons, and said that losing the boosted overtime pay gives them another reason to walk away.
HALT, the law limiting solitary confinement and xtending programming requirements, remains paused until June. Changing that law was a key request of the striking COs. The COs who spoke with the Watertown Daily Times said that if they get to that day, June 8 , and don’t see some material change in conditions, they’re likely to walk away.
“There’s just so much we want to deal with — we walked out because things weren’t safe, we were underpaid, we didn’t feel listened to, and none of that has changed much,” one officer, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect their position, told the Times on Monday.
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