ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Assembly Republicans announced legislation aimed at addressing staffing challenges and safety concerns inside New York’s prisons, tying the proposal to ongoing fallout from the corrections officer strike in 2025.
The bill, A.10430, incorporates 10 recommendations from the state’s Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Committee and seeks to revise portions of the HALT Act, according to a release from lawmakers.
The proposal comes more than a year after thousands of corrections officers walked off the job in violation of the state’s Taylor Law. About 2,000 officers were terminated following the strike, contributing to staffing shortages that prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to deploy the National Guard to correctional facilities.
Lawmakers said roughly 2,600 Guard members remain assigned to prisons statewide, with the deployment costing more than $1 billion.
What the bill would change
The HALT Committee — formed in March 2025 through an agreement between the state and the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) — was tasked with evaluating how the HALT Act has functioned in practice.
Under A.10430, proposed changes include:
- Expanding and clarifying the types of behavior eligible for segregated confinement, including conduct aligned with violent felony offenses, serious facility disruptions and sexual misconduct involving staff or incarcerated individuals.
- Clarifying that individuals involved in riots, escapes or attempted escapes may be placed in segregated confinement.
- Allowing short-term disciplinary confinement for individuals who repeatedly engage in misconduct after other interventions fail.
- Permitting short-term protective custody in segregated settings when no safe alternative housing is available.
- Providing the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) with more flexibility in managing programming and individuals who pose ongoing safety risks.
The bill also outlines more specific criteria for when segregated confinement can be used, including violent or threatening behavior, sexual misconduct and assaults involving bodily fluids. It creates a pathway for short-term confinement for individuals who repeatedly engage in disruptive behavior after other interventions fail and allows additional confinement periods for repeat incidents, with required time in rehabilitation units between placements. The proposal also permits temporary restrictions on programming for individuals who pose an ongoing safety risk, subject to regular review.
The committee includes representatives from DOCCS, the Division of Criminal Justice Services, NYSCOPBA and multiple public employee unions.
Lawmakers: Proposal is a “step in the right direction”
Assemblyman Joe Angelino joined other Republican lawmakers in Albany on March 16 to support the measure, framing it as a necessary response to ongoing safety concerns inside facilities.
“Our correctional officers work an often thankless, dangerous job, and we need to have their backs,” Angelino said during a news conference. “While I still believe HALT should be repealed, this proposal represents a step in the right direction.”
Angelino also criticized current state leadership, arguing that existing policies have prioritized incarcerated individuals over staff safety.
The legislation now heads into the state’s legislative process, where lawmakers will debate whether changes to the HALT Act can address both safety concerns and staffing challenges inside New York’s correctional system.
What should lawmakers know about the impact of segregation policies on corrections officers and facility safety?
Corrections1 readers respond:
- The HALT act has definitely impacted inmate behavior and staff morale. As an employee, certain disciplinary sanctions that were removed has impacted the Prison population as to what they can get away with. I do agree with shortening some of their SHU time, but not by sending them to an RRU after 15 days in the SHU. Prison is supposed to have an impact on delinquent behavior. What has happened is that this law has taken away the disciplinary control from security officials. In turn, now nobody wants to apply for the position, which accounts for the shortage. Offering more incentives to apply is not the answer. All we workers want is a safe place to work and see that those incarcerated individuals get fair treatment but equal discipline for bad behavior.
- I am a CO. The halt act needs to go. When inmates know that no matter what they have to get a mandatory 7 hrs out, we can’t properly do our jobs. I have had blood spit on me and he got to have 7 hrs out to do the same thing every time. So for 7 hrs we have to deal with him breaking rule and putting other CO in danger. Nobody wants our jobs. We have no one fighting for us. We need to be able to control Inmates. They are there because they can’t follow rules why are we bending over backwards for people that don’t follow rules and can’t be in society
- I believe that before decisions are made as far as policies and procedures, those who are making these decisions should put on the uniform without any special protection, and work for 90 days as an officer in every area of these prisons. Then and only then, when they have an idea what they are talking about, should they be allowed to have an opinion. Right now, they don’t have a clue.
- I do not agree that Officers within the NYS DOCCS would use the rules as they should to place an incarcerated person in solitary confinement. A lot of the NYS COs abuse their authority, are very aggressive toward incarcerated individuals, use profanity at the incarcerated individuals and when questioned about their UNPROFESSIONAL behavior, false written statements are made against the incarcerated individuals, resulting in segregated housing. There needs to be an INDEPENDENT monitor to determine if the incarcerated individual should be placed in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement to me is INHUMANE and should be ABOLISHED!!! If the incarcerated individual brings harm to others or staff, then solitary confinement should be the very last resort. Perhaps have a boot camp to help alleviate the stress of being already confined in a NYS Prison. There have to be other solutions than just keeping an incarcerated individual confined to a cell for 23 hours a day.
- It’s never been properly implemented since it became law so how can we change something that has never been properly implemented? Also, it’s inhumane treatment, and we know it is, but we keep trying to lock people away and take their packages and commissary away and still lock them up in solitary confinement is pure evil. If an inmate is subjected to solitary confinement, that should be the punishment alone not take away food packages and commissary too, that’s beyond inhumane.
- You realize that if these measures pass, it will apply to the former guards convicted on various counts, including manslaughter and murder in the recent killing of Robert Brooks as well as future ex-guards entering the ranks of convicts--with perhaps some corrupt ex-legislators, judges and prosecutors. What then, when the tables are turned?
- If an Inmate knows the rules, then his or her actions need to be answered for. I worked 25 years at a Jail that housed over 500 inmates. I was fortunate to have never sustained any serious injuries in those 25. However, I can’t say that for many of my brothers or sisters I worked with. Most of those injuries were sustained because the rules favored the inmates. I’m in no way saying to mistreat an inmate, but instead make them accountable for their actions and document it. This would be for the protection of the staff and other Inmates. All inmates are supplied with the rules for the facility and if they break a rule they need to live with the consequences of their actions. What’s crueler, locking someone in a cell by themselves for breaking a serious rule or having a spouse and their kids visit them in the hospital? In my time while working at the jail, I lost two fellow officers due to an inmate not having to answer for his repeated actions. Allowing him a better opportunity to kill one officer and injuring another so badly he died way before his time. Things are being taken too lightly and officers are not being protected to the degree they should be. Maybe some of the lawmakers should work a shift or two in a prison, it might just send a message.
