that were recommended by a special committee that studied the law<\/a> as a result of the correction officer strike last year. The HALT Act originally went into effect in 2022, and aims to reduce the use of solitary confinement in prisons. Repealing or making major changes to the law was a primary demand from those on strike at prisons across the state in 2025.<\/p>\n\u201cWe also call on you to work with lawmakers to strengthen New York\u2019s contraband laws \u00a0with stronger penalties for smuggling drugs, weapons and toxic materials into correctional facilities \u2014 whether through visitors, mail, packages, or coordinated external deliveries,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n
NYSCOPBA also urges an end to housing two individuals in a single cell, which the organization says significantly increases the risk of assaults and fatalities while making it more difficult for staff to maintain order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety of the men and women who work in our state prisons \u2014 and the stability of the entire correctional system \u2014 now rests on your leadership. We implore you to use the full weight of your office to ensure these critical reforms are passed swiftly. We stand ready to meet with you or your staff at your earliest convenience to provide any additional information or support you may require,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n
In response, Hochul told reporters Monday in Buffalo that the state\u2019s prisons still don\u2019t have the staff numbers she wants to have in there.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur prison system is complicated challenging place. Lay on top of that an unprecedented illegal strike that brought the system to its knees when thousands of people who took an oath of office to protect the incarcerated population \u2014 and by extension their communities \u2014 walked of the jobs, I\u2019m still paying for that,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cWe\u2019re spending an enormous amount of money to backfill the people who left their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hochul also said there are programs and learning initiatives envisioned under the HALT Act that can\u2019t be implemented until the prison system becomes fully staffed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not satisfied with the conditions within our prisons, I will say that right now, and our corrections officers do some of the hardest work in our entire state and I respect them,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cI just feel bad for the ones who are left behind because they were abandoned by others who made those who stayed their jobs much harder.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York state Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) in a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109,116,257,270,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,112,87,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-203517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","10":"tag-central-ny","11":"tag-luke-parsnow","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}