{"id":337157,"date":"2026-09-03T18:14:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/337157\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T18:14:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:14:21","slug":"new-york-national-guard-continues-staffing-state-prisons-after-correction-officer-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/337157\/","title":{"rendered":"New York National Guard continues staffing state prisons after correction officer strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY, N.Y. \u2014 About 2,600 New York National Guard members remain assigned to state prisons more than a year after correction officers returned to work, a deployment one lawmaker\u2019s office estimates is costing the state $50 million a month.<\/p>\n

The National Guard was sent into correctional facilities after correction officers began an unauthorized statewide strike in February 2025<\/a>. Although the strike ended the following month, troops remained to support prison operations amid an ongoing correction officer shortage, WWNY reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Guard\u2019s 2025 annual report<\/a>, published in July, says troops remained in prisons as part of the state\u2019s agreement with the correction officers\u2019 union to help reduce mandatory overtime for correction officers. The mandatory deployment shifted to a volunteer mission April 1, 2025, with those who stayed receiving a $2,000 bonus every two weeks in addition to regular state active-duty pay and allowances.<\/p>\n

More than 8,000 Guard members served in 42 state prisons during 2025, collectively working more than 800,000 workdays. The deployment peaked at more than 7,300 troops, and nearly 3,000 remained assigned to prisons at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

More than 3,100 Guard members completed a weeklong training course before taking on duties that included conducting head counts, delivering meals and monitoring incarcerated people in cells and dormitories, Task & Purpose reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Mark Walczyk questioned whether the deployment should continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody signed up for the National Guard to staff a prison,\u201d Walczyk told WWNY. \u201cIt was never the mission of New York\u2019s National Guard to fill in and do a bunch of state jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assemblyman Scott Gray, whose office provided the $50 million monthly estimate, called the model too costly. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very expensive model,\u201d Gray said. \u201cThis is not the way it\u2019s designed to run, and it still doesn\u2019t answer the systemic problems that we have in the facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray said the state must address concerns surrounding the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act (HALT), prison contraband and correction officers\u2019 quality of life.<\/p>\n

Bryan Hluska, central region vice president for the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said the Guard remains necessary while the state recruits more correction officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore National Guard is really the only short-term solution,\u201d Hluska told WWNY. \u201cI agree we shouldn\u2019t be relying on it as a long-term solution. We need to really focus on our recruitment efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said it has expanded recruitment since the strike, including raising pay, offering a $3,000 sign-on bonus, lowering the minimum application age to 18 and opening correction officer positions to out-of-state residents.<\/p>\n

The department reports a 155% increase in people taking the correction officer exam, a 64% increase in academy appointments and a 43% increase in academy graduates. It did not provide the underlying totals for those percentages on its recruitment initiative webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul has continued to renew the disaster emergency authorizing the Guard\u2019s presence. The latest executive order<\/a>, issued Aug. 14, says continued support is needed to preserve staff resources and safely operate the state\u2019s correctional facilities. It remains in effect through Sept. 13.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Cois<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Jurors found a Riverside County correctional deputy negligently ignored intercom calls about Richard Matus Jr.\u2019s medical emergency, contributing to his 2022 death\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"US-NEWS-SEVENTH-INMATE-DIES-DOC-CUSTODY-1-NY.jpg\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Clarence Woodward died after a medical emergency at Rikers Island one week after Christopher Rodriguez died in DOC custody at Bellevue Hospital\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"hqdefault.jpg\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The judge found prosecutors failed to show that Deputy Richard Fatherley\u2019s actions during the restraint directly caused Charles Adair\u2019s death\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Tyler<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Acquisition to advance mission-critical public safety operations in the cloud\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY, N.Y. \u2014 About 2,600 New York National Guard members remain assigned to state prisons more than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-337157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337157","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=337157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}