fire 2,000 officers<\/a>, leaving the already precarious system even more dangerously understaffed.<\/p>\n\u201cThey\u2019re going to use that against all of us. They\u2019re doing everything they can to harass the employees and punish us and make life easier for the inmates,\u201d one corrections officer told The Post.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0memo cited other reclassifications or downgrades. For instance, throwing an empty milk carton at the back of a guard would be written up as disruptive behavior or harassment \u2014 and only constitute an assault if the inmate hurled a frozen milk carton at the guard.<\/p>\n
In another hypothetical case cited by D\u2019Amore, an inmate abruptly runs to the back of the cell while an officer is trying to remove the mechanical restraints from him \u2014 pulling the officer\u2019s arms into the cell. The action would be classified as harassment or disruptive behavior, not an assault.<\/p>\n
The inmate would be charged with assault if he swings the restraints and hits an officer in the shoulder and thigh, D\u2019Amore said.<\/p>\n
The union representing correctional officers in prisons slammed the reclassification.<\/p>\n
A bombshell Dec. 31, 2025 memo issued by the state Corrections Department\u2019s deputy commissioner Michael D\u2019Amore (pictured) lays out examples of what constitutes an assault and what\u2019s considered the lower classification of harassment or disruptive behavior. Department of Corrections<\/p>\n
\u201cMark our words: A year from now, DOCCS [Department of Corrections and Community Supervision] will be touting that the number of assaults has dropped and prisons are much safer when, in reality, it\u2019s because they refuse to acknowledge the harsh reality that our members are facing dangerous situations every day.,\u201d the Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association said in a statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose dangerous situations won\u2019t be fully tracked under DOCCS\u2019 new definition,\u201d the union said. \u201cLowering assault numbers without further defining other dangerous situations runs the risk of making it look like the failed policies of the NYS Legislature are working.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union advocated strongly for additional definitions for inmate offenses to include menacing and reckless endangerment.<\/p>\n
\u201cNYSCOPBA refused to consent to the assault definition changes without these critical expansions, as narrowing the assault definition alone fails to capture the full realities of the risks our officers encounter daily. Despite our position, DOCCS has proceeded unilaterally to implement the revised definitions,\u201d the union said.<\/p>\n
Over 2,000 national guard troops remain deployed in the prisons as DOCCS hasn\u2019t come anywhere near to rebuilding its workforce pre-strike.<\/p>\n
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman called the reclassification in prisons \u201cunacceptable.\u201d James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n
The strike was precipitated in-part by a different memo sent around by DOCCS about reducing staffing levels for facilities.<\/p>\n
Blakeman also said the New York HALT Act limiting solitary confinement has led to more inmate attacks on corrections officers.<\/p>\n
Since Hochul signed the HALT Act in 2022, violence inside New York\u2019s correctional facilities has skyrocketed, he said.<\/p>\n
Inmate-on-staff assaults surged to 2,072 in 2024, a 39% increase from the 1,490 recorded in 2022, the year HALT was enacted.<\/p>\n
Inmate-on-inmate assaults reached a whopping 2,984 in 2024, more than double the 1,474 tallied two years prior.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThese numbers expose the truth Hochul wants to hide,\u201d Blakeman said. \u201cHer policies made prisons more dangerous, and now her administration is reclassifying assaults to make the statistics look better. This isn\u2019t reform \u2014 it\u2019s a cover-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
D\u2019Amore, in the memo, defended the reclassification as fair, and not going soft on inmate violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cFundamental to the determination that an assault has occurred is the intent to injure another person, whether or not an injury has occurred,\u201d the deputy commissioner for correctional facilities said.<\/p>\n
An inmate will be charged with assault if he throws bodily fluid or excrement at a corrections officer, as would fondling the buttocks of a staffer, added D\u2019Amore.<\/p>\n
DOCCS said that \u201cAny claim that\u00a0 the definition of \u2018assault\u2019 has been watered down is patently false.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety of everyone in our facilities is our top priority, which is why, pursuant to the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with NYSCOPBA that ended the illegal job action, we agreed to meet and review the current definition of assault used to track violence,\u201d the department said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new definition was developed with NYSCOPBA leadership, who have been fully involved and included in these discussions on behalf of their members. These changes allow us to hold incarcerated individuals who assault and harass our staff accountable to the fullest extent of the law and allow us to better identify instances of physical harm so we can intervene sooner and better protect our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hochul\u2019s office had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n
The head of the union representing officers patrolling Nassau County jails was horrified by the state\u2019s reclassification, saying that it won\u2019t help address a staffing shortage in correctional facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe memo is telling supervisors to manipulate the classification of assaults,\u201d said Peter Lilli, president of the\u00a0 Nassau County Correction Officers Benevolent Association. \u201cViolence is leading to a statewide recruitment issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saritha Komatireddy, a Republican candidate for state attorney general and former federal prosecutor said,\u00a0 \u201cMinimizing assaults on law enforcement is unacceptable and unjust. Everyone in New York deserves to be safe, including correctional officers who put themselves at risk every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a federal prosecutor, I went after those who attacked prison guards, to the fullest the fullest extent of the law. As Attorney General, I will have the back of ALL our law enforcement, including COs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hochul administration is being accused of covering up crimes in prisons by downgrading\u00a0attacks committed by inmates against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1626,303,3677,19998,426,57,9,24,55,54,56,4719,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-91651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-bruce-blakeman","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-governors","11":"tag-inmates","12":"tag-kathy-hochul","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-city-news","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-prisons","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91651","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=91651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}