COURT ISSUES 'ARREST WARRANTS' AS STRIKE BY NY’S PRISON GUARDS NOW LONGEST STRIKE BY JAIL WORKERS IN US HISTORY
STATE SUPREME COURT JUDGE IN BUFFALO DEMANDS STRIKERS APPEAR AT COURT HEARING AND EXPLAIN WHY THEY SHOULDN'T BE JAILED
Strikling New York State Correction Officers outside the Clinton Correctional Facility. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
EXCLUSIVE
Mar. 5, 2025
The wildcat strike by New York's prison guards stretched into its 17th day with no end in sight on Wednesday, setting a new record for longest strike in American history by prison workers.
16 days was the previous record, also set by New York’s guards in 1979.
Meanwhile, the first of the illegally striking guards are set to face the music in a Buffalo courtroom next Tuesday.
State Attorney General Letitia James is asking a judge to jail and fine 145 officers from 29 prisons "for disobedience and/or resistance wilfully offered to the lawful mandate of the New York State Supreme Court."
“YOUR FAILURE TO APPEAR IN COURT MAY RESULT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT," an order issued by State Supreme Court Justice Dennis E. Ward on Monday says.
The strike started at the Elmira and Collins Correctional Facilities in western New York Dec. 17, The Free Lance reported. It spread like wildfire to almost all of New York's 42 prisons. 9 out of 10 guards went on strike.
Prison officials had to activate their "doomsday plan." To replace the striking guards, Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed more than 6,500 National Guard soldiers. Some were sleeping in cells. One said it was “Worse than Afghanistan."
Strikes by all public employees are illegal under New York's Taylor Law. Striking guards face automatic loss of two days' pay for every day on strike.
They also face imprisonment for contempt of court, if they continue to strike.
That didn't stop the 7,000-or-so who worked in all of New York's prisons from going on strike on April 18, 1979. Like Gov. Hochul, Gov. Hugh Carey had to activate the National Guard. More than 12,000 were deployed to secure New York’s prisons. It lasted 16 days
Until now, it held the record for largest strike by prison workers in America.
While this strike started at Elmira and Collins in February, it has roots in a mess hall brawl at Collins that sent five Correction Officers to the hospital in 2023.
Guards blamed the HALT Act for the fiasco—criminal justice reform legislation signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021. The HALT Act limited the time prisoners can be locked in solitary confinement to 15 days. The striking guards say it compromised their control of prisons.
"Reversal of the HALT bill, enabling meaningful and just disciplinary actions," is striking guards' first demand.
While the union representing New York's prison guards says it didn’t sanction the strike, Gov. Hochul ordered state officials to negotiate with it.
Leaders from the New York Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, NYSCOPBA, met with leaders from the state agency that manages New York's prison system, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, DOCCS, starting on Monday the week of Feb. 24.
The negotiations were facilitated by Martin F. Scheinman, a professional arbitrator both sides agreed to. He facilitated the talks via video conference from Florida. After 4 days, Scheinman proposed a "deal" that suspended the HALT Act for 90 days, among other things.
Strikers rejected the deal. Some returned to work, most stayed on the line.
Meanwhile in Buffalo, Attorney General James sued the union and more than 300 named guards for striking illegally under the Taylor law the same day the strike began, Feb. 17. Justice Ward granted James' request for a temporary restraining order and directed the guards to return to work on Feb. 19.
Strikerss ignored Justice Ward's order. It is that order James is seeking to enforce against individual guards.
About 8,000 guards and sergeants are still striking, James' office said in court filings. Instead of attempting to serve and jail all 8,000, the Attorney General is targeting 145 officers at 29 prisons. They're being ordered to appear in Justice Ward's Buffalo courtroom at 11:00 AM on Mar. 11.
James is asking Ward to declare all 145 officers in contempt and jail them for "a period of incarceration of not more than six months or until the contempt is purged," James’ legal filings say.
She is also asking the judge to impose a $250 per day fine on each of the strikers and a collective "fine sufficient to indemnify DOCCS for actual losses it sustained because of Respondent’s misconduct."
According to officials' calculations, the bill as of Feb. 27 was $25 million. If it stretches to a month, it will be $106,183,947, according to court filings.
NYSCOPBA held a news conference on Wednesday.
The strike was "a culmination of frustration that has built among members since the HALT Act began in April of 2022," James Miller, the union's spokesman, said. "As a result of HALT, violence steadily climbed to reach epidemic levels that exist today."
"We have communicated to the governor's office on a number of occasions," Miller added, "and relayed to them that officers were at a breaking point and crying out for help."
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