GOV. KATHY HOCHUL, LAWMAKERS AGREE TO CLOSE 5 PRISONS, 2000 FIRED GUARDS FACE STARK FUTURES
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL EXPLAINS MOVE: 'I'M DOWN 4,000 GUARDS. I NEED TO CONSOLIDATE NOW’
Site of formerly striking Correction Officers across the road from the Franklin Correctional Facility. Photo credit: via Facebook.
Mar. 12, 2025
The 2000 state prison guards fired by Gov. Kathy Hochul for waging a 22-day long strike are waking up to stark futures.
The governor also banned all of them from ever working for New York again—per an executive order she signed on Monday.
It was a double-blow for guards from rural areas, where other state jobs are one of the few remaining kinds of good-paying work available.
Democratic Assembly member Billy Jones, who represents a rural area in the Adirondacks with multiple prisons, blasted the move as "vindictive." Steve McLaughlin, the Rensselaer County Executive, called it "ridiculous" and vowed not to enforce it.
Not counting the military and U.S. Postal Service, it is among the largest mass firing of public employees since then-Pres. Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 Air Traffic Controllers in 1981.
While the harsh news was sinking in, dozens of guards received letters from the State officially informing them they were fired. About 300, some with family and friends in tow, were in court in Buffalo to answer a judge's demand they appear or be arrested.
In court, a lawyer from State Attorney General Letitia James' office said they would not ask the court to jail any of the alleged strikers. They might, however, ask for a collective fine of $77 million, split between all of the estimated 7,500-plus strikers.
For the 2000 fired guards, it was a dark day.
Blake North, a sergeant at the Altona Correctional Facility, openly contemplated suicide in a Facebook video. The 20-year veteran intended it as a public service message to encourage others with dark thoughts to talk openly about them.
"Those of you, thinking about it, don't say you aren't thinking it. I know you fuckers," North said. "I've lost a few of you. And mostly this job is what led them do it."
268 officers and sergeants were fired at the Upstate Correctional Facility, about an hour west of Altona outside the town of Malone. It was 2/3 of the total force at the maximum—security disciplinary prison, Amanda Coryea, a vocal supporter of the strike and wife of a sergeant, said.
Upstate strikers vowed "battle to the very end" in the name of a prison nurse who lost an unborn child after she was exposed to a suspected synthetic drug at work.
A spokesman for the state agency that operates New York's prisons, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, would not confirm how many guards and sergeants were fired at Upstate.
“As announced by Commissioner Martuscello on a briefing Monday evening, approximately 2,000 corrections officers and sergeants have been terminated,” DOCCS spokesman Thomas Mailey said. “For security reasons, we are not giving specific numbers by facility.”
Devin Hooper was one of the guards fired at Upstate. His "family was holding up the best they can," Hooper said on Tuesday, "especially with cutting the health insurance. And everything else they've done to hurt us."
Andrea Dumas is Malone's mayor. Her 30-year-old daughter, Morgan, was among the guards from Upstate fired.
"Why didn't Albany listen? Why is safety so hard for them to understand?," Mayor Dumas said on Tuesday. "Firing 2,000 correction officers fighting for essential safety reforms exposes Albany's dangerous indifference to human lives."
The mayor explained the mass firings were "DEVASTATING local businesses." She added families would be "CRUSHED under unpaid bills. Savings are GONE. The financial devastation intensifies DAILY while Albany continues to IGNORE the crisis they created."
Meanwhile in Albany, Gov. Hochul met with state lawmakers and secured a handshake deal for a new law allowing her to close five prisons next fiscal year, beginning Apr. 1, Tom Eschen reported for CBS News 6.
The deal was not in Gov. Hochul's original budget proposal to the legislature. Eschen reported she added it after the strikes started Feb. 17.
Gov. Hochul defended the mass firings and her plan to close five prisons in a news conference on Tuesday.
"I'm down 4,000 guards," she said. "I need to consolidate now, so I can manage the [prisoner] population with the fewer people that I have that are doing it. I'm down 4,000 people."
When asked whether the firings were too harsh, she didn't just answer no she basically said hell no.
"Individuals walked off their jobs, and left the incarcerated population alone," Gov. Hochul explained. That "created a dangerous situation."
It was also "wildly expensive for taxpayers, approaching $100 million dollars."
"There are consequences when people break the law," Gov. Hochul concluded. "And that means you're not working in our state work force—ever."
The move conflicts with New York’s official criminal justice policy, which gives second chances in employment to ex-felons.
Back inside New York’s prisons, the fired guards said it was worse than ever.
Former Auburn Correctional Facility Sgt. Dennis F. Rossbach, who turned himself into a social media influencer during the strike, said “They’re hell inside right now. Nobody’s good right now. Nobody’s good.”
North, the fired guard talking about suicide, said New York was so short-staffed now there was a real risk of inmates revolting and taking over a prison.
“It’s gonna be worse than ever. They’re going to lose one of those jails.”
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