GUARDS SAY STRIKE 'TRAPPED' THEM IN NY PRISON, SOME FREED ON SUNDAY
CORRECTION OFFICERS AT FRANKLIN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY SAY THEY WERE 'TRAPPED’ FOR A WEEK BECAUSE OF A STRIKE BY THEIR COLLEAGUES
A Corrections Sergeant at the Franklin Correctional Facility greets his wife after working almost a week inside as a strike by his colleagues engulfed New York’s prison system. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
EXCLUSIVE
Feb. 23, 2025
Correction Officers inside a prison in upstate New York say a strike by fellow guards now in its seventh day left them "trapped."
"We are the officers inside Franklin Correctional Facility, trapped within these walls, doing everything we can to uphold security for this facility and the surrounding community," the guards wrote in an Open Letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The letter was signed by "The Security Staff of Franklin Correctional Facility." It was published by the wife of a sergeant inside the prison on Facebook Sunday morning.
"This comes directly from those inside Franklin Correctional Facility," Stephanie Paige wrote in a public post. "I have been asked to share."
"For 144 hours and counting, many of us have been locked inside, unable to see our families," the letter said. "We do this not because we want to, but because we have no choice. If we leave, who will protect this facility?"
The letter concluded with a demand for "implementation of real, substantial changes to our work environment." This "is not about privilege or power—it is about survival." It is "about ensuring those who serve and protect are also protected."
The strike started at the Elmira and Collins Correctional Facilities in western New York on Monday morning, The Free Lance reported. By Wednesday night, guards at all but two of New York's 42 prison were on strike. On Thursday, Gov. Hochul deployed the National Guard to replacing striking Correction Officers.
Some were sleeping in cells.
Even before the strike, New York's prison system was facing a crisis. It’s not just the fallout from the murder of Robert Brooks. It’s also mass suspected Fentanyl "exposure" incidents, what Inspector General Lucy Lang called "significant workers’ compensation-driven staffing shortages" and a scarcity of new recruits.
Two weeks ago, the union that represents prison guards, the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, NYSCOPBA, voted it had no confidence in the commissioner of the state prison system, Daniel F. Martuscello.
"Families are afraid," Kelly Gordon, told The Free Lance on Tuesday. "They're afraid their loved one is gonna get drugged. They're afraid that they're gonna get cut."
Thomas Mailey, spokesperson for the state agency that manages New York's prisons, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS, did not respond to a request for comment on the guards’ claim they were "trapped" inside the facility.
Because the strike is technically illegal, strikers generally decline to speak to the press. Guards who remained working also did not want to be identified and could not speak to the press without permission from their employer, DOCCS. That left it up to retired guards and the family members of guards to speak for them.
Two sources, one inside the guards' union, said the Correction Officers inside Franklin were not physically trapped inside the prison. They remained inside because they preferred it to leaving and crossing a picket line when they returned. If they failed to return, their bosses told them, they would be declared AWOL.
Three sources revealed a unique situation had developed inside Franklin. The prisoners, they said, were working with guards to maintain order.
“They even ask us if we we’re alright,” one recalled, with amazement.
After striking guards rejected a personal plea to return to work by Donald Uhler, Superintendent of the Upstate Correctional Facility, a few lingered to hug colleagues who went back to work inside the prison. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Meanwhile, a 1/2-mile up the road in front of the tower-guarded gate to the Upstate Correctional Facility, Superintendent Donald Uhler was begging the roughly 100 striking officers surrounding him to return to work.
"Please, please, please, I need you back to work," Uhler pleaded under a steel-gray winter sky as snow began to fall. "Please, please, I need you."
The strikers turn their backs on their cancer-surviving boss. A handful lingered for a moment to hug colleagues who, like Uhler, returned to work inside the prison—like sailors determined to go down with the ship.
Before he did, Superintendent Uhler turned to this reporter who’d ask who he was and answered the question by barking “Get off my property.”
Back outside the Franklin Correctional Facility Sunday afternoon, about 150 striking guards and their families stood around fires burning in 55-gallon steel drums. Young children slid down 10-foot tall banks of snow that had been plowed back to make room for them. Some stayed warm around propane heaters inside a long wooden cabin that had been donated by a local business. The mayor of the nearby town of Malone visited them.
Some were waiting for family members inside the prison to step outside. One of them was an older man waiting for his son.
"I hope to see him today," the man said. The man said his son had been working inside the facility when the strike went state-wide on Tuesday and had been working inside Franklin since.
"They work 12 hours, 12 hours off," the man revealed.
Striking New York State Correction Officers hug colleagues who said they were “trapped” inside the Franklin Correctional Facility for a week by a guard strike. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
All afternoon, guards still in their uniforms exited the facility and crossed the street to greet their striking colleagues. They all received long hugs from dozens of people. Some eventually left, some went back inside the prison.
Stephanie Paige was among those standing outside the prison, with her daughter, waiting to finally hug her husband. It was Stephanie who, hours before, published the Franklin guards' open letter to Gov. Kathy HochuL.
Sgt. Paige walked out of the prison shortly after 3:00 PM, into the arms of his wife and daughter, who rushed across the street to greet him.
The Governor’s office did not respond to an invitation to comment.
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