'LET THE BOYS IN BLUE TAKE BACK THEIR PRISONS': STRIKE BY NY GUARDS SPREADS
WIVES DEMAND HELP FROM GOV. KATHY HOCHUL
Feb. 17, 2025
About 150 guards and their wives protested outside three upstate New York prisons Monday afternoon in solidarity with striking colleagues at two other prisons as the labor unrest spread.
"Families are afraid," Kelly Gordon, told The Free Lance. "They're afraid their loved one is gonna get drugged. They're afraid that they're gonna get cut. They're afraid that they're gonna get the shit kicked out of them."
"These are our sons, our daughters, our families," Gordon added. "What about them? What about their rights? This is wrong."
Guards at the Collins and Elmira Correctional Facilities staged wildcat strikes Monday morning, The Free Lance exclusively reported. The protest Monday afternoon, whiched marched on the Upstate, Bare Hill and Franklin Correctional Facilities, was in solidarity with their striking colleagues.
Because job rules prevent guards from speaking to reporters without permission from their employer, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS, their wives and mothers spoke for them. They had a mouthful to say to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who they blamed for the strike.
"She's sitting in a comfortable office," Ramona Bordeau, wife and mother of guards, said. "She doesn't care about her boys."
"Let her go in there. Let her go into the prisons and see what goes on in that prison," Bordeau added. "This is bullshit."
The three prisons protesters visited Monday afternoon are clustered together near the Canadian border outside the town of Malone. Andrea Dumas, Malone's mayor, issued a dire warning about the prisons in a Jan. 24 Facebook post.
"The situation deteriorates daily," Dumas warned, "with staff facing mandatory triple shifts. Those who can't work these extreme hours face write-ups, disciplinary action, and threats of fines. Staff are quitting due to unsafe conditions. "
New York State Correction Officers with wives and other family members protested outside the Upstate, Barehill and Franklin Correctional Facilities on Monday afternoon in solidarity with striking colleagues at Collins and Elmira. Photo credit: JB Nicholas..
On Monday, guards and former guards gathered around this reporter and spoke freely on condition of anonymity. Echoing their colleagues, they said the number one problem for them was the HALT Act, which restricted prison officials' ability to impose solitary confinement on inmates for misconduct.
The HALT Act, they said, took the teeth out of the administrative disciplinary system for prisoners, fostering disorder and assaults on both staff and other inmates.
But Jerome Wright, co-director of the #HALT Solitary Campaign, told The Free Lance that the HALT Act "allows violent prisoners to be segregated, to protect staff and other prisoners, they just can't isolate them."
Besides, Wright said, "They never fully implemented HALT so how can it be a problem? They just want to keep a perpetual paradigm of punishment."
Late in the day, guards at Lakeview and Groveland facilities appeared to have joined the strike.
Guards also protested outside the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility and the Otisville Correctional Facility.
Protest by guards and families outside the Clinton Correctional Facility. Photos by the Plattsburgh Street Team via Facebook
The guards and their wives said compulsory overtime was also a big problem that sapped morale and threatened public safety.
DOCCS is currently operating with about 2/3 of its budgeted force of guard—requiring the remaining officers who do show up to work double and triple shifts.
This doesn't just affect the safety of everyone inside the prison, the protesters said, it also threatens people on the outside because sleep-deprived guards have to drive home—and some have hours' long commutes.
The wives stressed the impact of mandatory extra-shifts on family life.
"Never knowing if my husband is coming home at the end of his shift," Erin Muller said. "We would plan things, and have to cancel. After a while we stopped planning."
The mandatory extra-shifts, Muller said, were one of the reasons her husband retired in August.
But invariably the protesters' complaints came back to the HALT Act, and what they said was its disastrous effect on officer safety, morale and discipline within the prison.
Bordeau, whose husband and son both work for DOCCS, pleaded: "Let the boys in blue take back their prisons."
In response to the labor strife and the strikes at Collins and Elmira, DOCCS' issued this statement:
“Since Commissioner Martuscello took office, the State negotiated a new labor agreement with NYSCOPBA that includes yearly salary increases, increases in location pay, and paid parental leave. We have also instituted new policies and procedures to reduce the amount of contraband entering our facilities to increase the safety of all within our facilities. We value our employees and are dedicated to continuing the recruiting efforts to increase security staffing in all DOCCS correctional facilities to restore the important work life balance for all.
“The job actions initiated by some rogue NYSCOPBA members, at Collins and Elmira Correctional Facilities this morning are illegal and unlawful. We are committed to engaging the union in order to return staff to work and resume normal operations at the two facilities.
“Visitation at both facilities have been cancelled until further notice.”
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