GUARDS ON STRIKE AT 25 STATE PRISONS; ‘DOOMSDAY’ PLAN ACTIVATED; NAT’L GUARD TO DEPLOY
‘THE FIRES HAVE BEEN LIT. THE LIST IS GROWING’
Striking New York State Correction Officers outside the Bare Hill Correctional Facility on Tuesday. Photo credit: JB Nicholas
EXCLUSIVE
Feb. 18, 2025
State officials in Albany enacted a “doomsday plan” in an attempt to manage spiraling chaos inside New York’s prisons as a wildcat strike by guards that began at two facilities in Western New York spread across the state like wildfire on Tuesday.
“The fires have been lit. The list is growing,” Amanda Coryea, who described herself as a “sergeant’s wife,” said in a early Tuesday morning Facebook post. “At 5am this morning, fires were lit in the parking lot of a closed gas station. Upstate Correctional Facility officially joined the strike.”
Correction Officers from 25 state prisons are now on strike, according to the state agency that manages New York’s prisons, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS. Guards at Groveland and Lakeview Correctional Facilities previously joined the strike Monday afternoon. Guards from the medium-security Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Franklin County and more joined striking guards from Collins and Elmira Correctional Facilities on Tuesday.
Guards and their supporters also protested at Upstate, Franklin, Bare Hill, Otisville and Clinton.
Striking New York State Correction Officers outside the Bare Hill Correctional Facility on Monday. Photo credits: JB NIcholas.
Because of the strike, DOCCS cancelled visiting at Attica, Auburn, Five Points, Upstate, Clinton, Wende and Eastern New York Correctional Facilities, “until further notice.”
DOCCS central office in Albany sent an emergency message to the superintendents of all New York’s 42 prisons to enact “doomsday” plans.
“Effective immediately facilities shall enact 24 hour executive team coverage,” the message directed. “All facilities shall run a holiday schedule. beginning 2/18/25 until further notice.”
“All exec team members shall review Section 11 of the RED book, which is the section to be followed for the occurance of an employee, job action,” the message added.
The guards witnessed by The Free Lance striking outside Bare Hill declined to speak to a reporter. They stood around burn barrels. Some held protest signs. Two held Blue Lives Matter flags.
But yesterday Kenny Gold, vice-president of the Western Region for the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, told ABC News’ Buffalo affiliate, WKBW TV, that guards felt "like their backs are up against the wall."
The strike is not sanctioned by the union, so their strike is an unauthorized, or wildcat strike.
Strikes by all public employees are illegal under New York's Taylor Law. Under the Taylor law, striking guards face automatic loss of two days' pay for every day on 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. It still holds the record for largest strike by prison workers in America.
Gov. Hugh Carey had to activate the National Guard. More than 12,000 were deployed to secure New York’s prisons. They faced resistence from the union for crossing the picket lines. Striking guards harassed the soldiers, and destroyed National Guard property.
The public information officer for the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, which controls the National Guard, said early Tuesday afternoon that Gov. Kathy Hochul has not yet given mobilization orders.
That changed an hour later, when Gov. Hochul gave the order.
“The illegal and unlawful actions being taken by a number of correction officers must end immediately," Governor Hochul said. "We will not allow these individuals to jeopardize the safety of their colleagues, incarcerated people, and the residents of communities surrounding our correctional facilities.”
Meanwhile, inside the prisons, parole board hearings at Collins were cancelled, a sergeant in street clothes was dispensing medication at Auburn, Orleans, Washington and Fivepoints are locked-down, and no one has been fed breakfast or given medication, according to messages and telephone calls family members of prisoners received from loved ones.
DOCCS responded to the strikes by calling them “illegal job actions.” The strikes are “jeopardizing the safety and security of their co-workers.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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