Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that she is “excited” about efforts which she described as “redoing our prison system” in the wake of a three-week illegal strike by correction officers across the state.
The governor’s response to the strike may have ultimately sent 75% of officers back to work after days of back and forth, but it has infuriated advocates for the HALT Act as certain aspects of the law, which limits the use of solitary confinement and replaces aspects of it with rehabilitative programming, remain on a 90-day suspension. The governor blamed that suspension in part on the 25% of officers who refused to return.
“That has unfortunately been suspended because I am now down not just the original 2,000 correction officers, but we have an additional 2,000,” she said referring to existing staffing issues that fueled the strike. “I’m going to keep the National Guard there for a while but I want to rethink the whole system.”…