More than 2,000 state prison officers who failed to return to work after three weeks of wildcat strikes have been fired and will be barred from future law enforcement and other civil service jobs in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday.
The affected officers, unlike 5,000 of their striking colleagues, spurned a Monday deadline set by their union and state officials as part of an agreement to end the labor actions, which, although illegal under state law and not authorized by the union, spread to nearly all of New York’s prisons.
The deal to end the strikes was contingent on 85 percent of officers’ returning to the job by Monday morning. Although not enough strikers went back to meet that threshold, Ms. Hochul declared the strike over and said the state would fulfill its obligations under the agreement.
“Today, we can finally say this work stoppage is over and move forward towards making our prisons safer for all, supporting our correctional staff and recruiting the correction officers of the future,” the governor said in a statement.
Ms. Hochul signed an executive order on Tuesday prohibiting officers who did not meet the deadline from future state employment and local law enforcement jobs. It made good on a threat to punish those who stayed out of work in defiance of a state civil service law that prohibits most public employees from striking.
In the order, the governor justified her action by citing a provision of the civil service law that “authorizes the disqualification of applicants for civil service employment who have previously been dismissed from public service for misconduct.”
A spokesman for the officers’ union, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, declined to comment on the strikes’ end, the deal that prompted it or Ms. Hochul’s punishment of the holdouts.
With the strikes over, about 10,000 officers were available to work at the state’s 42 correctional facilities on Tuesday, officials said, compared with about 13,500 before the work stoppage began at two prisons in mid-February.
About 6,000 National Guard troops that Ms. Hochul deployed to maintain order in the system amid the strikes will remain in prisons in a support role for an unspecified period, officials said.
Striking officers said they had been driven to walk out by severe staff shortages, excessive forced overtime and dangerous working conditions. A state law limiting the use of solitary confinement was particularly contentious. Officers said it created hazards for them and incarcerated people alike by preventing violent inmates from being properly isolated.
As part of the agreement to end the strikes, corrections officials said that some provisions of the law, the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement, or HALT, Act, would be suspended for 90 days and re-evaluated.
In a statement, the Legal Aid Society criticized the “vague terms” of the agreement to pause provisions of the HALT Act, saying it raised the prospect of “a boundless and illegal circumvention of critical legal protections for incarcerated New Yorkers.” The society threatened legal action to ensure “clarity” about how the state was complying with the law.
The strikes began around the time 10 corrections officers were criminally charged, six with murder, in the fatal beating of an inmate at the Marcy Correctional Facility in December. The assault, during which the man, Robert Brooks, was handcuffed and shackled, was captured by officers’ body-worn cameras.
At least nine prisoners died during the strikes. One death, of Messiah Nantwi, 22, is being investigated by a special prosecutor and resulted in 15 corrections department employees being placed on leave.
Nine prisoners interviewed by The New York Times said he had died after being beaten by prison officers. Ms. Hochul, acknowledging that the investigation is continuing, has said “early reports point to extremely disturbing conduct leading to Mr. Nantwi’s death.”
