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Prison guards in New York say the state's correctional system is in crisis. Staffing levels are low. Rates of violence and drug exposures are rising. Both guards and inmates are pleading with the state to fix what they say is a broken system. North Country Public Radio's Emily Russell reports.
EMILY RUSSELL, BYLINE: Last winter, Nate Locke got a call for backup on his prison radio. A fellow correction officer at the state prison where he worked in northern New York needed help with an inmate. The officers believed he was concealing some kind of synthetic drug. Twenty minutes later, Locke says everyone who came in contact with that inmate started showing similar symptoms.
NATE LOCKE: The nurses in the ER took blood pressure, and it was absolutely through the roof and eyeballs get dilated, and then you're just - I remember getting in the ambulance, and I don't remember anything after that.
RUSSELL: Drug tests were inconclusive, but there were other similar incidents that month that ultimately sent dozens of staff members to the hospital. Locke says weeks later, he and hundreds of his coworkers had had enough.
LOCKE: Once officers heard that there was a strike going on, it was - I mean, within 48 hours, pretty much the whole facility was out.
RUSSELL: That statewide strike lasted nearly three weeks. More than 2,000 officers, including Locke, were fired for not returning to work. Jennifer Scaife leads the Correctional Association of New York, a nonprofit oversight agency. Scaife says more than a year later, the system is still stressed.
JENNIFER SCAIFE: I see staff who feel that they're not being heard, that they can't see a light at the end of the tunnel and that they're constantly being asked to do more and more with less and less.
RUSSELL: There's also been more violence behind bars. In April, three inmates at three prisons in northern New York were killed, allegedly by other inmates. Meanwhile, multiple officers at two prisons were charged last year in the beating deaths of two inmates.
SCAIFE: It really does seem to me that the state is continuing to teeter on this edge of crisis.
RUSSELL: So how do you rightsize a system where the staff is overworked, where drugs are filtering in and where incarcerated people say even some of their basic needs aren't being met? One way is by hiring help. New York is spending about $45 million a month on National Guard troops to help staff prisons across the state. Meanwhile, the Department of Corrections is focused on recruitment. They've got a 26% staff vacancy rate.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Are you interested in becoming a New York State correction officer? Come and see us at the Buffalo Auto Show.
RUSSELL: The state has lowered the hiring age to 18 and is offering a $3,000 signing bonus to new officers. Recent recruiting efforts have led to an uptick in the number of graduates from its officer training academy. Advocates and inmates say another way to relieve pressure on the prison system is by offering early release. JB Nicholas (ph) served more than 12 years behind bars. He's now a journalist in northern New York.
JB NICHOLAS: You need to incentivize guys to self-reform better. And the way you incentivize guys to self-reform is by offering them opportunities for early release.
RUSSELL: Dangling that kind of carrot could instill more hope and inspire better behavior behind bars, says John J. Lennon. He's been incarcerated for 25 years and is a longtime journalist from prison. Lennon says there's another key change the state should make - actually giving guards more discretion in their use of solitary confinement.
JOHN J LENNON: I do believe there should be temporary keeplock put back in, where ultimately that's a cooling off period.
RUSSELL: Keeplock is a kind of confinement where an inmate is kept in their cell for up to 23 hours a day. Lennon says giving guards that discretion would make prisons safer for everyone. Correction officers also want the solitary confinement rules loosened. That was one of the proposals laid out in a recent letter from their union to Governor Kathy Hochul. The letter also highlighted the drugs, violence and recent deaths in New York's prisons, describing conditions as unstable and dangerous. Speaking with reporters recently, the governor said she's also not satisfied with prison conditions. Hochul said the state is focused on hiring new officers, and she highlighted that contraband in prison is down 20% since last year. For NPR News, I'm Emily Russell in Malone, New York.
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