New York Lifts Hiring Ban on Fired Striking Prison Guards, Announces Early Prisoner Releases
Faced with ongoing short-staffing after firing 2,000 prison guards for their wildcat strike, New York Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello announced on April 1, 2025, that the agency would grant limited early releases to a small portion of the state prison population, hoping to reduce the ratio of staff to prisoners. The move followed an announcement on March 24, 2025, that the state was lifting a law enforcement hiring ban on the fired guards, which had sparked a lawsuit from a county anxious to hire some.
As PLN reported, the guards refused to return to work after their union negotiated an end to the strike on March 10, 2025; Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) fired them the next day, when she also issued an executive order banning them from future employment in law enforcement in the state. [See: PLN, Apr. 2025, p.9.]
Local sheriffs, hoping to hire some of the fired guards for their own short-staffed county lockups, cried foul over the ban. State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Jackie Bray then announced on March 24, 2025, that the ban was just temporary, and the fired guards would be available to work beginning on April 10, 2025.
Meanwhile, Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr. (R) sued the state on March 20, 2025, accusing Hochul of “gross overreach and abuse” with her executive order. The state Supreme Court for Albany County agreed and issued an injunction to block the ban on April 2, 2025. But state prisons were still faced with all those vacant guard positions, which also left prisoners without sufficient escorts for programming, medical appointments and recreation.
To ease that burden, Martuscello said in his announcement that prisoners within 15 to 110 days of their scheduled release would immediately become eligible to serve the remainder of their sentences on parole, rather than in a state prison cell.
The devil was in the details, though: Prisoners must have a DOCCS-approved physical address to be released, not a bed in a shelter or placement with the state Department of Social Services; and they could not have a conviction for a sex offense or any violent or “high-level’ felonies, including terrorism and arson.
As of early 2023, the share of state prisoners with violent felony convictions was 72%, with another 10.7% convicted of sex offenses, according to the Data Collaborative for Justice; only the remaining 17.3% may be considered for the limited early releases.
The DOCCS also agreed to pay guards who went off strike 2.5 times their hourly rate when working overtime. On April 7, 2025, the state announced it was extending the bonus pay to May 9, 2025. It was a bargain for Hochul; National Guard troops called up to provide security at state prisons during the strike reportedly cost the state $100 million per month, including lodging and $2,000 per pay period per soldier in special duty pay. About 4,400 National Guard troops remained on duty at the DOCCS on April 1, 2025.
Unsurprisingly, the 2,000 fired guards were being eyed to fill the jobs that they vacated, even though that would essentially reward them for breaking the law with their wildcat strike. Said state Sen. Daniel Stec (R, C-Queensbury), “If the governor is complaining about the cost of deploying the National Guard inside correctional facilities, there’s an easy solution: just rehire the COs you banned from all state employment.”
Additional sources: Auburn Citizen, Daily Freeman, Spectrum News, WKBW, WKTV
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