Statement on DOCCS Strike
The Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys, UAW Local 2325, condemns the human rights crisis in New York’s prisons due to the eleven day work stoppage by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) Corrections Officers.
We mourn the loss of Jonathan Grant, a 61-year-old man who died in his cell at Auburn Correctional Facility this past weekend. Mr. Grant was a client of The Legal Aid Society. Mr. Grant had survived at least five previous strokes; however, his pleas for medical help during the week of the strike went unanswered. Mr. Grant was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday morning.
We mourn the loss of both Anthony Douglas, a 67-year-old man, and Franklyn Dominguez, a 35-year-old man, who passed away this week at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Mr. Douglas had served over 40 years in DOCCS custody. Mr. Dominguez was eligible for release in October of this year. All three deaths were a direct result of abandonment by DOCCS Corrections Officers, but it is the prison itself that made them fatally vulnerable to such abandonment.
We call for an end to incarceration, which is always characterized by violence and neglect. Incarceration is nothing if not organized abandonment. All prisons are sites of violence. Our community members were stolen from their communities and disappeared. They are warehoused in illness-producing conditions, where they are subject to the whims of officers who abuse them with impunity.
The current iteration of the crisis that is New York’s prison system began on February 17th, when DOCCS Corrections Officers abandoned their posts. Within a week, the work stoppage had reached at least 41 of the state’s 42 prisons. Nine out of ten Corrections Officers stopped work. Governor Hochul deployed the National Guard, which offers no promise of relief but only heightens the militarized conditions in which our caged neighbors live.
The timing of this work stoppage is not coincidental: last week, ten Corrections Officers and prison staffers were indicted for causing the death of Robert Brooks on December 9, 2024. Mr. Brooks was incarcerated at Marcy Correctional Facility, where he was beaten to death by Corrections Officers while he lay handcuffed, an incident that was recorded on the officers’ body-worn cameras. This kind of violence is a standard feature of prisons. What is unusual is for evidence of it to reach the world outside the walls.
A primary goal of the work stoppage was to repeal the Humane Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act. Evidence shows unequivocally that limiting the torture that is solitary confinement keeps everyone safer. However, HALT has been largely flouted and major provisions of HALT have consistently been ignored. The demanded repeal of HALT and other objectives of the strike demonstrate that officers harm the people in their custody and want to continue to do so without consequence. Nevertheless, the State quickly began acquiescing to the Corrections Officers’ demands to suspend the HALT law in response to the strike.
During the strike, numerous correctional facilities indefinitely cancelled legal calls and all visits, including legal visits, further isolating imprisoned people and severely hindering our ability to provide required legal representation. These cancellations, along with unreliably distributed legal mail, are an escalation of the extreme constraints DOCCS places on legal communications as a matter of course.
Our clients have reported extremely limited to no access to edible food, problems with accessing medication, denial of any medical and psychiatric attention, being locked in their cells for days, and no access to basic hygiene. With Ramadan approaching, the work stoppage threatens to severely burden religious observance. As the days continue and conditions worsen, our clients fear for their lives.
According to reporting, on Thursday night, an agreement was reached to end the strike. Notwithstanding the harm caused by the strike, the State is conceding to nearly all of the Corrections Officers’ demands.
Of greatest concern, as part of the settlement with the Corrections Officers, the State has agreed to “suspend” the HALT Act for at least 90 days. We condemn the State’s decision to roll back the HALT Act. Solitary confinement is torture. Any rollback of HALT places New York outside accepted human rights norms.
This capitulation is not only cruel, it is an affront to democracy. Neither the Governor nor DOCCS has any legitimate authority to unilaterally “suspend” a law duly enacted by the New York Legislature.
Until New York prisons are empty, we call upon the State to meet its responsibility to the greatest degree possible. We demand the immediate restoration of access to basic necessities and visits, including legal calls and visits. We call for the full implementation of the HALT law. We call upon the New York Legislature to pass laws such as the Second Look Act, Fair and Timely Parole, Elder Parole, and the Earned Time Act, that will allow New Yorkers serving too long sentences to come home.
Our union stands in solidarity with workers. We stand with the incarcerated workers who maintain function and livable conditions inside. Corrections officers are not workers: they are enforcers and enactors of state violence.
We stand in solidarity with the people being harmed by this work stoppage: the over 30,000 people currently incarcerated in DOCCS custody. We mourn the loss of Jonathan Grant, Anthony Douglas, Franklyn Dominguez, and Robert Brooks. We grieve the years and possibilities stolen from all people harmed by this system. Free them all.