February 17, 2025
STATEMENT FROM SENATOR GEORGE BORRELLO ON THE STRIKES HAPPENING AT COLLINS AND ELMIRA CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES
“The dangerous and deteriorating working conditions within our state prisons have reached a crisis point. These unsafe environments have led to countless injuries among the corrections staff, severely impacting both their physical well-being and morale. The overworked, underappreciated personnel continue to face daily hazards, all while enduring the incompetence of a governor who fails to act and a legislature that, driven by pro-criminal policies, offers no relief.
The so-called “pro-labor” Democrats, who have championed strikes and protests to demand better working conditions in other sectors, seem to have completely ignored the struggles of those who risk their lives daily behind prison walls. While they claim to stand for workers’ rights, they have turned their backs on the dedicated corrections staff whose safety and livelihoods depend on decisive action and real change. The hypocrisy is undeniable, and the consequences are disastrous.
I stand with those who put their own safety on the line every day. They deserve our respect and support.”
Senator Tom O’Mara said, “New York State’s correctional system is clearly in crisis. It has been continually building and growing worse, as many of us have warned, over the past decade of rapid prison closures, increasingly dangerous and demanding working conditions inside prisons, drastic workforce reductions, and the enactment of the HALT Act and other failed policies out of Albany. We need a comprehensive overhaul of safety and security within the system, beginning with the immediate repeal of HALT, for correctional officers, staff and inmates alike, and it needs to be made a priority. The recent, fatal beating of Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Onondaga County was appalling and disgusting, and it must and will be dealt with through our justice system. What took place there in no way represents the conduct of the vast majority of correctional officers and staff within the Elmira Correctional Facility and facilities throughout the state where officers and staff go to work every day to undertake the duties and responsibilities they’re charged with diligently, professionally, and respectfully. Governor Hochul and the Democrat-led State Legislature must also, finally, pay serious and meaningful attention to the concerns that have been raised, for years now, by the officers and staff concerned for their personal safety, the overall security of their facilities, and the future of their families and loved ones.”
