May 23, 2026
From Assemblyman Phil Palmesano: “I am definitely voting against this bill for a number of reasons. We are still waiting for a financial plan. This is critically important because we are talking about a quarter of a billion dollar budget. Three bills we still don’t have in front of us. We should have had that in front of us before we voted on even one budget bill. That’s very important. It should be a requirement. Another thing I have concerns about is there are no HALT reforms. Hopefully it will come up on a future bill. There is definitely a safety and staffing crisis going on inside our correctional facilties. The Department of Corrections and the unions all recognize that and they supported a number of reccomendations that would help improve the security and safety inside of our correctional facilities – especially given the fact that we have a shortage of corrections officers.”
