August 16, 2025
FROM ASSEMBLYMAN JOE SEMPOLINSKI: Under a new program that began August 1, the state Department of Correction and Community Supervision (DOCCS) is paying for state prison inmate phone calls using taxpayer money at a cost of $9 million per year.
“This is a slap in the face to every crime victim and law-abiding New Yorker. There is absolutely no reason why taxpayers should be paying the phone bills of convicted criminals,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said. “In survey after survey, New Yorkers say crime and making it more affordable to live in this state are top priorities. But instead of doing something meaningful to make our streets safe and cut costs for taxpayers, Gov. Hochul has decided to use taxpayers’ money to give free phone calls to criminals.”
New York’s prison system is in a shambles. Gov. Hochul fired more than 2,000 state corrections officers Feb. 17 after they refused to return to work following a wildcat strike to protest unsafe working conditions. Gov. Hochul deployed members of the New York National Guard to fill the staffing gap. Some 3,000 National Guard members remain stationed at prisons around the state at a cost of $100 million per month. New York has spent more than $500 million so far to keep National Guard troops deployed at prisons.
Corrections officers went on strike to raise awareness of how dangerous New York’s prisons have become since Gov. Hochul signed the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act into law, banning the use of solitary confinement in most instances.
“Since the HALT Act went into effect in March of 2022, inmate-on-inmate violence and inmate-on-staff incidents have skyrocketed,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said. “According to DOCCS’ own statistics, inmate-on-inmate attacks have gone up 169 percent and inmate-on-staff attacks are up 76 percent.”
Assemblyman Sempolinski has called on Gov. Hochul to repeal the HALT Act for the safety of prisoners and correction officers.
“With the HALT Act Gov. Hochul and members of the Democrat majority in the Legislature took away one of the few tools state corrections officers had to maintain order and safety in our prisons,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said. “It’s made conditions more dangerous for non-violent prisoners who are just trying to do their time and pay their debt to society, the very people the governor said she was trying to help.
“Free phone calls won’t keep people from being beaten bloody in the cell blocks. If this is her idea of ‘help’ maybe the governor should just stop trying to be helpful. It’s not working.”
