New York state’s recent decision to close two more prisons and transfer correction officers to open prisons will likely help with staffing shortages, but many say that’s short-term thinking — an adhesive bandage on a dam about to burst, and not exactly a morale boost.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) desperately need to hire more officers, but the debate is how to bring people in. As that debate unfolds, staffing shortages get worse.

What You Need To Know

  • There's no debate: New York state is struggling to recruit correction officers

  • As the state closes prisons, the NYSCOPBA union says that hurts recruiting, as a lack of job-location security and an uptick in assaults causes those eligible to retire to do so, leaving jobs unfilled

  • The governor is proposing raising the maximum age to apply from 36 and increasing pay, while state Assemblyman Scott Gray says his office is ready to step in and help grow interest

“It is recruitment. It's also prison population. The prison population has gone down 50%,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

Hochul understands the state is struggling to hire new correction officers and the role they play in the prison system. However, when the prison population has declined by more than half in the last 30 years, closing two more state prisons this year, she says, had to happen.

“From a government policy perspective, it makes sense to often right-size institutions within our control, and prisons are part of that,” Hochul added.

However, some, including New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association President Chris Summers, believe the now annual closures and reshuffling of current staff is only hurting recruitment, leaving the state with some 2,000 open jobs.

“As a result of staffing shortages and mandatory overtime, members spend more time working in the prison than they do with their families, and their quality of life suffers as a result,” Summers said.

In addition to the morale issues, Summers also said shortages lead to increased attacks on staff and unsafe work conditions. He says New York's current right-sizing plan is simply the wrong one.

Summers added, “Closing prisons and expecting different results certainly is not bold and creative. It is shortsighted.”

However, earlier this week, while defending the decision to close two more prisons, Hochul said she wants to find more ways to boost recruitment, including raising the maximum age in which one can apply — it’s now 36 — and their pay scale.

"So, I'm doing trying to come up with creative ways to encourage more people to go into these professions that are critically important for our security,” Hochul said.

And while NYSCOPBA spokesperson James Miller said that move would be a good step forward, NYSCOPBA wants all the help it can get. He said in the last year, more than 1,600 people have left correction officer jobs, while the inmate population has gone up 2,100.

North Country State Assemblyman Scott Gray hopes to step in.

“We have what I call an employment-plus rate. We have more people in the system, in the corrections system, than we can employ locally,” Gray said. 

What the North country is, the state can become.

“In order to keep making sure we still add value to those, I'm proposing that my office is going to take an active role in helping and assisting DOCCS with the recruitment process,” he said.