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ALBANY, N.Y. -- Over 8,200 New York National Guard Soldiers and Airmen mobilized under state active duty orders, in response to a correction officers strike that kicked off at two correctional facilities on Feb. 17, and eventually impacted 42 of 45 state prisons, before it was officially declared over by Gov. Kathy Hochul on March 10.
More than 12,000 officers walked off the job, violating a state law that forbids them from striking.
As prison guards began walking off the job, the governor signed an emergency order on Feb. 18, directing the New York National Guard to mobilize and replace the striking Guards on Feb. 19.
At its peak, 6,846 Guardsmen were on duty, with more than 5,300 personnel in the prisons.
During the last correction officers strike in 1979, Gov. Hugh Cary deployed 12,000 National Guard personnel to replace striking prison guards.
The Guard Soldiers and Airmen deployed by Gov. Hochul, watched over incarcerated individuals in medium security prison dorms, maximum security cell blocks, and minimum security campuses. They conducted head counts, delivered meals, and monitored special housing units for inmates in solitary confinement, among myriad other duties.
Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general of New York, said the way the Soldiers and Airmen rose to the challenge made him proud.
“Their response to the prison strike and the ongoing staffing shortages of the Department of Corrections was phenomenal,” Shields said.
“They endured involuntary mobilization, austere living conditions, stressful duty, unfamiliar interactions with incarcerated individuals, long days and nights, and uncertainty when the mission would end,” he said.
“And most significantly,” Shields added, “ being away from family, friends, and work, our service members answered the call and went above and beyond what I could ever expect.”
Despite that official end date of March 10, over 4,400 Soldiers, Airmen and Naval Militia members were still on duty on April 1, when the mission transitioned into a longer term mission moving to a volunteer-only force
The governor directed that Guard Soldiers and Airmen, joined by members of the Naval Militia, remain on duty to ensure the understaffed correction officers force could conduct duties without excessive overtime.
By April 9, Joint Task Force-Sentinel, operating out of the Thompson Road Armory at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse was overseeing 3115 Soldiers and Airmen, supplementing the 10,000 correction officers who returned to work.
The initial mobilization order on February 18 was for New York Army National Guard units.
The commanders of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the 153rd Troop Command, and the 369th Sustainment Brigade were each assigned operational areas and units across the state.
The 153rd was responsible for Western New York prisons, while the 369th handled prisons in the Hudson Valley and the 27th Brigade supported Central New York and New York's North Country, the Adirondacks and the region along the Canadian border.
The 42nd Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade was also placed on state active duty orders in order to move people and supplies quickly across the state.
On Feb. 20, for example, three UH-60M Black Hawks picked up 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Soldiers at a baseball field in the Bronx to transport them 250 miles north to Bare Hill Correctional Facility near Malone.
By the end of the mission, the aircrews had flown over 600 hours and transported 1,050 passengers.
When advance parties arrived at some prisons on February 18, additional correction officers began walking off the job. This left the Soldiers and supervisors to handle their duties.
For units like the Auburn-based 102nd Military Police Battalion, supporting the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, known as DOCCS, was not far from their federal military role, which includes establishing and operating military prisons.
But for other units, like the Buffalo-based 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion and Niagara Falls-based 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment, planning and executing operations inside the walls of prisons was completely new.
Capt. Timothy Sullivan, the commander of the Brigade Engineer Battalion’s military intelligence company, said his Soldiers had to learn on the job as they went to work at Orleans Correctional Facility in Albion.
“They were able to adapt, communicate, follow orders, and do the mission to the best of their ability,” Sullivan said.
Soldiers worked in twos or threes to ensure safety at all times.
Spc. Tamia Grant, an automated logistics specialists in the 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion, found herself working in the Special Housing Unit – the solitary confinement area – of Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch.
She spent 12-hour shifts checking on inmates every 30 minutes.
She got used to the mission, Grant said, and her leaders worked hard to make sure the Soldiers were comfortable.
“My leadership is doing an amazing job,” Grant said.
“If we have any comments, questions or concerns, they have an open-door policy,” she said.
“We can go to them and tell them maybe, like, we're not feeling comfortable in an area, and they'll take the proper precautions to move us around and switch us for different shifts,” she added.
Leaders at all levels, from Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general, to brigade commanders, to command sergeants major, spent their days on the road visiting the prisons to check on the troops and the mission.
“I need to see what my Soldiers are experiencing,” explained Col. Patrick Clare, the commander of the 369th.
Col. Christopher Guilmette, the commander of the 153rd, compared what he saw on his visits to stories of the 1979 prison strike he heard from his father, who served in the Army Guard then.
“In ‘79, the responding Guardsmen had to cross the correction officers’ picket line to enter the facility, and the striking correction officers were resistive and violent,” Guilmette said.
“Supplies and care packages had to be flown by helicopter into the prison perimeter to avoid crossing the picket line,” Guilmette said. “I am glad we did not encounter anything close to that situation.”
As the mission kicked off, conditions were austere. Soldiers were living inside the prisons, sleeping on cots in unused gyms or dorms or wherever they could find space.
Living inside the prison could be overwhelming, said Pvt. Cornell Ashby, an automated logistical specialist in the 133rd Composite Supply Company.
“Some days, I wake up and I feel like a Soldier,” said Ashby, who was assigned to Fishkill Correctional Facility.
“Other days, I see the barbed wire and it feels like I’m something else,” he added.
While Army Guard units were mobilized first —a total of 6,673 Soldiers were part of the mission—1,397 members of the New York Air National Guard also went on duty.
They were assigned to the Army Guard brigades to reinforce units already in the prisons.
Eventually, 185 Naval Militia members also went on duty.
As the mission progressed, efforts were made to make things better.
Starlink internet systems were obtained so that Soldiers and Airmen could use internet access to keep in touch with families, for entertainment, and to work on their academics.
The systems also made it easier for companies dispersed across the state to communicate with their higher headquarters.
MREs were replaced with catered meals and even Door Dash food deliveries.
Cots were replaced with mattresses and eventually Soldiers and Airmen were moved into hotels when possible. The Division of Military and Naval Affairs eventually contracted with 125 hotels and motels across the state for rooms.
Personnel were also given days off when possible.
“Soldiers are trained to adapt to difficult conditions until we can resolve those difficulties,” said Capt. Saul Rodriguez, commander of the 133rd Composite Supply Company.
“But we are always actively working to fix their conditions so they can succeed,” he added.
"Internet access was a big boost to morale before we were able to get hotel rooms, because it enabled them to take a mental break,” he said.
“Morale got a lot better in that second week when we could get them into hotel rooms.”
Spc. Justin Hall, a member of Alpha Company of the 427th Brigade Support Battalion, who was assigned to Auburn Correctional Facility, said his unit leaders were looking out for the Soldiers.
“Our leadership does rounds. They will check on every floor, make sure every Soldier is perfectly fine. If we need anything, they will get it for us,” Hall said.
“My hours are pretty fair. I get about seven hours of sleep, you know, pretty average,” he added.
“We had Walmart runs to get, you know, personal needs and stuff like that. They made sure we were fed and we had showers overall,” he said.
The governor’s decision to compensate Soldiers for the rigors of the mission, with a retroactive basic housing allowance pay, and $2,000 per pay period special duty pay, was also appreciated, Grant said.
“I feel like the TAG (the Adjutant General) and the Army National Guard, is doing a phenomenal job with making sure everyone gets their pay and just keeping us updated on everything and not withholding information,” she said.
“As soon as they get the information, they're putting it out immediately,” Grant added.
The servicemembers did more than just keep order in the prisons.
Pfc. Quintel Turner, a combat engineer with the 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion defended an incarcerated individual during a violent attack by other incarcerated individuals, likely saving his life.
Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Austin Basile, an air force structural maintenance specialist from the 106th Rescue Wing, saved incarcerated individuals from overdosing on two separate occasions.
To better prepare Guardsmen for the continuing mission, the 106th Regional Training Institute teamed up with DOCCS to create a training program. The one-week course, conducted at DOCCS headquarters in Albany, at Camp Smith and at Groveland Correctional Facility, shared some basic correction officer skills.
“It's teaching them and getting them familiar with protocols, procedures, things that may occur in prison, drug awareness, gang awareness, how they operate in the prison,” explained Sgt. 1st Class Brian Lopez, the Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of the training program.
| Date Taken: | 04.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.07.2025 15:01 |
| Story ID: | 494771 |
| Location: | LATHAM, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 34,161 |
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