On Monday morning, state correction officers trickled back to work following a three-week-long wildcat strike that affected nearly all of the state’s 42 prisons and caused disruptions in meals, medication distribution, education and rec programming, and effectively confined incarcerated people to their cells for nearly 24 hours a day in some facilities. Over the course of the strike, seven incarcerated people died, including 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi of the Bronx, who was reportedly beaten to death by correction officers who have since been placed on leave.
On Saturday night, the state signed an agreement with the officers' union, the New York State Correctional and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), which did not authorize the strike. The latest resolution, which was initially rejected by the union and followed an earlier agreement that striking officers rejected, formalizes significant wins for the officers, including suspending provisions of the HALT Act, the state’s solitary confinement law, for 90 days, and creating a committee that will review the law and issue amendment recommendations to the legislature. The agreement also promises that officers who return to work by Monday morning won't be disciplined, and addresses concerns related to overtime and understaffing that underpinned the strike.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has not said how many officers had returned to work. "Currently, the facilities are managing the return of staff in order to accurately account for everyone," a DOCCS spokesperson wrote in an email. "We will have an update later today."
As the strike stretched on, censorship of electronic communications prevented some incarcerated New Yorkers from accessing up-to-date information and reporting about the illegal labor action. In addition to journalism about the strike's impact on incarcerated people published by Hell Gate and other outlets, DOCCS has blocked copies of the initial agreement between the agency and union negotiated by a state-hired mediator, and a lawsuit filed on behalf of Prisoners' Legal Services that argues the strike has violated the first amendment rights of incarcerated people by inhibiting access to legal counsel and the courts.