New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello announced in a memorandum that the state plans to release some inmates early due to staffing shortages.
“In view of the current staffing crisis, and in order to have the appropriate balance between safety and well-being of those working and residing in DOCCS Correctional Facilities and public safety, it is appropriate that I, as Commissioner, exercise my authority pursuant to Correctional Law Section 73, to move individuals from the Department’s general confinement facilities, into Residential Treatment outcome status,” Martuscello said in a letter to prison leaders obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Inmates eligible for the early release must be within 15 to 110 days of their approved release date. They must also provide a residential address, and the majority of those serving for certain convictions such as sex offenses or violent felonies will not be eligible.
“Due to the large number of individuals who are potentially eligible, we will issue multiple approvals lists on an ongoing basis,” the DOCCS commissioner wrote.
The memorandum comes just weeks after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) fired 2,000 striking correctional officers who were protesting an increase in assaults on officers that many of them blamed on the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solidarity Confinement, or HALT, Act.
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Enacted in 2021, this legislation curtails the disciplinary actions that a guard can take against a prisoner. Prisons have seen an uptick in both assaults against correctional officers and inmates. Prior to the Halt Act, from 2019 to 2021, there were between 1,043 and 1,117 assaults on staff. In 2022, after the law was implemented, there were 1,473 attacks on staff, and in 2023, there were 1,671.
Claiming that the protests were illegal under the Taylor Law, Hochul first took away the striking workers’ health benefits and then fired them, also barring them from state jobs. And as the state struggled to fill vacancies for correction officers, Martuscello sent a memo in February stating that “70% of our original staffing model is the new 100%.”