Former WNY inmate provides insight into prison strikes across state
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The strikes at 25 prisons across New York state are impacting many, including families of the staff stuck inside the prisons while workers strike outside.
Correction officers at Collins Correctional Facility are striking for a second day on Tuesday, while officers at the maximum security Attica Correctional Facility as well as Wende Correctional Facility began striking Tuesday.
Prison guards are demanding mandated body scans for visitors, scans of incoming mail to inmates, a $5,000 bonus for new employees and no overtime mandates over 16 hours, according to the union. They also wish to reverse the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act.
Officers striking outside of Collins Correctional Facility
WIVB News 4 spoke with a wife who hasn’t spoken to her husband, who’s a correction officer, in nearly two days, along with a former inmate who was released from Collins Correctional Facility just 12 days ago.
“It really doesn’t surprise me, the lack of staffing itself,” the former inmate said. “It was all a tinder box. It was all waiting to happen.”
The former inmate, who News 4 spoke with on the condition of anonymity, spent the better part of three years at Collins Correctional Facility, returning to the world just days before the recent lockdown and subsequent strikes.
“When I was there, there was no talk of anything,” the former inmate said. “There was no, ‘In February, we are going to do this.’ There was nothing like that.”
The former inmate said that what prison guards have been going through, like short staffing and long hours, was noticeable and affected how the inmates were treated.
“You go to prison as a punishment, you don’t get sent to prison to be punished more. They were not up to par. They are punchy, they are tired,” the former inmate said. “They were sometimes unprofessional and that’s not good for anybody’s safety.”
Kailey Baum, the wife of a correction officer at Wyoming Correctional Facility, said her husband has been stuck at work for over 24 hours. He has not been allowed to leave or use his cell phone since the strikes began.
“I called the prison and all they could say was that he is safe, but they said I couldn’t talk to him,” Baum said.
Baum also said her husband is under constant stress at work and believes changes need to be made.
State preparing to send National Guard to staff prisons where officers are striking
“I don’t think any of their demands are crazy — to not have to work mandatory 24-hour shifts,” Baum said. “They’ve been getting their days off taken away from them. If they can’t work the shift or if they call in, they can get written up.”
Baum is now going on two days of being home alone with their 7-year-old and said the stress is eating at her.
“Regardless of how you feel about correction officers and their jobs, there are still people and have families at home that love them,” Baum said. “We just want to know if they’re okay.”
Both the former inmate and Baum said they hope a solution is found sooner rather than later.
Congressman Nick Langworthy announced that he will be at Collins Correctional Facility Wednesday morning to stand with the correction officers.
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Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.
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