“The situation happening at our correctional facilities across the state is no doubt a reflection of the worsening and dangerous working conditions at our state correctional facilities. The governor now indicating she wants to call in the National Guard only reinforces this safety crisis. The combination of prison closures, a massive staffing shortage and policies that make correctional officers’ (COs) jobs more difficult have created a powder keg environment inside state prisons. We are seeing record highs of inmate-on-staff and inmate-on-inmate assaults (up 76% and 169% respectively) since the implementation of the dangerous HALT Act three years ago. More COs are retiring and resigning each year than are coming in. Currently, there are more than 2,200 CO vacancies. This is unacceptable, dangerous and unsustainable and must be addressed now.

“Pay and benefits for our COs need to be increased, including recruitment and retention bonuses. The "death gamble" legislation, which ensures earned pensions of COs are passed along to family members if they pass away while still employed, has been vetoed twice by the governor. The HALT Act needs to be fully repealed. We're at a tipping point and the path we've been on clearly hasn't worked.”