ALBANY, NY – After a staffing shortage that was exacerbated by the firing of 2,000 correction officers following a weekslong strike that crippled the state’s prison system, the state of New York has announced that it will be lowering the minimum hiring age for a correction officer from 21 to 18, in an effort to fill the vacant positions.
According to the NPR, state lawmakers approved the measure on Wednesday, May 7th, and Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul is expected to sign it into law. The bill supposedly establishes rules for the younger correction officers, including policies which prohibit them from obtaining or using firearms as well as transporting inmates out of prisons.
The younger correction officers also must be supervised when performing “contact roles” with inmates during the first year-and-a-half on the job. Some other states, including Florida, Maine and New Jersey, allow 18-year-olds to become correction officers. The approved measure of lowering the minimum hiring age from 21 to 18 came after correction officers walked off the job in February, many of them protesting poor working conditions.
During that time, many of the facilities operated on modified lockdowns and Hochul deployed the state National Guard to prisons to help maintain operations. Hochul ended up firing more than 2,000 correction officers who refused to return to work after the state and the union reached a deal to end the strike. The strike lasted around three weeks and those who were fired, have been barred from holding other state jobs in the future.
Due to the shortage of correction officers, the state corrections commissioner directed the department to begin the process of releasing some inmates early. The early discharges have reportedly been limited to inmates who were convicted of minor crimes and were already set for release in the near future.
The agency said that inmates who have been convicted of sex crimes, violent felonies, or serious felonies such as murder, terrorism, and arson would not be eligible for early release. According to CBS6, the strike followed the high-profile fatal beating of Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional facility in December 2024.
The incident, which was captured on the correction officers’ body cameras, resulted in charges against more than a dozen individuals. Additionally, another inmate, Messiah Nantwi, died on March 1st, after being injured in a series of beatings by the correction officers, leading to charges against 10 officers, including two being charged with murder.
