10 hours Ago By Post Editorial Board
Gov. Kathy Hochul has ended the state prison-guard strike , but the larger crisis is far from over. For starters, she fired more than 2,000 who refused to end the illegal strike; that leaves some prisons operating at just 25% of normal staffing levels and staff working 12-hour shifts.
So 6,500 National Guard troops will remain deployed at prisons indefinitely, though most guardsmen will happily tell you they’re not remotely trained for this. Meanwhile, the rank-and-file have plainly lost faith in their union leadership, having rejected the union’s first deal with the governor, leaving her to simply declare a somewhat-better settlement on her own and then ax whatever guards refused to go back to work under it. Even then, the returnees didn’t reach the 85% mark she’d declared was necessary for her offer to stick, though she means to largely follow through anyway.
She has also partly suspended (for 90 days) the ban on solitary confinement, which was one of the strikers’ main grievances, and is addressing other complaints by boosting pay and ending 24-hour shifts. But will the Legislature go along? It demanded the end to solitary by passing the HALT (Human Alternatives for Long-Term Solitary Confinement) Act without offering some replacement way to adequately discipline inmates who engage in violence against staff and other prisoners Indeed, the progressives driving the no-solitary train don’t really believe in prisons or policing in the first place. All of which leaves a high risk of some future explosion — a prison riot, another wildcat strike or something else breaking bad.
More stormclouds on New York’s horizon thanks to progs’ refusal to face reality and Hochul’s endless efforts to split the difference..
