In an attempt to plug a gushing hole from a severe shortage of corrections officers in New York, the state is poised to lower the hiring age for prison guards from 21 to 18. This move comes on the heels of a debilitating strike that saw the ousting of over 2,000 guards and left the prison system teetering on the brink.
The state lawmakers passed the bill on Wednesday, and it’s now on the desk of Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, who is anticipated to sign it into law.
The bill does set some ground rules for these younger guards. They won’t be allowed to handle firearms or transport inmates beyond prison walls. They will also be under supervision when involved in “contact roles” with inmates for the first 18 months of duty.
This push for younger correction officers came about after guards vacated their posts in February, protesting against abysmal working conditions. Hochul found herself deploying the state National Guard to prisons just to keep the wheels turning during the strike.
The governor ended up firing the guards who refused to return to work after a deal to end the walkout was reached between the state and the guards’ union. These guards have since been barred from holding any other state jobs in the future.
The state corrections commissioner has since nudged the department to start releasing some inmates early due to the lack of guards. However, this early release was only granted to inmates convicted of minor crimes and those already near their release dates. Violent offenders, sex criminals, and those found guilty of grave felonies such as murder, terrorism, and arson were not considered for early release.
This crisis unfolded against the backdrop of a high-profile fatal beating of an inmate, Robert Brooks, at an upstate New York prison in December. More than a dozen people were charged over the incident, which was caught on body cameras. Another inmate, Messiah Nantwi, died on March 1, reportedly after a series of beatings by guards.
Other states, such as Florida, Maine, and New Jersey, have resorted to hiring 18-year-olds as correction officers. But the question that keeps bouncing around my mind is, are we asking our young folks to grow up too fast, to handle too much too soon?
