New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello announced in a memorandum that the state intends to release some inmates early due to staffing shortages.
“In view of the current staffing crisis, and in order to have the appropriate balance between safety and well-being of those working and residing in DOCCS Correctional Facilities and public safety, it is appropriate that I, as Commissioner, exercise my authority pursuant to Correctional Law Section 73, to move individuals from the Department’s general confinement facilities, into Residential Treatment outcome status,” Martuscello wrote in a letter to prison administrations.
Inmates eligible for early release must be between 15 and 110 days from their approved release date. They must also provide a residential address, and the majority of those serving sentences for sex crimes or violent felonies will be ineligible.
“Due to the large number of individuals who are potentially eligible, we will issue multiple approvals lists on an ongoing basis,” the DOCCS commissioner wrote in a letter.
The memorandum comes just weeks after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) fired 2,000 striking correctional officers who were protesting an increase in officer assaults, which many of them attributed to the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solidarity Confinement, or HALT, Act.
Enacted in 2021, this legislation limits the disciplinary actions that a guard can take against a prisoner. In prisons, both assaults on correctional officers and inmates have increased.
Prior to the Halt Act, between 2019 and 2021, there were 1,043 to 1,117 assaults on employees. There were 1,473 attacks on staff in 2022, following the law’s implementation, and 1,671 in 2023.
Hochul, claiming that the protests were illegal under the Taylor Law, first revoked the striking workers’ health benefits before firing them and barring them from state jobs. And, as the state struggled to fill correction officer vacancies, Martuscello issued a memo in February stating that “70% of our original staffing model is the new 100%.”
