Apr 03, 2017 — The debate in Albany over teenagers behind bars is only one flashpoint in a wider battle in New York state over how state prisons should operate. The Cuomo administration is also pushing to reform the way solitary confinement is used in correctional facilities and wants tougher disciplinary rules for corrections officers who abuse inmates.

A five-year plan to change a controversial system

In December 2015, the Cuomo administration announced it had reached a landmark settlement with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which had sued over New York’s use of solitary confinement cells, known as special housing units. 

"When people say you survived solitary? Nobody survives that," said Five Muallimak an activist and former inmate who helped campaign for the reforms. He spent five years in solitary including time here in the North Country and says the experience worsened his already severe mental illness. 

"It changes the way a person thinks and how they receive emotions."

Governor Cuomo’s team, after negotiations with the NYCLU, agreed to begin a five-year process sharply limiting the number of inmates sent to solitary, while shortening the time they spend in isolation and improving conditions there.

They also agreed to develop guidelines that would restrict the use of special housing units for disabled or mentally ill prisoners. 

Union says changes endanger corrections officers

But now the state’s powerful corrections officer union says the changes are misguided — making their jobs and whole prisons more dangerous. "It's creating dire circumstances and unhealthy environments for the rest of the inmate population, and more importantly, the staff," said Mike Powers who heads NYSCOPBA, which represents more than 20,000 uniformed officers in New York’s prisons. 

He says solitary confinement once offered a powerful tool for maintaining order and discipline. He says Governor Cuomo took that tool away. "It's given the inmate population a more brazen attitude, recognizing that consequences aren't what they used to be." 

State officials see this very differently. Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for New York’s corrections system, says the number of assaults against guards actually declined over the last year. 

"MIllions of dollars have been invested in additional security staffing, technology upgrades and training, which we are pleased has resulted in a dramatic decline in assaults and injuries to our staff," Mailey said, reading from a prepared statement.

"It's unfortunate that Mr. Powers is ignoring these improvements that currently serve his members well."

Taylor Pendergrass with the New York Civil Liberties Union agrees. He says other prison systems around the country that scaled back their use of solitary confinement have seen less violence, fewer incidents of unrest. "Violence goes down, staff injuries go down, worker compensation claims go down," Pendergrass said, when prisons downplay their reliance on isolation cells.

Wider debate over prison reform pits union leaders against Governor Cuomo

The corrections officer union says those who support reforms are twisting the numbers. They point out that even with this year’s decline in inmate assaults on staff, the rate is still significantly higher than it was a few years ago. 

Mike Powers, the head of the union, said his members have also decided to fight other proposed reforms, voting down a state contract offer last month that would have strengthened disciplinary rules for officers. "They drew a line and spoke strong. We're more united now than ever in the past," he said.

The New York Times and other media outlets, including North Country Public Radio, have reported cases of alleged violence and misconduct involving corrections officers. Powers says those are isolated incidents that shouldn’t shape the state’s new contract with his members.

"The governor's office insisted that there be an aspect of discipline put in. We're not going to tolerate that. We're not the bad actors."

This is only the latest confrontation between union leaders and Governor Cuomo, who has repeatedly described New York’s state prison system as racially biased and too costly for taxpayers. "I am proud to be the governor who has closed more prisons than any governor in the history of the state [eliminating] over 5,000 prison cells," Cuomo said, speaking at a synagogue in New York City last month.

As reforms go forward, lawmakers take the prison debate to Albany

State officials say the court-approved plan to reform solitary confinement will go forward. Meanwhile, the fate of the union contract and the measure to keep teenagers out of adult prisons remain in play in Albany.

The fight over how to treat sixteen- and seventeen-year olds who break the law is one of the major issues still holding up the state budget. Governor Cuomo and many Democrats want teenagers to be tried as juveniles. 

But Republicans in the state Senate are fighting the change. They want to leave discretion in the hands of county prosecutors. Under the current system, district attorneys regularly try teenagers as adults, which means they serve time in adult correctional facilities.