Rolison urges governor to reinstate state-fired corrections officers

Members of the National Guard continue to patrol state prisons since hundreds of corrections officers who participated in a wildcat walkout last month were let go by the state.

One state lawmaker, Senator Rob Rolison (R, Poughkeepsie) is urging the governor and state prison system to allow them to return to the job to fill a shortage of officers and relieve guardsmen from their duty.

“There were approximately 2,000 members who did not come back from the corrections officers who walked off job, along with many other officers, based on the conditions in those facilities, the forced overtime” he said. “The governor needs to consider, we are a very forgiving state here in the State of New York, letting those members who want to come back to work should be considered to come back to work.”

Rolison, a retired Town of Poughkeepsie detective, called this “a crisis of leadership that compromises public safety and puts both staff and the incarcerated at serious risk.”