Stefanik Slams Hochul for 'Heartlessly' Closing Prisons Ahead of Holidays

Rep. Elise Stefanik is blasting Governor Kathy Hochul after word got out that she plans to shut down additional state correctional facilities, including Bare Hill Correctional Facility and parts of Collins Correctional Facility. The announcement comes as Hochul works to raise money for her reelection effort, weeks before the holiday season, and shortly after hitching her wagon to democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.

Stefanik said she and other lawmakers have already been contacted by correctional officers worried about their futures. In a statement, she accused Hochul of blindsiding families relying on prison employment.

“We have heard from correctional officers that Kathy Hochul will be announcing more prison closures this morning. Once again, Hochul does this heartlessly right before the holidays, ripping the rug out from under our correctional officers and their families,” Stefanik stated.

According to Stefanik, Hochul’s move is part of a pattern. She said the governor has repeatedly “turned her back” on correctional staff and dismissed their warnings, adding that these decisions have placed officers “in harm's way.” Stefanik repeated her criticism, calling the timing “another heartless announcement just before the holiday season.”

Hochul is expected to defend the closures by pointing to widespread staffing shortages across state facilities. Earlier this year, those conditions gave rise to a three-week walkout involving thousands of correctional officers. The strike centered on unsafe working conditions, mandatory overtime, and the lack of staffing needed to keep violent inmates under control.

In the aftermath, Governor Hochul showed her disdain for the corrections officers who participated, at one point decreeing that they could not get another state job.

The situation worsened after the 2021 HALT Act, which sharply restricted solitary confinement and introduced rehabilitation-centered programs for inmates with violent histories. Liberals/progressives called it progress while officers called it dangerous. Multiple officials, including Assemblyman David DiPietro, warned that the law would encourage inmate violence.

“There were 1,760 attacks [on staff] in 2024 alone,” DiPietro said, adding that inmate-on-staff assaults increased 76% and inmate-on-inmate violence jumped 169% after HALT took effect. He added, “Even inmates themselves have admitted in letters that the system is out of control,” arguing that “the warning signs have been evident for years, yet nothing has been done to protect our correctional officers.”

State data backs up those concerns. In the years before HALT, assaults against staff ranged between 1,043 and 1,117 annually. By 2022, after the law was signed into law, that number spiked to 1,473 and rose again to 1,671 in 2023. Violence between inmates went up as well, reaching 2,107 in 2023.

Hochul’s handling of the crisis has angered correctional workers and their families, especially after her administration fired roughly 2,000 participants from the April strike.

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Stefanik Slams Hochul for 'Heartlessly' Closing Prisons Ahead of Holidays