While spending 2022 visiting every prison in New York state, Inspector General Lucy Lang told Capital Tonight that she frequently heard from incarcerated New Yorkers, staff and administrators that they were suffering because of abuses of the workers’ compensation system. 

“There are people who are going out on workers’ compensation for alleged injuries that occurred on the job, who are then forcing their colleagues to do mandatory overtime, which is resulting in staffing shortages,” Lang explained. 

Lang’s tour of state prisons led to the release of a report on the abuses made public in May 2023.

“It makes the job that much harder, which is already so hard for folks who work inside prisons,” she observed. 

Currently, the union for many Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) employees, the New York State Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) is negotiating a new contract.

According to Lang, the contract being negotiated “doesn’t have appropriate safeguards.”

An email sent to NYSCOPBA on Friday afternoon was not immediately returned.

In a statement emailed to Capital Tonight, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) spokesperson said:

“The men and women who work inside of our facilities and in our communities often work under difficult circumstances while providing a valuable service to support our mission and overall public safety.  When it comes to workers’ compensation, any staff that is assaulted in the course of their duties should be afforded every benefit entitled to them.  However, a number of staff remain absent from work on workers’ compensation as a result non-incarcerated related injuries, which contributes to our ongoing staffing situation. DOCCS has begun to implement the weapons restriction recommendation as contained within the Inspector General’s report and will remain focused on recruiting and retaining a competent workforce so that we may drive safety and provide the hardworking staff the work-life balance they deserve.”

According to the IG’s report, in some prisons, up to 40% of staff are out at any given time on workers’ compensation. 

“This does appear to be a systemic issue that is costing New Yorkers a tremendous amount of money,” she said. 

The Office of the Inspector General is tasked with rooting out fraud and abuse within state government. Under the leadership of Lang, the office has become more accessible to the public – in turn, there’s been a large increase in the number of complaints submitted to the office.