Daisy Rivas is like any mother worried about her son.

"I am worried about him so much,” she told NY1. “They do a lot of stuff to him in there. They hit him, the cops and all that."

Her son is locked up for attempted robbery in Five Points Correctional Facility in Seneca County, which is one of dozens of upstate prisons where correction officers are on a wildcat strike — a work stoppage not sanctioned by the state's correction officers union.

NY1 visited the Rivas family. A mother got a call from her son — a son who is currently in solitary confinement at Five Points.

Brian Rivas explained why he was in "the box."

"Because this is the safest place for me,” he said. “Not because I want to be here. Not because I did something to be here. I did it on purpose to be here, because they are not providing protective custody for me."

Rivas told NY1 he has been attacked multiple times when serving upstate.

"It's just all an act to cover up everything they're doing,” he said of the strike. “It's all an act. And we really need some people to come up here, people from the outside who are really gonna do their job."

Advocates and inmates have told NY1 the strike means those behind bars are not getting services.

"Many of our clients are not receiving basic necessity. Not receiving food. Not receiving cancer treatment,” Antony Gemmell, a supervising attorney at the Prisoners' Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, said.

NY1 obtained audio from inside another prison — Cayuga Correctional Facility — an inmate who wished to remain anonymous.

"Since I've been here, I have seen the national guard come in here for the first time. None of the programs are running. They're not running any rec. We're staying in all day. We're locked down. They're here, but they're still running things as if they weren't here," he said.

Thousands of National Guard members have been deployed to staff the prisons.

The unauthorized strike comes as a spotlight has been directed at the New York state prison system.

Robert Brooks was beaten to death at Marcy Correctional Facility in December. Six correction officers were charged with murder last week.

Some say the timing of the strike is no coincidence.

"I think this is a deliberate effort by correction officers to deflect from the brutal murder of Robert Brooks," Gemmell said.

And that fact is making some families fear for their safety.

"I always say they are trying to kill him in there,” Rivas said through tears. “He always calls me and tells me what they do to him."

A spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision told NY1, “DOCCS has zero tolerance for violence in its facilities.”