Already dealing with multiple political firestorms across the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul is now facing another major challenge with correction officers on strike at upstate prisons — protesting what they call unsafe conditions and triggering a National Guard deployment.

“We want to find out what the issue is, because the individuals who walked out in an unsanctioned strike, unapproved by the union, have yet to tell us the issues,” she told reporters during a press conference on public safety in Albany on Tuesday.

Hundreds of correction officers have refused to clock in for the last nine days as part of a strike that’s not sanctioned by their union, the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association.

They’re protesting what they’ve described as unsafe conditions, including violence against staff and inmates, illegal flow of drugs and mandatory overtime shifts. “I understand there’s a lot of frustration about the long hours,” Hochul said. “I understand that. We need more of you on the job. I get that. But we have a situation right now which is absolutely untenable!”

Although state labor law bars public employees from striking, officers at 38 out of 42 facilities outside of the five boroughs have walked off the job — prompting legal action from the state Attorney General’s office against at least 330 officers.

State police and 6,500 National Guardsmen are now deployed to backfill jobs.

“Nine out of 10 correctional officers are on this illegal strike and we will go to get to every single one of them until they return to work,” Marcos Gonzalez Soler, the state’s Deputy Secretary for Public Safety, said.

Meanwhile, facility visitation has been suspended in a number of prisons. The total inmate population stands at over 33,000 according to the state.

“We also repealed a staffing memo that had been viewed as controversial. We also suspended portions of the ‘HALT’ law, which requires a certain amount of time out and other facilities and other activities that we do not have the staffing to implement,” said Hochul, discussing steps already taken.

The strikes come on the heels of multiple murder indictments of officers in the death of Marcy Correctional inmate Robert Brooks And the death of another prisoner over the weekend.

Correctional officers and family members visited the State Capitol Building in Albany on Tuesday.

“My husband is on the inside. All of these women have husbands on the inside,” said Nicole, who asked NY1 to withhold her last name for fear of retaliation against her husband, who is a correction officer. “The last three years have been hell, and yet they still get up every morning and they walk through those doors to do the job that they were trained to do.”

Assaults on prison staff doubled from 1,053 in 2020 to 2,070 last year, according to Department of Corrections data. Inmate on inmate assaults are even higher: 2,982 in 2024 compared to 1,206 in 2020.

“I’m asking the union, what do they want? It can’t be pay and benefits, because we literally just negotiated a very generous package. Less than a year ago!” Hochul said.

Negotiating a deal with Hochul, union asks are for higher officer pay, staffing mandates, stricter security around inmate mail and mandatory body scans for visitors. Right now, officers who refuse to go back to work are getting their pay docked, and the state is considering other penalties, like a suspension of their health insurance.

“The data regarding the ‘HALT’ Act is plain and simple. There’s a lot of violence in the prison that wasn’t there prior to the ‘HALT’ Act, and it’s time to put an end to it,” Nicole said.

Officers who spoke to NY1 on condition of anonymity say their biggest request is a full repeal of the 2019 “HALT” Act, limiting officers’ ability to sanction inmates with solitary confinement — but it would require an act of the Democratic-controlled legislature.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Westchester, said a repeal of the law is unlikely.