With New York state on Monday declaring the illegal corrections officer strike over, lawmakers are still reacting as the state budget process moves into a phase many on the picket lines had hoped to use to their advantage.

While always highly unlikely, a top-line demand of those on strike was a legislative repeal or significant revision of the HALT Act, which limits solitary confinement and replaces elements of it with rehabilitative programming.

As expected, in their one-house budgets, lawmakers in the state Senate and Assembly took no action on the demands of those on strike. Instead, they moved forward with other corrections-related proposals, including the possibility of additional prison closures, changes to body-worn camera policies and changes to time served credits.

Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke on the prison strike for the first time since last week Tuesday. With 75% of correction officers back to work, she now has some breathing room to address a corrections department still in crisis.

First order of business: Barring more than 2,000 correction officers terminated yesterday for continuing to strike from holding state jobs in the future via executive order.

“Thank God, we were able to get this done,” she said. “There are consequences when people break the law, and that means you’re not working in our state work force ever.”

The governor's office said the ban applies to state agencies, strips officers of their peace officer status, which they would have to reapply for, and suspends laws that promote mobility between state and local law enforcement positions for those individuals.

As for how the state can safely operate prisons after losing a quarter of its workforce amid an existing staffing crisis, Hochul said the administration will continue to rely on the National Guard.

“I’m already down, now I’m down 2,000 more. The National Guard is going to have to stay a little bit longer,” she said.

As for whether she will support a push from Senate Republicans to have the National Guard activated federally to expand benefits, Hochul said "no,” claiming the state has worked to ensure officers have what they need after early reports of a lack of food, access to showers and appropriate living arrangements.

Additionally, both the Senate and Assembly released their one-house budget rebuttals Tuesday. As expected, no mention of the HALT Act or anything directly related to the demands of those on strike.

Instead, the one-house budgets both authorized the governor to close more prisons, which some officers have indicated will exacerbate issues by consolidating incarcerated people in cramped quarters and forcing officers to travel long distances to get to work amid already lengthy shifts.

The Assembly limited the governor’s authorization to a total of five, including two that were closed as part of last year’s budget, while the Senate allows the governor to close five on top of those two for a total of seven.

Both houses concurred with the governor on mandating body-worn cameras in DOCCS facilities, and the Senate adopted the governor’s proposal to expand opportunities for earned time credit.

They also agreed to grant the State Commission on Correction more oversight power, though the Assembly amended that proposal to include access to representation for both correction officers and incarcerated people when being interviewed.

While Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie denied that the murder of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Faciltiy directly played into decisions related to DOCCS funding, when it comes to prison closures, he implied that the timing fits.

“Now, we’re going to be working with a smaller corrections staff, so this is a good time to maybe reorganize and see how we move forward," he said.

Hochul said that with the administration declaring the strike over, they are shifting focus to filling the massive void left by losing a quarter of their workforce in a dramatically public manner.

“I’m recruiting. I’m going to have an aggressive campaign. I’m going to be recruiting in non-traditional places to be recruiting for prison guards,” she said.

Heastie told reporters the governor has spoken with him about the recruitment plan, and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins suggested that she doesn’t think recruitment will be an insurmountable problem, despite weeks of negative headlines specifically about the jobs for which the state is recruiting.

“It is a job that I believe the starting salary is around $56,000, another $11,000 dollar bonus, and its a government job with health care and other benefits, so people should know there is availability,” she said.

While Democratic leaders have declared the strike over, some Republican lawmakers have said they are not moving on so quickly. That includes frustration over the governor’s executive order when it comes to future employment, as well as the effort launched Monday to convince the Trump administration to make the state’s National Guard activation federal.