Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that she is “excited” about efforts which she described as “redoing our prison system” in the wake of a three-week illegal strike by correction officers across the state.

The governor’s response to the strike may have ultimately sent 75% of officers back to work after days of back and forth, but it has infuriated advocates for the HALT Act as certain aspects of the law, which limits the use of solitary confinement and replaces aspects of it with rehabilitative programming, remain on a 90-day suspension. The governor blamed that suspension in part on the 25% of officers who refused to return.

“That has unfortunately been suspended because I am now down not just the original 2,000 correction officers, but we have an additional 2,000,” she said referring to existing staffing issues that fueled the strike. “I’m going to keep the National Guard there for a while but I want to rethink the whole system.”

Ending HALT was a primary demand of the strikers because of the unsafe conditions they say are created by limiting solitary confinement, but in reality the programming pause had more to do with addressing staffing issues than those concerns.

As Hochul spoke across town, advocates and several Democratic lawmakers gathered at the state Capitol to express their frustration with the governor over the suspension.

“The Department of Corrections can double down all they want on suspensions, on breaking the law,” said Jerome Wright, co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign. “But HALT is the law, and that’s what we want to follow."

Beyond that 90-day pause, the state also agreed to the possibility of further suspension when staffing drops below a certain level, and a committee to study aspects of the law before making recommendations to the Legislature.

Advocates have accused the governor of giving up on elements of a law they say wasn’t fully implemented in the first place, as a 2022 inspector general report found.

State Sen. Julia Salazar told Spectrum News 1 that while she understands the current staffing situation post-strike makes transporting individuals to and from programming a challenge, the fact that the situation in DOCCS facilities has deteriorated to such a degree underscores the need for expanded oversight.

The governor and both houses have included language expand oversight through the New York State Commission of Correction in their budget proposals.

“All of this together is very important for us to monitor conditions in the facilities, make sure all components of the HALT Solitary Confiment Act are implemented, despite the staffing challenges,” she said.

Advocates also insisted that the governor and  DOCCS Commissioner Dan Martuscello don’t have the authority to suspend HALT programming. Salazar indicated that while the commissioner and the executive do have the authority to suspend portions of HALT under emergency situations, she isn’t convinced that proper protocols have been followed.

“It needs to be documented, it needs to be justified, and I don’t think we are adequately seeing that right now, but that just underscores the importance of oversight,” she said.

On Tuesday, the governor affirmed her long-term commitment to the programming aspects of HALT as they remain on hold while she undertakes a massive hiring effort.

“It’s important to me that people have the opportunity while they are there to emerge from this incarceration with more skills, or as an individual who is less likely to commit crimes again,” she said.

At the same time, she also touted concessions to the correction officers in a post-strike era, including efforts to reduce contraband reaching facilities through the mail reached as part of the deal that sent striking officers back to work.

“We’re going to bring on a separate contractor to actually look at this, not to read the mail, but if there’s something illegal, send it back,” she said.

The governor has proposed further reforms to the prison system through the state budget, including closing up to five more facilities and consolidating incarcerated individuals, and mandating that body cams be worn at all times within facilities. The Senate and Assembly have adopted variations of those proposals in their one-house budgets, though the Assembly limited the governor to three facilities in addition to two last year. Hochul also proposed expanding programs that contribute to earned merit time, which the Senate adopted but the Assembly did not.

It comes as Republican lawmakers, who have stood by striking officers in their quest to repeal HALT, sent a letter to the governor requesting that she rescind an executive order barring those who were terminated from state jobs and making it harder for them to get local ones.

“If any organization had done what she has done to blacklist employees, particularly employees who were treated poorly, they would be met with hellfire from the Department of Labor, but instead it’s okay because Kathy Hochul did it,” said state Sen. George Borrello.

The governor clarified that certain aspects of that executive order having to do with local jobs expire after 30 days, but she encouraged local governments to keep in mind the illegal nature of the strike.

“They’re only in effect until April 9,” the governor said of the restrictions on local hiring. “If these people want to go work for local law enforcement that’s their prerogative, but I would remind everybody I’d be very cautious because these individuals had a responsibility to protect the public and the incarcerated population and they walked off the job for 22 days many of them.”