On Tuesday at an event in Kingston, Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed reporters on discovery changes in the state budget alongside district attorneys and other stakeholders and then abruptly cleared the room.

“The loss of any life in our correctional facilities is one too many,” she told reporters as she announced indictments in the death of Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility at the height of the three-week illegal correction officer strike — including two for murder.

Hochul said she terminated the officers, vowing to work with the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to enforce the "highest standards of professionalism."

“The tragic death of Nantwi at the hands of those who are responsible for protecting the incarcerated population is deeply, deeply disturbing,” she said. “That does not reflect our values as New Yorkers, and his family deserves justice.”

State Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, who chairs the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, said charging the individuals only addresses part of the problem.

“Also the culture that perpetuates these ideas that we cannot treat folks who are incarcerated as human beings,” she said. “We’re not sending people to a death sentence, we’re supposed to be rehabilitating them. There’s more work to do, we need to make sure there is independent oversight.”

She told Spectrum News 1 that while certain initiatives are being addressed through the budget, like the potential for expansion of body-worn cameras and expanding earned time credits, more needs to be done.

“We need to make sure there is independent oversight, that we provide more mental health resources for both the incarcerated folks and the correction officers and everyone who works within the facility, we also need whistleblower protections,” she said. “We want to really push hard, we’re doing it through the budget process and then we must enact many pieces of legislation to create fairness in our incarceration system.”

When it comes to prison culture, Hochul said an outside review of New York’s prisons by firm WilmerHale is still ongoing.

“This is citizens who are engaged in helping us understand exactly what is happening in the culture of these prisons,” Hochul said.

But there are other things going on behind the closed doors of budget negotiations — proposals primarily having to do with the staffing crisis that the illegal strike created. Lawmakers say with the weight of a lengthy battle over the state’s discovery laws just about wrapped up, attention can now turn to those proposals.

One would lower the age to be a correction officer from 21 to 18, then there is the proposal to expand earned time, which allows individuals to earn time off of their sentance under certian conditions and only applies to certain non-violent offenses.

Assemblymember Anna Kelles, who sponsors the Earned Time Act, said the version of earned time being discussed would exclude individuals who are convicted of murder, rape, or other sex offenses.

The New York Post reported this week that the governor was considering expanding earned time credits to other violent offenses outside of those categories. Kelles has been involved in talks over the policy and said there have been conversations about it.

“Those are absolutely open conversations— that is the governor’s proposal right now,” she said. “That is an open conversation.”

Hochul’s office provided a statement to Spectrum News 1 addressing those discussions.   

“Governor Hochul will not allow anyone who demonstrates a public safety threat to be released early from prison,” the statement read. “A proposal was discussed that would have granted near term merit time release to approximately 3% of the prison population — only if they have excellent disciplinary records and a plan to live a crime-free life outside DOCCS facilities. Under no circumstances will this Administration grant any special privileges to individuals convicted of murder, rape or other sex offenses.”

Hochul's team did not respond to a request for clarification as to whether that proposal is still on the table.   

Kelles argues that the governor’s version doesn’t go far enough if you consider the purpose of earned time.

“We need to not have a knee jerk emotional reaction,” she said of those resistant to earned time in the case of violent offenses. “What the earned time act is saying is that we need to create policies that are about correction.”

She went on to say that the governor should go even further and allow the policy to apply to anyone with a release date, thereby incentivizing rehabilitation. 

“If we are saying that they are eligible some day to be released back into society, would we not want them to be incentivized to have a college degree, to be incentivized to have workforce development?”

Amid conversations about the HALT Act removing the incentive of solitary confinement amid the prison strike, Kelles said that the full Earned Time Act would provide an incentive for good behavior, and concerns about overloading the parole system could be addressed through dollars saved by incarcerating less individuals once they are released on earned time.

Republican state Assemblymember Scott Gray acknowledged the merits of earned time.

“We need to make sure we have good programming for these individuals,” he said.

But he questioned the use of the budget to address the staffing crisis, and moving forward with earned time in this form without a transparent process.

“We need data for all of these decisions, before we rush to deploy them for a system that is severely broken at this point,” he said.

Kelles said if the version of the Earned Time Act that is in the budget is not satisfactory or is pulled, passing the full version will be a "number one priority." Advancing in the state Senate this month, Republican State Sen. George Borrello slammed the bill.

“These bills are just the latest chapters in the Majority's ongoing crusade to put criminals before the law-abiding public,” said Borrello. “This isn’t about justice, nor is it about rehabilitation — it’s about dismantling accountability and rewriting the rules to benefit violent offenders, all while making innocent victims and law-abiding New Yorkers pay the price.”

As Solages mentioned, lawmakers are looking beyond the budget — gearing up to further address the prison crisis through multiple pieces of legislation. State Sen. Julia Salazar said that includes a proposal to expand oversight through the state commission of correction as well as parole and sentencing and reform.

“We could see a reduction of the prison population and decrease the burden on staff and on prisons in New York,” she said.

As those initiatives wait in the wings for the month long remaining portion of session dedicated to passing legislation, Gray argued that the path forward should be transparent and address systemic issues.

“We have to figure out what we’re going to do to put the system back in place,” he said. “I think it’s time that we have a hearing on this issue and let it all play out, let the advocates on the other side have their say as well, but let’s do it all together and if solutions come out for fixing this whole system then so be it.”