Day 12 of the correction officer strike at prisons across New York ended with a tentative deal to end the strike and many workers still feeling dissatisfied.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced late Thursday night that a tentative deal had been reached between the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association. 

• Read the complete list of terms in the tentative agreement

“They’re showing us something but they’re not actually giving us anything,” an anonymous correction officer outside Auburn Correctional Facility on Friday told Spectrum News 1. “They’re making us look somewhere cause it’s shiny, but there’s no actual meat to the stew, there’s nothing really there.”

Dissatisfaction seems to continue when it comes to the HALT Act, which limits the use of solitary confinement. Striking officers demanded a full repeal, or at least some permanent suspension of the law, but would require action by the state Legislature for a full repeal.

“We don’t want guys to rot in the box forever either. We don’t want guys to go in and stay. We just want a healthier working condition for everybody. We just want there to actually be some discipline,” the anonymous worker said. “I don’t want to get spat on. I don’t want females to get groped. Those are minimal things. I just want there to be some type of disciplinary action.”

Mark Strong, a retired correction officer, said being a CO already comes with enough risks.

“When you walk through those gates every day, you might not walk out of them on your own two feet,” he said.

Strong’s son is now a CO. He said since the HALT Act went into effect, he’s been extra worried for his son’s safety.

“Since the Halt Act has been enacted, he’s had two severe assaults by inmates,” Strong said.

Republican state Sen. Mark Walczyk and Republican state Assemblyman John Lemondes were both outside Auburn Correctional on Friday, showing their support for the striking COs and also expressing frustration with the HALT Act and supporting the call for its repeal.

“The one tool that correction officers had in order to maintain some safety, civility and operational awareness within our facilities, that one tool was solitary confinement,” Walczyk said.

Strong said those still striking say they will not stop until the HALT Act is no more.

“As far as the HALT Act is concerned, the only thing that can happen is that it needs to be 100% no questions asked repealed,” he said.

Others are considering jumping ship entirely, which could worsen the staffing issue inside these facilities that helped spark the strike in the first place.

“Unfortunately, I’m not going down with the ship. I’d be lying if I told you the last three days I haven’t been filling out applications,” the anonymous worker said.

The deal reached between the Department of Corrections and the union calls for all employees to return to work on their assigned schedule by March 1, but the terms will not go into effect until all employees return to work.

If these conditions are met, the temporary suspension of programming elements of the HALT Act will continue for 90 days with an evaluation by DOCCS after 30 days to determine if reinstating those elements would create a “safety issue” on a facility-by-facility basis.

The deal also states that DOCCS will not discipline workers who participated in the strike; however, that does not include any Taylor Law fines.