Leaders from the state Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) came out Wednesday appearing to feel isolated from its members and the state as the wildcat strike its members are partaking in hit its 17th day. 

Executive Vice President Matt Keough acknowleged that members at this point do not trust union leadership. 

“Have we acted in their behalf on a legal aspect? Yes, we have. Have we acted in a standard that they believe that we should be upholding? No, we don’t. Our union membership has no faith in us right now,” Keough said.

After a consent agreement between the union and the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) late last week failed to convince many prison employees to return to work, NYSCOPBA said it has learned of “outside influences” attempting to act as mediators.

“We now have outside influences with their own agendas networking on the behalf of a number of members that are attempting to negotiate a settlement with the state,” NYSCOPBA public relations director Jim Miller told reporters in prepared remarks. “For the state to entertain anyone other than NYSCOPBA to represent the interests of our members would be going down a path that will only prolong the strike.” 

Keough said they aren’t sure who these influences are but many of them appear to be originating on social media.

“There’s proposals out there from outside influences that mirror the mediation agreement with some different wording,” Keough said. “The difference between that was it came directly from the strike lines. I don’t disagree with some of the stuff that they have in there. But it is part of our mediation agreement that once it’s clear and in place, and everybody goes back to work, ours would be court binding as opposed to the stuff that the outside people are trying to get the Department of Corrections to agree to without us being involved in any way, shape or form.”

The reason for those "outside influences" appears to be frustration between NYSCOPBA members and its leadership. The union didn't sanction the strike and cannot without facing serious fines from the state that union leaders say would cripple the union in a matter of days. Leaders pointed to a contentious union meeting in early February when dissatisfaction with the status quo started to boil.

When asked what the disconnection is, Keough pointed to the centerpiece of the strike —  the HALT Act – which limits the use of solitary confinement.

“They want the repeal of HALT. They want the complete repeal of HALT. And we can’t provide that for them so that’s where our failure came in their eyes. We can’t repeal HALT so the union is failing them,” Keough said.

Passed by the state Legislature and enacted in April 2022, a repeal of the HALT Act would require an act by the Legislature. Programming elements of the HALT Act are currently suspended due to staffing problems the strikes created.

“The non-sanctioned strike that occurred didn’t begin on Feb. 17 as a result of one single incident. It is a culmination of frustration that has built among members since the HALT Act began in April of 2022,” Miller said in his statement. “Despite voicing our opposition to the legislation since its inception, the climate and working conditions began to seriously eroded over two years ago.”

Besides the HALT Act, strikers are also protesting working conditions and staffing, which the NYSCOPBA criticized the state over.

“The staffing crisis started through COVID when the Department of Corrections didn’t try to hire or pass a single person through our training academy for two solid years,” Keough said. “There was no new hires for two whole years, and it’s catching up with the department.”

At the state Capitol in Albany on Monday, correction officers rallied to protest the HALT Act to lawmakers directly while nearby advocates rallied to defend the HALT Act and some Democratic lawmakers are pushing prison reform initiatives they are hoping to pass this year.

“It’s very clear that the governor’s office is more concerned with inmate programming and inmate quality of life than the people who watch after them,” Keough said.

Meanwhile Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York is teaming up with the New York Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit as they say incarcerated people have had their access to legal representation cut off amid the strike.

“Typically, what we do is communicate through the mail, through legal phone calls and through legal visits, but as soon as the strike happened, all legal phone calls and all legal visits were stopped,” said Karen Murtagh, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York.

The organization is responsible for ensuring incarcerated people are provided the standards set by state law. Murtagh says that isn’t happening.

“Because of the staffing shortage, DOCCS was having difficulty feeding people, people were not getting showers, people were not being taken to any outside medical visits, so there are very urgent issues when it comes to medical care,” she said.

DOCCS told Spectrum News 1 that they cannot comment on pending litigation.

As for how and when the strike will come to an end, Summers said communication with state officials is ongoing, but he doesn’t know where the governor will take the conversation next.

"I don’t know, I can’t answer that question,” he said. “We’re working with the governor’s office and the department, but if they don’t want to listen like they have not been listening for the last year, I couldn’t tell you what’s going to happen.”