State COs Union: DOCS Illegally Reducing Staff

DONN ROWE: DOCS acts 'above the law.'

The Department of Correctional Services has been ordered to appear in State Supreme Court Aug. 7 after the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association asserted that the state violated a temporary restraining order prohibiting the reduction of positions, involuntary transfers and layoffs at Butler Minimum Correctional Facility.

The union charges that the state transferred 20 Correction Officers out of Butler, but only replaced them with 12 officers. The union argued in court papers that the state was required to give notice of a year before reducing personnel.

'Blatant Disregard of Order'

"The blatant disregard for a Judge's order is a clear indication of how the New York State Department of Correctional Services Commissioner, Brian Fischer, feels about the safety and security of my members," NYSCOPBA President Donn Rowe said.

On July 13, 2009, the union secured a temporary restraining order from State Supreme Court Judge John B. Nesbitt against the closing of the Butler facility in Wayne County, which is scheduled for Oct. 1. The order prohibited DOCS from any reduction of positions, layoffs, involuntary transfers or other actions related to NYSCOPBA union members.

On July 23, 2009, 20 Correction Officers were transferred out of Butler to other correctional facilities. Staff there has not been fully replenished yet.

'Sneaky Tactics'

"Our facilities throughout the state are not adequately staffed to begin with, so when DOCS resorts to sneaky tactics to cut staff, it demonstrates what we have been saying all along," Mr. Rowe said. "They feel they are above the law on the one-year notification law and now above Judge Nesbitt's order. If DOCS feels they can break the law and flout the Judges of this state, you can only imagine how they treat my members who perform the most dangerous jobs imaginable behind the prison walls."

A spokesman for DOCS, Erik Kriss, said that the state had not yet made a determination if it would appeal the injunction, and would not comment further.

A 'Shortage' of Inmates

Mr. Fischer wrote in a recent Op-Ed article that state prisons are underutilized, disputing the assertion by NYSCOPBA that the prisons currently operate above 100-percent capacity. "NYSCOPBA relies on a decades-old, Federally-mandated statistic that measures the total number of inmates only against the number of 'permanent' general confinement beds in the system," he said. "But there is never a time when every inmate needs a general confinement bed; far from it."

Some may be in court, in observation or on discipline.

"The plain fact is, we have so many vacancies that last fall I closed 48 housing units containing 1,900 general confinement beds in 21 medium and minimum security correctional facilities, saving state taxpayers millions of dollars by not having to fill 334 no-longer required Correction Officer positions," Mr. Fischer said.