GOPs Bruce Blakeman promises to ease solitary confinement limits as he picks up correction union nod
ALBANY — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman promised he’d ease restrictions on solitary confinement Tuesday — as he picked up the endorsement of the correction officers union.Blakeman joined with members of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association outside the state Capitol, with the labor group’s leader saying members were rejecting Democrat Gov.Kathy Hochul over an ongoing crisis in state prisons.
“They’ve been speaking for the last three years, screaming at the top of their lungs that they need help,” COPBA President Chris Summers said, adding members voted 1,380-78 to back Blakeman over Hochul.“When we sent out this endorsement, they spoke loud and clear, and the vote was overwhelming,” Summers said.Blakeman told the president “help is on the way” as he pledged to scrap solitary restrictions, which correction officers say is contributing to escalating violence within the understaffed state system.He said Hochul’s handling of the prison system is “an insult to the hardworking men and women who serve in our corrections department.”“It’s a burden on the taxpayers,” Blakeman said.“It’s unsafe to the members of our National Guard.
It’s a security breach in our prisons to have people who are untrained serving as corrections officers.”The candidate, who is no serving as elected Nassau County executive, said in addition to rolling back the so-called HALT Act restrictions as governor, he thinks bumping pay for correction officers is reasonable.“I would not close any more prisons,” he also said, alluding to the shuttering of several facilities during Hochul’s time in office.According to the mayor’s management report released last week, the average stay on the city’s troubled Rikers Island jail complex increased from 87 days to 116, nearly an additional month that the corrections union blames on administration policy.The governor fired roughly 2,000 corrections officers in...