Wildcat strikes have spread throughout New York’s sprawling prison system. We’re on the scene.
Many incarcerated New Yorkers say the new normal is endless lock-in.
After a strike led state prisons to stop accepting new prisoners, local jails have been left holding thousands of extra people.
Short-staffed since a strike this winter, the prison system is keeping people locked in their boiling cells and dorms for upwards of 21 hours a day.
The prison agency’s security ranks are 4,700 corrections officers and sergeants short of what it says it needs to run every program and housing area effectively.
With nearly all of New York’s state prisons on lockdown, those on the inside struggle to get by.
The HALT Solitary Confinement Act altered the balance of power within New York’s prisons.
Wildcat strikes have spread to over half of the state’s prisons.