ALBANY, N.Y. — New York is set to lower the minimum hiring age for prison guards from 21 to 18, seeking to boost the ranks of corrections officers during a shortage that was exacerbated by the firing of more than 2,000 guards after a weekslong strike crippled the state’s prison system.
State lawmakers approved the measure on Wednesday and Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law.
The bill establishes some rules for the younger guards, including policies that they cannot obtain or use firearms or transport inmates outside of prisons. They also must be supervised when performing “contact roles” with inmates during the first year-and-a-half on the job.
The push to lower the age for correction officers came after guards walked off the job in February while striking to protest poor working conditions. Hochul was forced to deploy the state National Guard to prisons to maintain operations during the strike.
The governor ended up firing more than 2,000 guards who refused to return to work after the state and guards’ union reached a deal to end the walkout, which lasted around three weeks. Hochul has barred the guards who were fired from holding other state jobs in the future.
The state corrections commissioner has since directed the department to begin the process of releasing some inmates early because of a shortage of guards. But the early discharges have been limited to inmates who were convicted of minor crimes and were already set for release in the near future. Inmates convicted of sex crimes, violent felonies or serious felonies such as murder, terrorism and arson would not be eligible for early release, the agency said.
The strike came after the high-profile fatal beating of Robert Brooks at an upstate New York prison in December, which was recorded on guards’ body cameras and led to charges against more than a dozen people.
Another incarcerated person, Messiah Nantwi, died on March 1 after being injured in a series of beatings by guards, according to an indictment. Ten guards were charged over Nantwi’s death, including two who were charged with murder.
Some other states, including Florida, Maine and New Jersey, allow 18-year-olds to become correction officers.