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Correctional officers face suspension
New York City Department of Correction workers who did not receive at least one COVID vaccine dose by 5 p.m. on Tuesday are at risk of being put on leave without pay. Meanwhile, staff members at the state's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision are also facing disciplinary action for failing to comply with the state's vaccine and testing mandate.
NEW YORK - The savage attack of a female correction officer last month appeared to have prompted the acting commissioner of the state prison system to issue a memo about a trend of "extremely disturbing assaults," said the union that represents officers.
Officer Adrea Adamczyk, a five-year veteran at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, suffered a broken nose and cuts and bruises after a male inmate punched and kicked her on Nov. 18, according to NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association.
Adamczyk had asked the inmate to take a shower when she was assaulted. She underwent reconstructive surgery on her nose and had to receive 70 stitches.
Tim Ruffinen, a spokesman for the union and Director of Special Public Affairs at Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman LLP, said morale has never been lower.
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Correction officers 12 hour shifts
New York City correction officers have been ordered to work 12-hour shifts after excessive staff absenteeism. This comes as the vaccine mandate of Dec. 1 quickly approaches.
"Our members have been working nonstop throughout the pandemic," Ruffinen said. "In the early on stages, it was a battle for PPE and then there was just the uncertainty with the virus itself. Our members showed up to work every single day in dangerous working conditions."
Anthony Annucci, acting commissioner of the state’s prison system, wrote in a memo on Nov. 22 directed to those incarcerated, that he was surprised by the seemingly random "extremely serious assaults against staff."
Adrea Adamczyk, a correction officer at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York, was attacked by an inmate on Nov. 18, 2021, said the NYS COPBA. (Photo provided by NYS COPBA)
"I have over thirty-seven years of experience in this agency, and while there has always been the occasional very troubling incident, the trend I am seeing of late in terms of the sheer savagery of the assault, the randomness of the assault and the lack of any precipitating event before the assault is extremely disturbing," Annucci wrote. "This will not be tolerated."
Ruffinen said the memo likely came after the assault of Adamczyk.
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"Assaults have doubled over the past 10 years, while the state’s prison population has dropped by almost half," Ruffinen said. ‘What is the department doing today, to prevent this from happening to our members? We're looking for more proactive measures."
In the memo released Nov. 22, Annucci said the state will look to seek the maximum possible penalty when it comes to assaults on staff, by adding time to an incarcerated person’s sentence.
Adrea Adamczyk, a correction officer at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York, was attacked by an inmate on Nov. 18, 2021, said the NYS COPBA. (Photo provided by NYS COPBA)
Darlene McDay, a prison reform advocate, said that the first step the state needs to take when it comes to addressing violence in prisons was making sure that those incarcerated were treated humanely.
"We've seen what's happened in Rikers recently," McDay explained. "People haven't been getting basic needs met, having to defecate in baths. They have been denied food. They've been denied basic human rights. So what needs to be done is people need to be fed, people need to have meals, they need to be able to be treated like human beings. They need to have things that are going to actually reform not make matters worse."
NYSCOPBA is calling for action from the state and is asking lawmakers to back legislation that would launch a study into the violence at state prisons.
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