Albany, N.Y., March 18--State Senator Tom O’Mara (R-C, Big Flats) has joined his colleagues in the Senate Republican Conference calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to rescind her recent Executive Order barring at least 2,000 terminated state corrections officers from future employment in state or local governments.
The Senate GOP strongly criticized Hochul’s Executive Order No. 47.3. enacted in response to her failure to properly address the recent strike at correctional facilities statewide, calling it “punitive.”
In a letter to the governor (see attached), O’Mara and his colleagues wrote, “We believe this Executive Order is punitive and will only have a ripple effect, impacting not only the 2,000 correction officers but also the members of the National Guard that must continue to serve in our prisons.”
O’Mara said, “The Hochul administration’s handling of the ever-worsening conditions within New York’s prisons has been abysmal. This vindictive Executive Order and the current threat to close up to five more state correctional facilities as part of the upcoming state budget, will only make it worse. It will only serve to exacerbate the failure. It’s unfair to the fired officers who sought safety for themselves, their families, and their facilities. It’s unfair and dangerous to the National Guard members who have been called into the prisons. It will only continue to jeopardize safety and weaken this state as a whole.”
County officials across the state, including in Chemung and Steuben counties, as well as the New York State Sheriff’s Association, have expressed opposition to Hochul’s Executive Order.
O’Mara’s 58th Senate District includes the Elmira Correctional Facility and the Five Points Correctional Facility in Seneca County.
