"If that's not aggravating enough, every morning, when I'm lying down in my bunk here at Eastern Correctional Facility, a max prison located in Napanoch, New York, I'm forced to hear the same prisoner in a neighboring cell ask the same question to different corrections officers taking the list of our three-times-daily choice of activities. The same fist-clenching answer makes me and other prisoners want to melt down."
"causing Gov. Kathy Hochul to call in the National Guard and fire 2,000 wildcat strikers, prison administrators in my previous facility, the now-shuttered Sullivan Correctional Facility, were using the shortage of staff as justification to cancel both religious and family-day events. Here in Eastern, the prison whose security staff held the strike line the longest in southern New York, officials until fairly recently limited Bard College classes, canceled a TEDx Talk program, shuttered the Family Reunion Program, and nixed weekday visits."
Summer heat and cramped cells amplify tensions among people incarcerated at Eastern Correctional Facility. Repeated daily uncertainty about whether the school building, yard, or recreation will run creates frustration. Chronic staff shortages, compounded by a February prison guard strike and subsequent firings, prompted administrators to cancel religious services, family-day events, college classes, TEDx programming, the Family Reunion Program, and weekday visits. Many facilities now restrict families to a single weekend visit. Reduced programming increases idle time, eliminates educational and social opportunities, and raises the risk of unrest and violence within the prison environment.
Read at Slate Magazine
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