With New York facing a staffing shortage crisis in its prisons, the state’s solution to help ensure an “appropriate balance” between the safety of corrections officers and the public is to release inmates early. 

In a memo issued Monday, the commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Daniel Martuscello, said, “In view of the current staffing crisis, and in order to have the appropriate balance between the safety and well-being of those working and residing in DOCCS Correctional Facilities and public safety, it is appropriate…to move individuals from the Department’s general confinement facilities, into residential treatment outcount status.”

The memo clarified that the inmates who will be released must be within 15 and 110 days of their approved release date. Additionally, they must not be serving a sentence for violent crimes or sex offenses. 

In a statement, a state senator, Jim Tedicso, said, “I thought it was an April Fool’s joke when I first read that the governor is planning for the early release of convicted felons in our state prison system due to understaffing — a dangerous situation she created when she refused to provide our correction officers with safe working conditions and then fired more than 2,000 of them.”

“In the litany of dumb ideas I’ve seen over the years, this one takes the cake as it’s a recipe for disaster for public safety,” he said. “What on Earth is this governor doing?”

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik wrote on X, “Far Left Democrat Kathy Hochul truly is the worst Governor in America. Her wrongful termination of over 2,000 hardworking correctional officers has exacerbated the staffing shortages that our Upstate prisons were already facing under her weak and ineffective enforcement leadership.”

“Hochul’s anti-law enforcement agenda and her disastrous Halt Act have put Upstate New York and North Country communities at grave risk. I am calling on her to repeal the Halt Act and rehire the correctional officers immediately,” she said. 

A spokeswoman for Governor Hochul, Jess D’Amelia, told the Albany Times Union the governor’s “top priority is the safety and well-being of all New Yorkers” and said the governor supports Mr. Martuscello’s “efforts to safely address staffing shortages and personnel concerns.”

Mr. Martuscello has previously said New York had 2,000 unfilled corrections positions. The staffing shortages were exacerbated when Ms. Hochul fired 2,000 prison guards in March after they did not return to work at the end of a wildcat strike