$1.2 BILLION TO KEEP NATIONAL GUARD IN NEW YORK’S PRISONS TO 2027
THE COST OF GOV. KATHY HOCHUL'S DECISION TO FIRE 2,000 STRIKING PRISON GUARDS IS ABOUT $57 MILLION A MONTH AND COUNTING. MISSION EXPECTED TO LAST AT LEAST UNTIL MARCH 2027.
Upstate Correctional Facility’s strike line was an abandoned gas station. Shown Mar. 12, 2025, as strikers say goodbye and clean up. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
MALONE, NEW YORK Jan. 22, 2025
The 2025 wildcat strike by New York State's prison guards is on track to cost taxpayers more than $1.2 billion dollars by 2027.
Budget documents obtained by The Free Lance News from the State Comptroller's office show New York has spent a whopping $268 million so far in just salaries alone for the National Guard troops who have replaced correction officers fired during the strike and those who retired afterward.
It was the longest strike by prison workers in American history. It started Feb. 17 and lasted 22 days. After cursing out the leadership of the guards' union on Mar. 7, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered strikers to return to work by Mar. 10. Most did, but about 2,000 didn't. Gov. Hochul fired them.
At least a few of those 2,000 later returned to work, on probationary status. Others who stayed on the job or returned to work retired throughout 2025.
14,200 guards, sergeants and lieutenants worked for the state prison system on Feb. 1, 2025—two weeks before the strike. After the mass-firings, that number was sliced to 12,600 by Apr. 1. It continued to drop throughout the year. On Nov. 1, it was 11,900. As of Jan. 2, 2026, its down to 11,278.
Hochul first deployed National Guard troops Feb. 19, 2025, two days after the strike began at two prisons in western New York. At its height, about four-out-of-five of New York's total force of prison guards walked picket lines outside 40 of the state’s 42 prisons instead of manning their posts inside. About 6,000 National Guardsmen filled the boots of striking guards.
Today, about 3,000 troops remain deployed throughout New York's prison system, Eric Durr, a spokesman for the New York National Guard, told The Free Lance News on Thursday. They're even deployed in the state's female prisons, this reporter observed.
The $268 million in National Guard payroll is current as of Jan. 15, 2026. Only a complete total payroll undifferentiated by mission was available. The Free Lance News arrived at that figure by comparing how much the National Guard spent month-by-month in total wages in 2024, the year before the strike, with what it spent since Feb. 17, 2025. $268 million is the difference.
Thanks to a law then-Gov. George E. Pataki pushed through the state legislature in the aftermath of 9/11, New York's National Guardsmen assigned to active duty missions in New York are paid as sergeants even if they're not sergeants under the Patriot Plan.
Depending on years of service, guardsmen deployed to New York's prisons earn a monthly minimum State Active Duty salary of $3,001.50 and a maximum of $6,657.30 per month, according to a 2025 New York National Guard pay fact sheet.
In addition, soldiers who sign up for what is now a voluntary mission are paid a $2,000 bonus every two weeks. On top of that, troops on active duty assignments are entitled to a Basic Allowance for Housing—"BAH"—as part of their pay.
The BAH is calculated by location, rank and whether the soldier has any dependents. A private without dependents from New York City is entitled to a monthly BAH of $4,833. The same private is only entitled to $1,356 if they live in upstate Watertown, according to the BAH calculator.
Put it all together and a private on the prison mission makes at least $8,357 a month. If they're from New York City, they make as much as $11,834.
If you’re a 19-year-old kid, working at McDonalds, maybe still living with your mom, because you’re a good kid (which is why they let you join the National Guard and shoot machine guns in the first place), that’s a lot of cash.
The $268 million in National Guard prison payroll paid as of Jan. 15, 2026 does not include 100s of millions of additional dollars New York is paying in hotel fees to house the troops while they're deployed, vehicle leasing fees to transport them to-and-from prisons, gasoline, meal allowances to feed them, special equipment and other costs.
Durr, the New York National Guard Public Affairs officer, referred The Free Lance News's question about the total amount of these additional costs to Gov. Hochul's Division of the Budget.
Neither the DOB or the governor's office responded to a request for the amount.
However, the briefing book for Gov. Hochul's proposed 2027 budget states there is "over $700 million in projected National Guard spending on this mission through the end of FY 2026."
That means these additional expenses amount to more than $432 million.
Gov. Hochul's proposed 2027 budget totals $260 billion. $535 million of it is “to extend the deployment of the National Guard" through FY 2027 "to provide operating support while the system stabilizes."
In total, that means New York taxpayers will spend more than $1.2 billion for Gov. Hochul's decision to break the 2025 strike by firing 2,000 guards instead of negotiating with them.
But even that's still not its true cost. The National Guard’s mission is likely to extend past the end of FY 2027, which is in March, because the state prison system is losing guards instead of gaining them—despite aggressive recruitment efforts.
In addition, New York rewarded guards who remained on the job with what Gov. Hochul's proposed 2027 budget calls "temporary enhanced overtime rate for correctional staff."
Spokesmen for the state prison system and Gov. Hochul both did not respond to a request to disclose how much was paid in enhanced overtime.
The Empire State also paid cash settlements to at least some of the guards who were fired who filed union grievances demanding the due process hearings their union's contract promises them if they’re fired. Instead of proving the guards were guilty of a firing offense at those hearings, the state settled with them.
The details of these hearings and their outcomes are not public because New York treats them as state secrets. A state appeals court in Albany recently rubber-stamped the censorship.
Thomas Mailey, Director of Public Information for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, told The Free Lance News to file a formal request pursuant to the state’s Freedom of Information Law to find out how much was paid to settle grievances by fired guards. DOCCS routinely takes years to decide such requests, and rarely grants them.
The starting salary for a New York state Correction Officer in 2026 is $66,365. It rises to $69,762 after a year and $84,024 after seven years.
James Miller, spokesman for the union that represents the guards, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, told The Free Lance News in an emailed statement that "deploying thousands of Nation Guardsman to fill the staffing deficits is certainly going to come at a cost.”
"The union’s focus," Miller added, "is on improving the working conditions of our members as well as advocating for additional staffing through recruitment of new officers as well as retaining current officers."
Send tips or corrections to jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me