In our opinion, Gov. Kathy Hochul took the wrong first step when prison workers went on strike Monday in Collins, Brocton and more than two dozen other state prisons.

Because the governor didn’t immediately invoke the Taylor Act, which prohibits strikes by members of unions representing public safety workers like police officers, firefighters and corrections officers, Hochul is acting from a weaker position. That’s a problem because if this series of strikes isn’t resolved quickly, what stops a similar strike from happening in communities throughout the state? The city of Jamestown has had some loud disagreements between the city and its police officers and firefighters in recent years, but there’s never been a strike. By not dealing with the corrections officers’ strikes swiftly – including negotiations to deal with the officers’ concerns before things reached a breaking point – the governor has just weakened the calming effect the Taylor Act has provided for decades. Her refusal to invoke the Taylor Act immediately could have ramifications down the road across the state.

That’s one reason the governor must end this crisis immediately by getting corrections officers back on the job.

The governor did invoke the Taylor Act later in the week, but strikes are continuing. One of corrections officers’ demands is to face no legal repercussions for violating the Taylor Act – something that, if granted, weakens the state’s use of the Taylor Act in the future.

Working conditions in prisons are increasingly unsafe in state prisons. The seizure of 23 weapons at Collins and injuries to local workers in repeated prison attacks are signs the governor needs to provide the tools that will allow corrections officers to maintain order inside the prisons. That must include changes to the HALT Act, which limits the use of solitary confinement in prisons. The HALT Act was celebrated by Democrats when it was signed into law. We don’t disagree that some prisons used solitary confinement too often, but the state’s restrictions on solitary confinement are contributing to a lack of order inside prison walls.

Corrections officers will have to give, too, and it can’t simply be a Taylor Act-inspired docking of pay and restriction on union dues gathering as happened in Buffalo when teachers used a “sick out” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the pressure inside prisons is being generated by corrections officers going too far, as they did at the Marcy Correctional Facility. Fourteen prison employees were fired after a beating captured on video resulted in an inmate’s death. Some of those employees are defendants in lawsuits alleging inmate abuse, including one alleging a “beat-up squad” made up of prison employees. Ending such behavior is a good place for corrections officers to start if they want the state government to take action on their demands, particularly something Democrats value as much as they value the HALT Act.

The crisis in state prisons has been building for years, in part because state officials have largely ignored corrections officers’ complaints over the past several years about working conditions. Hochul pointed to pay raises corrections officers have received recently, but pay isn’t the biggest issue here. The biggest concern is officer safety, and the state hasn’t done nearly enough to address those concerns.

It’s time for Hochul to resolve this crisis before the Taylor Law has no authority whatsoever and before the next round of prison violence escalates into the type of uprising we haven’t seen since Attica.