Assemblyman Christopher Friend (R, C-Big Flats) is calling out Albany Majority lawmakers for spending nearly $679.9 million responding to the 2025 correctional officer workforce demonstration, with more than $1 billion in total taxpayer funds allocated and no exit plan for the ongoing National Guard deployment in state correctional facilities, including Elmira Correctional Facility. Despite the staggering cost, not a single legislative change has been made to the HALT Act, the policy correctional officers consistently point to as a driver of increased violence and unsafe conditions inside state prisons.

“Taxpayers are spending $50 million a month to keep the National Guard in prisons where they aren’t even allowed to do correctional work. They can’t enforce discipline, they can’t intervene like correctional officers and they can’t fix staffing shortages. Albany has turned them into overpaid hall monitors and glorified babysitters. This is not public safety or safety for correctional officers or the inmates,” said Friend.

Currently, approximately 2,700 National Guard members remain deployed, costing taxpayers about $50 million per month. At the height of the response, nearly 7,000 guardsmen were mobilized at a cost of roughly $106 million per month. Yet, Guard members are prohibited from performing most correctional duties, leaving the core safety issues unresolved. During the 2025-26 Legislative Session, the state approved $165 million in emergency funding to support the Guard deployment. The FY 2025-26 Enacted Budget added another $535 million for correctional stabilization. This funding remains in place in the governor’s FY 2026-27 Executive Budget. These funds may be redirected at the discretion of the Division of the Budget, with limited transparency and no meaningful reforms tied to the spending.

“Albany lawmakers are burning through over a billion dollars while refusing to address the policy failures that caused this crisis. There’s no plan to end the Guard deployment, no accountability for the spending and no willingness to admit the HALT Act has made our prisons more dangerous.”

Assembly Minority lawmakers have introduced legislation to repeal the HALT Act, strengthen contraband screening at correctional facilities and increase penalties for assaults and harassment of correctional officers. Lawmakers have also raised concerns that correctional officers and their union were largely shut out of discussions on reform, despite being on the front lines of this crisis.

“This isn’t an abstract Albany debate,” Friend said. “It affects public safety, state finances and working families right here in the 124th District and across the Southern Tier. New Yorkers deserve real solutions, not billion-dollar babysitting.”

For more information on Assembly Minority proposals to support correctional officers and strengthen public safety, visit their Web site.