Minimum hiring age for prison guards lowered

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -With a civil service exam, anyone between 18 and 20 can now be a correction officer at state prisons. These new COs won’t have the same responsibilities as their 21 and older coworkers though.

The bill signed by Governor Kathy Hochul includes a mentorship program, enhanced training and multiple restrictions for tasks correction officers can't do if they are younger than 21:

• Obtain or use a firearm as a peace officer or as any part of their employment duties.
• Conduct outside transport of incarcerated individuals, perform wall tower and arsenal duties, or any other role that requires a firearm.
• Perform contact roles with incarcerated individuals without supervision in their first eighteen months of service as a correction officer.
• Provide outside hospital coverage.
• Supervise outside work crews or community crews.

NYSCOPBA, the union representing state correction officers, is in favor of anything that safely increases employment numbers according to Communications Director James Miller. “Under these circumstances, because right now since 2023, January 2023, there’s a deficit of 4,000 officers. During that same time period, you had an increase in the inmate population by 2,000.”

But with these restrictions, retired Sargent Rudy Pavlin told NEWS10’s Anthony Krolikowski the jobs these young adults will likely be doing are meant for senior officers. “Non-inmate related posts and as you go through your career in corrections, you start out in housing units which is with the inmates.”

Attorney Greg Rinckey said that not having access to firearms is a safety issue. “Especially when you’re a corrections officer. You’re a sworn peace officer, one of the roles is you're protecting the state and the populous and civilians on the outside of the wire from people that are locked up that have done bad things.”

According to the bill, only facilities with staffing capacity 90 percent or more can hire COs in the age range. That’s because officials want there to be enough older COs to train them.

“You want to make sure that that individual obviously has the training but also has the supervision so they can handle that type of atmosphere. Now you could make the argument that 18 year olds can join the military and wind up being in a war,” explained Miller. The new policy is effective immediately so DOCCS can begin to hire younger correction officers as soon as staffing requirements are met.