Governor Kathy Hochul said she is deploying members of New York’s National Guard to help ensure safety and security at state correctional facilities.

This comes after workers continue to strike over “unfair working conditions.” Hochul calls the strike illegal.

Hochul said that more than 3,500 members of the National Guard reported for duty Wednesday ahead of a larger deployment to the state prisons.

Dozens of staff from Coxsackie and Greene Correctional Facilities protested Friday outside of the two jails.

Workers lined up starting at around 6 a.m. Wednesday demanding for better working conditions.

NewsChannel 13 spoke with Nick Cantelmo who worked at Coxsackie for over 20 years. Cantelmo said the National Guard is not a fix for the issue.

“The National Guard is just going to be a babysitter. They’re going to do feed up. They’re probably going to watch them in their cells. Programs aren’t going to be running the way these officers have to deal with it on a regular basis, and it’s going to be completely different,” said Cantelmo.

NewsChannel 13 also spoke with a mother whose son in the prison at the Auburn Correctional Facility. She said since the strike began her son has been getting almost no food.

“They are, technically on a lockdown, a non-disciplinary lockdown is how he put it to us. They are in their cells, and they don’t have the opportunity to leave, for any meals,” the mother said.

Hochul said that the National Guard will provide meals and medications to the prisoners while also keeping the prisons in general order.