Regulations that restrict use of solitary confinement are being temporarily suspended in the wake of prison strikes and disruptions, the corrections commissioner announced Thursday.

In addition, striking staff won’t be disciplined if they return to work.

In a memo to the prisons, Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III said that the provisions of HALT legislation allows a pause in the event that the prisons can not be operated safely. 

Critics of the legislation have said it has taken away a tool to discipline inmates.

They will increase the overtime rate to 2 ½ times for the duration of this state of emergency.

They will not pursue any disciplinary action against employees who immediately report to work before 11:59 p.m.

The fourth day of these strikes come as the indictments are expected to be unsealed against prison staff involved in last December’s beating death of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed an order to approve deployment of the National Guard to secure the facilities.

At Riverview Correctional Facility in St. Lawrence County, inmates took over the dorms just after midnight on Thursday. They got unruly and the officers felt their safety was in jeopardy, according to Jim Miller, spokesman for the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association. 

Workers are back walking the picket lines at Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie. They tell NewsChannel 13’s Dan Levy that the changes from DOCCS are a good start but they are not enough.

Learn more about their reaction by watching the video.