Episode 30- The Working In Hell Podcast

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:05]This is the Working in Hell podcast with your host Vinnie Blasio. Each episode, Vinnie takes you inside the world of New York State corrections, focusing on both corrections officer and law enforcement issues. And now, your host, Vinnie Blasio.

[00:00:35]Good day everyone. Welcome to episode 30 of the Working in Hell podcast. I got a lot of emails and messages asking when the next episode was going to be since I didn't realize it's been since uh 2025 December. We did a holiday podcast and we haven't had one since. So, thank you for all those emails and messages. And I kept promising that I would do one after people would keep giving me their incidents and what happened and then another one would happen and then another one would happen and some on the same day. So, we're kind of been remiss in getting some of the uh information out. So, again, welcome. Uh this is episode 30. So, we've been doing this for a little while now. And let's start off by recognizing all the hard work for all the correctional employees. This is correction officers week. So, let's salute them and give them a uh welcome and they do a tough job under tough conditions and as we know that it's getting worse instead of better. So, we just want to make sure that we give the recognition to all the officers and to all the staff that's been out there. Uh, giving it all under the worst conditions that I've ever seen and and I haven't had to work under them since 2020 when I retired and the direction department was going caused um the reason for my early retirement. So, I commend you and salute you and happy correction officers week everyone.

[00:02:01]So, we'll jump right into it and then we'll get into um some of the things that are going on around the state.

[00:02:07]Obviously, the New York State legislature is in session. They're still uh going on trying to get a budget.

[00:02:13]There seems to be some chaos there. One day uh day yesterday, Kathy Hokll celebrates that the budget is done and there get going to be a budget. Then the assembly speaker says, "Hold on, not so fast. Hold my beer. We're not we're not there yet." So, the chaos, like anything this governor does, continues. Um, New York State legislature is in uh legislators are still in session and we have these so-called leaders in the New York State lawmakers that are still trying to run the Department of Corrections through uh legislation and that just does not work. Um, you wouldn't have your dentist to come over and replace your pacemaker. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. the frontline staff are probably doing the best that they can. I won't say probably, they are doing the best that they can, but these laws, whether it's the halt act and some of these other craziness that's going on in New York State are making things worse. And not only for the staff that have to endure it, and we're going to get into a lot of the staff complaints and a lot of the staff issues that are going on, but also for the incarcerated as well. We'll get into the deaths, the high number of deaths that are going on, some murders that are crossing with the at hands of inmate on inmates. And I just can't understand how the uh attorneys for some of these families aren't going after docs. All they have to do is look in the media, and every day there's a new press release. Uh the officers are screaming from the rooftops about how bad it is and how unsafe it is, not only for them, uh but for the incarcerated as well. And we'll de dive into that. Um, but one of the things that I found kind of funny, but I guess uh uh I'm retired, so it's really not that funny, but is a new retirement uh plan. Got the wrong slide here. So, let's get get that off. Let's remove that from the stage and we'll get into the Senate bill that wants to give the um See if we can't blow that up a little bit. this Senate bill that wants to give pensions to uh inmates. So, I think that that's a little crazy. I don't know uh who came up with this. Well, we do know the sponsors of the bill. It's right here in the um See, we can't hold that up a little bit. And we see that in the Senate bill uh 5038. So, you can see right here that it was introduced by Senator Sepita. Um, it read twice, went to the Crime and Corrections Committee, blah blah blah, but it's an act to amend the correction law in relation to establishing an optional retirement stipen for certain incarcerated individuals over this age of 62. So, with everything that's going on with uh tier six reform, what have you. This is what the sense of urgency is. And the problem with New York State is they come up with these crazy laws. So now you have the workforce that's kind of been putting on the back back burner and then we get into these crazy uh laws. Doesn't mean that it's going to pass. But why and even getting to something like that to say, "Hey, you don't have to work anymore. While you're incarcerated, we're going to give you a pension, small pension, but we're going to give you a pension just the same." And have you not work or do any programs? I mean, it the the lunacy of New York State just does not stop. And it when you think it can't get any worse, the New York State legislators say, "Hold my beer. I'm going to uh one up you." And it seems to be coming from these far-left progressives. Um but be that as it may, um that's where we are. And that's why we have the problems that we have and the violence and that now where we're getting to deaths after deaths, I've never seen anything. How the commissioner keeps a job, um I have no idea. the worst place that you you'd be.

[00:05:59]Does he ever tell you that, you know, a snake that's cornered is is the worst?

[00:06:03]And the same with this commissioner as he's fighting for his job. Um, you know, that he can't be trusted. And the policies that he's coming up with are spaghetti memos. As I said in the last podcast, you know, just throw memos that are against the wall and let's see what sticks. And that's going to be my new policy, my new brainstorm. I mean, he's getting some of this stuff from the advocacy group, some from the inmates, some from um um uh just wild cards. I I don't know where he comes up with this.

[00:06:30]And then if somebody does have a good idea, like whether it be the union or frontline staff, then he tries to steal that and say, "Hey, that was my idea.

[00:06:37]Let's, you know, make them go through scanners or let's do thorough screening." It the the craziness it just it doesn't stop. And we'll get right into that as we look at um the fact sheet.

[00:06:50]Um, we haven't done one in a while. So, it's kind of going uh this one is just just came out. So, this starts at May 1st. So, that's everything that's happened from January 1st, 2026 to uh uh the end of April. And as you can see, the statistics are there. Again, incarcerated individual assaults on staff are at 527.

[00:07:12]Um, two the incarcerated individuals with the new tagline. Now, we're looking at harassment as a as a new tagline. So, we can kind of shift some of those numbers away from the assaults. Um, that was probably done intentionally, no doubt. That's at 233, but the incarcerated individual assaults on uh inmate and inmate assaults are 913.

[00:07:34]And it just goes on and on from from there. Incarcerated individual harassment of each other. That's at four. That's been pretty pretty steady.

[00:07:43]But let's go to the last page and we get into um 58 deaths in a correctional facility for the year to date of 2026. And that doesn't count what I think as of May when I looked this morning. I think there was three more. We just had another death at Riverview. Can't remember. The other one was Auburn and maybe Washington. I'm don't quote me on that. Um but we have 58. And when we look at all these 58, we look at 12 were natural causes. One was a suicide, two were overdoses, and 43, all those unknowns, all 43 of those are supposedly unknowns. But 58 deaths for the first quarter of the year, that's just astounding. And people are like, well, you know, who really pays attention to to the inmate deaths? And it's like, well, you better pay attention to it because that also gives you as the inmate deaths go up, that also gives you a synopsis of what a snapshot of what's going on in these facilities. And you don't need me to tell you how bad things are, but when you break that down from the prior month, just get the uh sheet here. And you can see that the inmate deaths uh climbed to a staggering 58. That's an increase just in one month of 14 from April. So from uh end of March to April, you had 14. So we're at a total of 58.

[00:09:01]The incarcerated inmate on uh inmate on uh staff assaults, that climbs to 527.

[00:09:07]That's an increase of 137 for the month.

[00:09:11]The incarcerated individuals harassment and staff that climbs to 233.

[00:09:16]Um that's an increase of 54. Even with a new softer definition of docs, you still see an increase. The incarcerated individual assaults on incarcerated individual that rises to 913. So that increases for a staggering of 236 incidents for the month. Is that not crazy? And the other thing that's kind of crazy is when you look at these, even though we're seeing that the officers are going to the hospital, they're still classifying some of these concussions and other things as minor. It is just, you know, everything's a downplay. Is the commissioner fighting for his job?

[00:09:49]Yeah, we'll get into some of that for a minute. So, they have to change these statistics to make it look like he's doing something. And we'll get into why there's no push back from the commissioner or docs on some of this lunacy. But again, 236 uh increased events um for the for the month. And then in incarcerated uh inmate on inmate harassment, that stayed the same as I said at four. You know, halt allows now for more serious assault. So, you're not going to see a whole lot in the harassment category because there's just no repercussions.

[00:10:20]Um and then we'll get into the staffing.

[00:10:22]Um as I put out, the lieutenant, she had a loss of seven for the month. The sergeants, she had an increase of 48 for the month. But the officers overall you have a loss of 77 for the month and the total staffing net loss is 36 uh for the month. So we don't see an increase in our staffing level. As a matter of fact uh you know with this recruit rebuild campaign we're actually seeing less. Now what does that change? Hopefully one of the reporters asked me the other day and they're like you know what what what does the net loss means? Is it that just people that just uh uh gave up and that resigned? And I'm like, "No, that's a combination of everything. People that were uh terminated for whatever reasons, people that resigned, and people that retired." And then you have the incoming for those that are off of uh the academy. Um th that would be your surplus, but that gets eaten up for people that are running through the doors with retirement. And retirement is obviously what everybody strives for, but no one's staying anymore. Who wants to stay into an insane system um where Yeah. the money's good, but at what cost? To your life, to your limbs, you know, to your family, the quality of life sucks. Um, and it just is not getting any better. And as you can see from these cra uh craziness for in these statistics that the violence is not uh ending anytime soon. you know, no matter what new policy, new memo, like I said, spaghetti memo coming out across the uh facilities and across the whole system, whether it's Door Dash for inmates, and we'll get into that, what have you. Uh nothing is working. We tried the pizza parties, that didn't work. We tried a Pamperfest, that didn't work. We tried the ice cream socials, that didn't work.

[00:12:07]So, now we have the new uh mantra of the Well, let's get into that into the Door Dash. Uh Door Dash is the new um mantra that uh uh Docs has come up with.

[00:12:19]They're saying that they got this directly off of uh um the uh of committee coming out of Wendy Correctional. Um but as you can see, vacations canled from your friend Danny.

[00:12:31]The inmates now have uh someone sent me these meme and a couple more, but I didn't have time to post them all. And some of these are good. I don't know where people are getting these memes from. Um, but they're accurate, clearly depict the uh depicts what's actually going on in these facilities and it's really really uh uh mind-blowing as far as what's going on. And that's we get this from the add this from the memo and this came out on January 27th and we'll get into I'll just read a a creep uh quick version of it as a follow-up to my memo dated January 22nd, 2026 providing an update to the department's reduction in violence and use of force goals. Well, I do believe that they want the violence to end. They just don't know how to do it. Many new ideas have filtered up to the prison violence task force, but the true uh u ideas that came out of the task force, they don't use. But when it comes to pizza parties, ice cream socials, and now Door Dash, that's going to be the new uh uh behavior incentive. And then we'll get into some of the other ones, the Academy of Hope with Chicago Beyond and and this other nonsense. That's just mind-boggling. I haven't heard if anybody is still seeing that the haven't seen docs go uh onto the pilot program where the inmates were watching other inmates for one-on-one watches etc. I haven't heard much more on that. So hopefully they they realized that you know with all the violence that wasn't a good idea but here it is. They're saying that this came out of the Wendy Correctional Facility incentive and it goes to 45 days without a tier 2 or tier three misbehavior report and is not in shoe step down program diversion PCP or RCTP status with the opportunity to submit a dispersement to purchase a food item from a local restaurant chosen by the facility. And it goes on of of of what these what they can order and and how they go about it. and you know just for I'll put the whole thing up there make aware of the program blah blah blah. Um and thank you for the staff. So now who like any program it's staff intensive. So who is doing this door dash program? Are we sending rovers out?

[00:14:43]We send uh officers out to go get the food now? Are they doing a delivery service? It still has to be brought to the inmates. Correct. So it's still staff intensive. We have enough problems trying to run the mandated programs that the New York legislators crammed down everybody's throat. And that takes away from staffing the facilities correctly and now we're just going to add more staff uh uh lunacy with this with the with the door bash. I don't believe in it. If it works, then I'll be the first one to say, "Hey, you know what? I was wrong.

[00:15:13]You were right. Let's do door dash for uh all the inmates and let's do it every day if that's going to mitigate and take out the violence." I just don't see that happening. Um, and we'll get into some of the other uh lunacy that docs is doing and that hasn't worked. Um, as you see the exposures keep going every day.

[00:15:31]I've been posting the different um EMS calls that are going through. I don't I don't post any of the CP or uh cardiac arrest the chest pains though there I think I counted yesterday there was seven uh chest pain incidents and most of those were for inmates that range from 21 to 37 years old um in yesterday's call. So how were you having a lot of chest pains um with that young of an inmate um I'm not quite sure. um I can surmise but uh that would just be I don't have any facts to back that up. Um but there's been a lot but then but we've seen a lot of exposures whether it be staff inmates overdoses are off the hook. I don't know who's well we do know who's paying for it all that the New York State taxpayer is paying for all this but the the craziness of just in ambulance calls not saying how much if it's calling for outside hospitals coverage staff it is has to be just mind-blowing the amount of money that docs is is spending on ambulance calls and the money is one thing but taking resources from the community while we're having these ambulance and EMS calls um while the the the communities have to suffer because that's one less ambulance, one less e EMT or uh uh first aid responder that can't respond to those needs of the community because they're taking up at a correctional facility. It's it's just it's just crazy. And then those that we have seen, we've seen a couple uh PES um come out um and make a couple recommendations.

[00:17:07]It's but it seems like the only thing that Docs focuses on every time that Pesh releases the problems within the facility with the exposures, drugs, uh, what have you is, you know, Doc focuses on shaving and not the actual safety of it. And that that is is just crazy. And as we get in, let me give you something I received from Docs at the beginning of the year. And we're looking at the See if I can find that. We're looking at the Narcan. Um, it takes me a while to get the UIs and and Narcan results. So, this is just to going back to 2005. And this was just the unusual incidents with Narcan um by a facility from the month of March to October of 2025. If you remember previously, I put out the earlier incidents for the first quarter of 2025. So, it'll be a while before I get 2026, but this is just mind-blowing.

[00:18:05]And I do have each facility UI number, uh, what was used, how many times the Narcan was used, but these are just the UI incidents with Narcan use. And you can see for just that period from March to October of 25, there's 687 incidents. I think the highest uh facility was Fishkill. Um, they had 80 uh incidents during that same uh time period. And I think the second closest if I'm not mistaken uh after that was Green Haven with 60 incidents and and Green Haven has these special programs uh that are supposed to be reducing uh violence and and this type of behavior.

[00:18:45]So it's interesting to see that the stats don't back up um the use of these Door Dash programs, Academy of Hope and what have you. And I'll dive into the Academy of Hope here um in a minute, but how the lawyers are not having a field day um on this issue of safety is just mind-blowing. I I just don't know whe whether it's for staff or whether it's for inmates. And I just don't know how the department in New York State is just not getting sued their their balls off.

[00:19:17]I just don't understand how that's not happening. And maybe they are. They're just we're just haven't caught up to the times where the lawsuits and the adjudicated results have have come out yet. That I'm not sure. But we get into um so that's an arcan news. As you can see that that's still off the hook. Um like I said, we're lagging as as far as time. So when we get to 20 2026, I just had to appeal a bunch of foil information because it's been a year. Um and some of the information hasn't even been given to me yet. So you could see that docs for rightfully so is trying to protect their ass um so they don't give out the information so it cannot be used against them. So but we try we appeal um we haven't had to do uh article 78 yet though we may have to on a couple of these incidents. I've been trying to work with their foil department um and given them the benefit of the doubt to produce the information and and a couple of them do work very well with me but um waiting a year for information is just crazy. So we may have to file some article 78 uh to force docs the last time we were successful and anybody else that that has foil requests out there and docs doesn't answer you know I do suggest appealing it and and asking um if you do the article 78 for you have your attorney fees paid for by docs we have been successful in that in the past um so and lately there just seems and this was brought to me the other day somebody sent me an email with this and and I couldn't agree more What we're seeing now is a lot of incidents where we're looking at more so than ever I think in the history of docs is violence against women. So the incarcerated or now or there whether it be there there's just no disregard whether it be officer we had the two uh exposures we had uh at Mohawk. We'll get to that in a minute.

[00:21:09]We had a a stabbing with a pen on a on a female in the mess hall and then we had obviously the the counselor at Lake View where they were assaulted and then we had another incident at at Attica where the same inmate assaulted again but that's a different matter and that's being uh played out hopefully with the uh different uh law enforcement agencies and hopefully charges are pressed and that goes through the system. So, I won't say too much until I find out where that stands with uh uh whether it be the district attorneys or law enforcement agencies trying to uh uh force the issue and and in and charging these inmates because I think that's the only thing that's going to change. But we're seeing a strong um uh of of violence against women. So, Kathy Hokll, I just have to ask, where are you? Where are you? You're so women. You know, you stand for women. You stand for women's rights. your grandmother, you do this, you do that, everything you touch turns to chaos. But where where are you where are you sticking up for the women here where where I don't understand it? It's just every day there's a new article and and new press release and something in the paper where violence against women.

[00:22:20]I guess she must be okay with it because when it comes to docs, just like everything else, she turns an eye. I I don't I don't know what the problem is.

[00:22:28]Okay. Well, try talking to the people that are doing it daily. She supposedly um we'll put that on there. The two um individuals that were exposed at Mohawk.

[00:22:40]They were uh took you took our breath away once. You will never do that again.

[00:22:45]And I'd applaud them for sticking up for for making it known for making a public appearance. And supposedly the governor reached out to them and and I guess there was a problem with the the cell phone, but then she sent a text message and then they they were able to converse and have a conversation and they were happy that the governor was listening and it's great. I just I just hope that that happens, but it it just doesn't end. So having a phone call, whether it be from the commissioner, deputy commissioner, the man on the moon, or the governor, is nice. And we want those phone calls. They should be the phone calls. they are your employees, but where is the corrective measures? Where is the help saying that, you know, I hear you. I I'm going to change. We need to effectuate change. You know, lip service is one thing. Action is a different. We're just not seeing that.

[00:23:34]Um the governor called them, but where is her followup? You know, where is her call to action? Shouldn't she be saying that, hey, the lunacy that's happening in the New York legislation with this, we have to change. Shouldn't be she be doing something? Shouldn't she be doing emergency orders or something other than saying a a budget is done when it's not?

[00:23:52]You know, where is the uh call to action and to help the these women and not just those women, but all staff? Because what they're complaining about is something that happens to all of them, whether it be male, female, u civilian staff, or security. Where is the help for them?

[00:24:10]And as we know that the help just isn't there. Just isn't coming, and it just isn't there. The department certainly has turned her back to to them. The governor has turned their back since the strike. She doesn't even seem like she wants to get involved in anything to do with corrections. She's just being vindictive. I mean, and that and and that's just not me saying it. I mean, you've seen it in the media. They've alluded to it. You've seen other people, you know, it's easy to to choose sides.

[00:24:34]The Republicans have the options to be able to to lob bombs because they're not in the majority. But what they're saying is is not wrong. You can't discount the the changes that they're trying to make in laws. Just because they're in the minority doesn't mean you discount what they're saying. But the governor just doesn't listen. And as you can see, she's got problems with her with her own party. Then we get into why is Doc silent? I don't understand that either.

[00:24:58]It's like you have a commissioner that goes out on every TV station um when they were talking about recruiting because he got his ass in in a sling because the shortage of staffing was so bad. So he must have been giving marching orders by the governor to go out and do all these TV interviews. But where's the push back? You don't see any push back on docs when it comes to these type of issues at all. You don't see them banging on the drums and saying the officers are right. We need safety protections for them. All you keep hearing from docs is the same tagline.

[00:25:31]That's disgusting over.

[00:25:34]We have zero tolerance. [ __ ] You don't have zero tolerance. If you had zero tolerance, it would not happen a second time, you know. So that commissioner tagline is [ __ ] You know, you have to call it out exactly what it is. And it infuriates me because anybody can say we have zero tolerance, but when you say you have zero tolerance, but then you allow it, not only the very next day, an hour later, how is that possible? How they just don't understand it. But yet the commissioner is still employed. He's just going on about his business the best way that he can, which is incompetence. And that's a man that I supported at one time because I thought he was the lesser of two evils. Boy, was I wrong. But how do you have keep saying you have zero tolerance when it keeps happening?

[00:26:17]You know, every press release, everything statement, whether it comes from the commissioner or the department as a whole, docs has zero tolerance.

[00:26:24]Well, [ __ ] When you keep allowing it, now we're years into it, not just days, months where you have your head up your ass and you don't know what's going on. Zero tolerance, my ass. You know, you're condoning it by not doing anything. You're condoning the behavior and the behavior isn't going to change by pizza parties, Door Dash, and ice cream socials and Pamperfest. It's just not, you know, and I don't want to pick on people, but when they don't have the experience, and the commissioner doesn't have the experience, there's boots on the ground that he's not listening to it to those people that do. His own people that are around him has lost faith in him. We're not talking about the the vote of no confidence by the correction officers. We know that the correction officers have no uh uh anything positive. Very few unless they're, you know, right on his coattail have anything good to say about this man, you know. So, I expect that. I discount that to to not saying that I discount them that they're wrong. I just discount that. But when his own people around him and his own management teams have lost faith in him, that's telling me something. And when you see the same thing happening over and over again and there's no push back, what do you think the people that are that are around him that are running the facilities, you know, what do you think is going through their mind? This man's nuts. They don't have my back. He's not going to change anything. And that's all you keep hearing from from this. I'm not going to mention names or who, but it's over and over and over again. And if I'm hearing it, retired and 1300 miles away. I'm sure you're hearing it and people that are uh in the know are hearing it, too.

[00:27:56]But it just doesn't care. It's ego. ego over results. And that'll never happen.

[00:28:01]And as I say, every podcast, just about every episode that I've said, this is episode 30, I probably said it a thousand times during those uh uh ep uh uh podcasts, is you cannot have the people solve the problem that created it. You just cannot. And you know, again, everything is silent. Where is the push back? Nothing. No push back for safety, no push back for sticking up for the staff, um no push back on anything.

[00:28:27]The only thing that we get are these more crazy policies and everything blaming the the staff or officers or we need to we need to change this. Docs has always been reactive, not proactive. We know that. But at one time, Doc was the leading agency uh around the United States as far as premier correctional work. They did a great job. Now it's probably one of the worst. Um you know, and did the commissioner sell his soul to get confirmed? I think everybody that I talked to, we'll get into the to what I said earlier. Yes. I mean, he did sell his soul. His management team believes that that's not coming from me, you know, that but that seems to uh be the general consensus from his peers and colleagues. It's just uh uh disgusting.

[00:29:11]And then yesterday uh we had another exposure uh incident at upstate. How many upstate exposures are there going to be before someone changes something?

[00:29:21]And you know, the mantra is always is, well, you know, when somebody dies, it's going to change. And I don't know at this point if that is going to be enough. Um, you know, obviously there's been um a couple of uh murders that have happened inside the correctional facilities that the inmate killed another inmate. Nothing has changed there. So, I'm not seeing that anything is going to change if staff loses their life, which very could easily could have happened um with the incident at Lake View. Um, you know, luckily the officer did a great job and in my opinion saved that counselor's life. So, where do we go from here? More the same. So, is it death going to change anything? I don't think so. I I definitely don't. You know, you've had uh um it keeps happening. And when I say the the exposure at Upstate just because they've had so many as others, Fishkill um had a lot and but you keep seeing um um other facilities have them. You've seen jails or prisons I should say like Altona that has very little incidents that they used to have happening all the time now. So I get emails, I get messages saying that you know this happened at my jail and I'm like I don't want to downplay it but it's sad because this is the new norm.

[00:30:31]Yes, I know it's happening everywhere just because it hasn't happened there for a while or in the numbers it is but it's happening everywhere. It's sad and that and we accept that. And that's even after I got done talking with somebody, I said, "Yeah, I have to recheck myself because I'm just expecting this and and saying that it's the new norm. Shame on me because it shouldn't be the norm.

[00:30:53]Shouldn't be the norm for me. Shouldn't be the norm for the department.

[00:30:56]Shouldn't be the norm for the officers.

[00:30:57]Shouldn't be norm uh the norm for the for the inmates. It's just out of control and disgusting." Um and then we have the uh you know you've seen the Narcan reports and and it's for everybody staff and not just security staff civilian included everyone is having uh negative effects. It's it's wrong. And then we have the nonsense at at Mercy where we keep seeing the these fires uh that are going on. You know, you had the inmate making that uh keeps lighting fires. There's no deterrent. So why not keep doing it? And he's doing a good job of it because there's no deterrent. It just keeps on happening.

[00:31:34]What's going to happen? People have smoke inhilation. They go outside hospital, you know, so someone's going to have a permanent lung damage or permanent problems. What's going to happen then? Nobody nobody knows the effect that's going to happen down the road. But we just keep having the these incidents and people just keep turning a blind eye to it and and that's the norm.

[00:31:54]It shouldn't be the norm. Shouldn't be the norm at all. Um, you know, you light a fire, go lie on your bunk like it's uh the Fourth of July picnic. I guess that's the the new way Doc looks at it.

[00:32:04]Makes sense, right? You had three fires in in Mercy. I believe that was a couple weeks ago back at the uh end of April.

[00:32:11]You know, the three three um uh the throwing incidents that are going on everywhere. You know, National Guard officers, civilians, you know, that's the new normal. I guess, you know, covered in [ __ ] is the new normal. I I just can't wrap my head around some of this nonsense. you know, you had five people out to the hospital for another fire. Um, you know, they closed the BHU at Sullivan in Great Meadow. And where do we have RHU beds? You don't. So, where are you putting there's nowhere to put these people? You know, these these decisions that were made by the incompetence uh knowing that you're just moving around uh parts is going to be a problem. Well, now here it is. Peter, you robbed Peter to pay Paul. Now you have to pay. Where are you getting the beds? You don't have the beds. Nonsense.

[00:32:55]um you know they they I just don't know where you go with that you know and how much is SurfPro those are the ones that are cleaning up the fires um into the facilities you know how much is that charging I hear it's a lot so you know the money that you go the inmates you know the inmates aren't paying for that you know even if they get hit at a at a tier hearing they only get hit with a 20th of the cost if that and that money is never really seen so who pays for all this again the New York taxpayer. It should be all nipped in the bud, but it's not, you know, and all the department cares about is running programs and safety be damned. We don't have the programs. Docs got sued, so Doc wants everything. We got to get the visits running. We got to get those open now. We got to get the mandatory programs going now. We don't have the staff to do it. Doesn't matter. We still have to do it. And we and we have all kinds of problems. And then we wonder why there's so much crisis and chaos.

[00:33:49]And everything that I say right now is New York State prison chaos because our crisis New York state prison crisis because it's now crisis mode. It's no it's been years now and nothing is changing. It's not changing for the better. Can anyone point to the direction and say we have a better system than we had a year ago, a month ago. No, it's getting worse. It's decaying. You know, you again you cannot have the people solve the problem that created the problem. You know, and let's get into the other part. Let's not uh forget to mention the Academy of Hope at at Green Haven. You know, like I said before, the Docs came up with the craziness of uh that they stole from somewhere else that they're not original, so let's not give them credit for that. Um the Academy hope where they uh have inmates making wellness rounds.

[00:34:35]Uh yes, that's right. Inmates actually make rounds and check on the other inmates. So, I'm I'm sure there's nothing being passed or nothing nefarious going on. Oh, wait a minute.

[00:34:44]That sounds crazy, right? Well, let's just get right into that. Um, it even happened in the yard. The gang leaders were making the uh rounds in the yard.

[00:34:53]They let Green Haven even let them do wellness rounds in the yard. Crazy, but it's true. Um, now I I'm not sure if it's still going on. I would hope that they saw that what was going on and and stopped allowing them to do wellness rounds in the yard, but I I don't know if they have or not. I just would think that that would end, but I can't put anything past docks anymore. So, who allows this, you know? So inmates made rounds where they allegedly um you know held another inmate down and cut him with weapons and beat him. That's that that's what I was told. So how well is that program working? You know you already have a contraband problem to begin with and and this was an assault.

[00:35:32]This was violence. But you know they're still allowing the wellness rounds on this dorm of Academy of Hope. So, you're going to tell me that you already have a contraband problem, but you're going to allow people, not saying that every uh inmate that's making these rounds is passing something off, but it could be.

[00:35:49]How are you stop How are you stopping it? I I just don't I just don't understand it. And obviously, you can see from the incident that happened in the yard that the program, in my opinion, just isn't working. And people get upset and they're like, you know, why does the media use the word allegedly and why do you use the word allegedly? It's like because the information that I get, it's like it's I I can't prove that it happened. So, it's an alleged incident. And that's the same thing that the media does. They were charged with something, but they were not found guilty of it. So, it's an alleged incident. So, you can't get your panties in a bunch when it comes to the word allegedly. And you know, I get a lot of information. A lot of it's watered down, but I do ask docs for their side of the story. Do I always get it? No. But do they provide me with information? Yes. I asked a public information officer for this or that or again it and I usually post it most of the time. So you're hearing it directly from docs and not just my uh uh spin on it. Is this is what Docs is saying. Does it match up to you? You were at the facility when this event or situation happened. Does it match up to what you seen with what you heard? Does it match up to the UI? Does it match up to uh what you actually seen? I don't know.

[00:36:58]I'm not there. But this is what Doc's saying that happened. I get a lot of, you know, hate messages back. this is [ __ ] This isn't what happened. And that may be true, might be total [ __ ] I don't know. I'm not there.

[00:37:08]But I'm giving the benefit of the doubt that that's what was told to docs and that's what I'm going to put out there.

[00:37:15]So, what we don't want to do is put out misinformation or stuff about incidents.

[00:37:19]That's just not true. Not any every EMS call that comes out that I've share is 100% accurate because it's going off voice to text. They they mess that up.

[00:37:30]Mess that up all the time. and some of it may may not even be close to being true. But that's the only thing that we have because docs is so secretive in their information um that we cannot find the truth. So we have to try to to to shine a disinfectant on docs and uncover um what's going on. So the public and the the safety most of it comes from families of whether it be incarcerated or it becomes uh staff. their families want to know what's going on inside those facilities and there's no better way to do that than to try to shine a light and get information out there and then you be the judge of what's right and what's what's wrong. And as I said before, we got in kind of uh off the the topic a little bit and right into the other uh lunacy that's going on inside docks, but we also have the upstate try I think tried to um go one up. you know, the commissioner puts out a memo and each facility, I think, says, "Oh, what can I do to make this even better?"

[00:38:30]Instead of standing up and saying, "This is lunacy. We're not going to participate in that." Or, "This is the reason why we shouldn't do this, Mr. Commissioner." They come up and say, "This is a great idea. Let's try to let's try to make it worse." And as you can see here, we have the um uh 12 building incarcerated individuals from J. gift superintendent good behavior incentives dated April 27, 2026 and as I just said we've had several incidents after this. So those tier 2s and tier 3es I guess are not getting a choice of a cold meal or hot meal. Upstate Correctional Facility has developed a good behavior incentive plan to begin May 1st. The intent of the plan is to address violence reduction cell compliance count compliance and overall cleanliness in the within the general population. Now read that sentence in itself. You have to now incentivize what should be the norm. You have to incentivize a reduction in violence.

[00:39:24]That should that should be the norm.

[00:39:26]Cell compliance. When the hell did we lose control of cell compliance? When there was no penalties because of halt.

[00:39:32]So now you have to incentivize cell compliance. You have to now here is this. No officer from this point forward should ever be held with missing or screwing up account because if you have to incentivize count compliance, what does that tell you of the system? It's decayed to the point that it cannot come back. The intent of the plan is to address violence reduction, cell compliance, count compliance, and overall cleanliness within the general population. It's right there, folks. See it on the screen. It's in black and white. I'm not making this [ __ ] up. It's anticipated that the possibility of incentives will also assist in reducing the probability of future misbehavior.

[00:40:11]Wasn't that the incentive of the inmates? Title five and the inmate misbehavior reports. It was to hold them accountable for their behavior and reduce that type of this type of behavior. But no, now we have to get out to door dashing and get out to good behavior incentives because the department has decaped in such a way that we now can't even address the simple count procedures and self-compliance that should be brought up to every officer that ever gets in trouble and be made at every arbitration and put out black and white because the department has lost its way. Nothing further should be given to Kathy Hokll than this own effing memo because it states right in here that they can't do it on their own.

[00:40:54]You can't get a reduction of violence.

[00:40:56]You can't get inmates to be in cell compliance. You can't get inmates to uh properly uh stand up or do uh count compliance. And you can't get the uh facilities clean without these special incentives. This is nuts, people. It's nuts. How is that possible?

[00:41:14]After consultation with security supervisors, program personnel, block staff, and ILC reps, we are offering a choice of a special meal or a free movie uh as a be as a behavioral incentive on a 60-day cycle. I mean, it goes on. I'll let you read it for yourself. It's right there. You know, pause it and read it. I I just can't believe that I'm reading that. you want to have a uh a incentive like with the pizza parties and you want to try something on a 30-day period, 60 days, whatever. As we seen, it didn't work at other at other facilities. But you want to try that, fine. But when you put in writing right there that you cannot get your cell compliance count procedures done in in reduction of violence, you've lost your way. I I I I don't know. I don't know the superintendent at at Upstate. I don't want to know him after this. I just don't know. And here we are. Here's page two. Um I just cannot believe um that we're actually letting um the inmates run the asylum. And that's basically what it is right now. I get that, you know, there's a lot of problems with the New York State legislature, you know, trying to run these prisons um on their own and and and doing it by legislation as opposed to uh people that have uh boots on the ground and let the commissioners and superintendents run their jail. And I'm still a believer that the superintendent um and the commissioner um even this commissioner should uh should be have the authority to run their jail. When you're doing it by legislation, it just doesn't work. Um but this is nuts, people. This is nuts. This just tells you, I can't stress enough how bad the system is. Every attorney should be freaking taking that there and saying docs can't keep anybody safe. We got to do special incentives with Door Dash and meals to to get them to do the basic things just to clean their room. You got to be kidding me. You can't clean a cell without an incentive. There's a problem.

[00:43:07]There is a big problem. Let alone getting into reduction of violence. I'm not going to keep repeating it, but yet I do because I'm I'm baffled when I read these [ __ ] memos. I I I get so wound up. I just, you know, was a reason I retired because we saw this coming. We never saw how bad it was going to be, but it was bad then when they got rid of all the drug tickets and they said no longer um you know can you do do the inmate discipline and if you did do a tier three and you wanted to give times you had to write a thesis on uh the mitigating results and uh aggravating uh uh uh factors into it. It's just changed and it's not changed for the better and there's no end in sight. you know, the Door Dashers and the Upstate memo for good behavior reset. [ __ ] Uh, you know, as wellended as it is, it's a morale killer. It should be a morale killer because the inmates are just sitting back laughing. They're going to go like, "Why do I have to uh uh, you know, you're going to keep offering me incentives just to stand for the count?

[00:44:03]Hell, why would I ever stand for the count? It's bizarre to me. This is really bizarre. You know, it but it's it's for the staff, whether it's civilian security, it doesn't matter.

[00:44:13]They just have to sit back. This is a morale killer, people. It's like, what is going on? It's like something out of a a wifi or uh um um I can't even think of the word. I'm so upset with this.

[00:44:25]This is something out of out of uh this world. It just doesn't make sense. And yet these [ __ ] things just keep coming up, you know, not to mention, like I said, the the pizza parties and they've been shown not to work. I I just don't understand it. But you know the time is coming up and I don't want to to to end and I just uh the more I I share with you the more information I think is better so all stakeholders know what's going on inside the facilities but I get a little carried away because this is I'm still passionate for the safety and I don't see a change. So when I see memos like this it it just it makes me lose my mind because I I just never in a million years thought it would come to this. I', like I said, I retired because I saw the direction that it was going, but never even I thought it was going to end up um six years later to the point where it where it is today. And again, no end in sight, no answers, no answers for the staffing problems. Um no answer for the safety. That should be, you know, first and and and foremost should be the safety of the facility. If you can't run programs, then shut the [ __ ] programs down. Excuse my language. Then shut the programs down.

[00:45:36]You know, the first thing that should come to mind is safety for everyone, safety for, you know, and and Commissioner Anucci once said this when we when we were sitting down at a meeting and he's like, "If the facilities aren't safe, then you can't have programs." He goes, "And if if you can't have a safe facility, he goes, "Then what are we doing?" He goes, "The first priority has to be safety, safety, safety." And I agree with the man on that. And but yet we're going to we're going to give up safety and we're going to give out programs and do things that are harming people. And it's harming everyone. It's not just harming staff.

[00:46:10]Um that's the first concern, but it's it's harming civilian staff. It's hiring harming I'm sorry uh security staff.

[00:46:17]It's harming uh inmates. It's harming the system as a whole because it can't function and it can't work. you know, you can let as it mates out early with the section 73s and everything else as you want. But if that's the only goal is to to get rid of the system, then just blow it up and start over. If that's the goal, then do that, you know. But this legislation and and and and memos and and Door Dash is is just crazy crazy.

[00:46:45]I'll leave it on that route. But what what I do want to get at is um another foundation. Um, every day I there's people that are trying to advocate. We see the advocacy groups for the incarcerated that are out on the steps of the Capitol. They're at Kathy Hope's front porch. Um, they're they're doing their their things and it seems like that's getting the attention of the legislators or at least some. Um, you have the on the officer side, you had the unions. Um, I'm not here to advocate for or against them, but that's their job is to advocate for them. But what we're also seeing is ground um efforts swelling from the ground and and coming up. And you see these grassroot efforts efforts from these foundations that are coming up. Um I'm not part of the the these foundations. I don't have a stake in them. Some of the people I know, some of them I know very well. Um but here is one that is having a uh raffle. Um let me remove that.

[00:47:42]this um it's having a raffle and we want to uh support that. So, we want to make sure that we get those put this on here. Um let me blow this up. There we go. Sorry about that. So, with the VFW Post 1419 um off Lake View Road in Hamburg, New York, where I used to live when I did live in New York, um we have a sportsman's raffle. The tickets are $25. There's a bunch of prizes. There's also uh raffle tickets.

[00:48:11]Now, this is going to be May 23rd, 2026.

[00:48:14]The doors open at 5 p uh 5:00 pm goes from 5 to 10. Winners not be present for uh for the raffles. So, obviously those that do not live in Western New York area. Um this is a good cause of proceeds go to the Forgotten Line Foundation, forgotten Line Foundation.org. I'll put the banner up in a minute. And there's going to be a full bar available uh for purchase. Um 21 and and over obviously for that. Um you can't bring your own own booze. Um but let's support that. So look, if you can't make the event u buy a ticket anyway, but even if you can't get a ticket, um here's a raffle ticket. If you have a problem reaching out to them, uh reach out to me and I will make sure that they get in touch with you. Um, and you can uh get the uh sportsman's raffle. All proceeds benefit the foundation. Again, here it is. Um, what you can win XPR thumb hole stock 6.8 Western. You got a Rossi circuit judge and it goes down Mossberg 500. Um, and you have all the arms and then obviously if you don't want the arms, you have the option of taking the uh pro uh value of the prize. I think it's less than by 50% or something. then I could be off. But um as if you don't want to um uh take the weapon, Glock 44, blah blah blah. So you can see the 22 items that are being raffled off. So again, I strongly support that. I wish uh everyone would at least buy a ticket um or at least if you can't make it, you can get the put that at the bottom here. You can get the uh raffle ticket and help them out in in in that way. And obviously this is for going to help the frontline foundation which is going to do a lot and does do a lot for the benefit and advancement of officers. And as we know correction officers are are often forgot about. We have uh mental health advocacy with with this with this group. There's also um as you've seen with Jillian, she's been on my podcast many of times. Uh we were supposed to be on again this week, but we had a a scheduling mishap by me, not on her. So hopefully we'll have her on again too. Um because mental health um I hear it and people when they write me and I get their emails, text messages, messenger, whatever it may be, I hear it. I get that and I refer everyone that I can to the Western New York area to the to law enforcement groups that I follow give them to her. Um but we need to make sure that mental health is not forgotten about. So um they so this foundation I'm very supportive of. There's a new another one that's that's coming out too. I'm not as um in tune with that brand new as I am with the Forgotten Line Foundation, but let's give these uh people some uh some love. Let's uh visit their website. I have it here at the bottom of the screen, forgotten foundation.org, and let's see if we can't uh help them out in any way that we can. And let's see. And then also anyone that is uh needed help in the Western New York area, here is the Western New York law enforcement helpline.org.

[00:51:24]Um they have a bunch of classes that are coming up, I believe, next week. Um and they're always here to help anyone that's in the law enforcement first re responders as well. Let me put up the flyer one more time for the forgotten line. There's the raffle ticket. Um like I said, if you want to reach out to them, that's great. If you for whatever reason you cannot, let me know. We'll make sure we get you in in touch with with somebody um that will which will get you a raffle ticket and you can pay by Venmo um what have you. So that's coming up um on the 20 on the 23rd. So what else do we have for you? Um that was a lot. I know. So we're coming to our hour end. Um you know we see the different factions inside the jail. All I would ask is that, you know, you try to unite. You're all fighting for the same reasons. I get the the messages. I get the calls. I know that there's, you know, different groups at each facility.

[00:52:23]Those that uh stayed in during the strike, those that went out on strike, those that went out and came back, those that came back with the uh three-year probation period, to those that never went out, um to those that um you know are still terminated to to this day. Um but I think everyone is is on the same team. um no matter what the circumstances. I'm not here to judge. I didn't go out on strike. I was retired.

[00:52:47]So, I'm never going to um say what people should or shouldn't do when I didn't walk that myself. And I didn't I'm here to support them. I certainly supported the strike. Certainly support those um that are still terminated to this day. And I also support those that went back. But like I said, I'll never uh criticize because I didn't do it myself.

[00:53:09]So that would be make me a hypocrite.

[00:53:11]Um, anybody can Monday morning quarterback and say, "Yeah, you could do this or I would have done that." I didn't do it. I was retired by that time, so I'm not going to to to get in that. But the different factions aren't helping anything. As a matter of fact, it's only playing to help docs. It's only helping uh the state because it is everybody knows that when the house is divided, you know, it falls. So you're only helping uh docs, you're only helping management. I know people are like, well, you know, I was there. I deserve this job. You know, be damned with seniority. I'll never understand that mentality. But I know right now that department is b to heavy. So there's not a lot of time. One day there will be time. But the problem that you have right now is with a department in crisis the way that it is and with people that as soon as they get that day that they get the 25 year or 22 if they bought their military or or they were forced out medical termination or or medical resigned or threearters what have you is people are running for the door. So what happens now? You have a contingent that's bottom heavy with no time. That is a recipe for disaster. Not that there's anything wrong with with with with people coming on the job. We welcome that. You want that. But they don't have the experience. And when you don't have the experience to handle a situation, you don't handle it the same way in year one that you do in year three. You don't handle it the same way in year three that you do in year 20. So experience matters. You can sit there and say, "Oh, that guy's a dinosaur, blah, blah, blah." And he may be a a dinosaur, but the you cannot replace that experience. And when those years go walking off the job, it can't be replaced. And that's the problem that you see right now. Every single state that's had that problem has had a major riot or a major incident. That's not to scare you. That's fact. You can look it up that when the departments are bottomheavy with no experience, it's a recipe for disaster. And you know, obviously they're they're trying to, you know, place people however they're trying to do it, right, wrong or indifferent with hiring. I don't believe that that's everything that people thought that that was going to be. But I'm not the judge because you can get a person through the door. Uh I'm not going to sit there and say no as long as it's the right person. You know, just like when they dummy down the test. I always said that when you dummy down a test for promotions, what do you get?

[00:55:32]You get dummies. Not saying that every p everybody took that took a promotion, myself included, was a dummy. Um but that's but that's what happens. So you want the best caliber of person that you could possibly be right now. I'm not sure that that's happening. I hear it, but then again, I've always heard, you know, the new people that are coming in are are bottom of the barrel or they're not worth their salt. You know, I' I've heard that when I when I first started, I'm sure they said that about me and then people that came in after me that were brand new, too. But now we're starting to see different incidents where some of that is is is concerning, but that's a subject for a a different time. Um, where else? And every day, you know, all we see from docs is that it's more and more out of control with zero answers. So, at what point in time, they hold the officers accountable, but at what point in time do you hold the upper management accountable? When do they get accountable and say, "Why is this keep happening? Why aren't you solving it?"

[00:56:31]And I'm not saying anything's going to be solved overnight, but when the conditions keep getting worse and worse and worse, how do you reward somebody and saying, "Oh, you're doing a great job when it's worse today than it was yesterday." You know, I I I don't understand that. So, um, you know, again, it's correction officers week, so I want to thank all the correction officers and correctional support staff that are out there. You should be recognized for the work that you do.

[00:56:55]It's an important role. Stay safe. We want you to uh enjoy your career or or at least get to the end of care career if you can't enjoy it um and have some type of work life balance because I know in in most facilities, not all, that that's just not possible and it's just not happening. But as I say at every uh podcast at the end, um you know, be kind to one another because you never know what the person that's sitting next to you is going through. So, we always want to be cognizant of the fact that uh that we're kind because all we have at the end of the day is each other and you need to be there u for that person whether it's responding to an incident or just being there as support now more than ever. So, with that, that is the end and the conclusion of today's episode of of episode 30 of the working in hall podcast. Everyone take care and stay safe.

[00:57:54]You've been listening to the Working in Hell podcast with Vinnie Blasio. Find this podcast on any of your favorite platforms like Audible, iHeart, and Spotify. And be sure to check out www.workinginhell.com for more information and important links. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.