New York’s National Guard logged more than 800,000 hours inside state prisons during an extraordinary mobilization that turned thousands of soldiers into replacement correctional officers.
he operation became so expansive that Black Hawk helicopters ferried some troops roughly 250 miles from a Bronx baseball field to an isolated prison in upstate New York.
More than 8,000 Guardsmen served across 42 of the state’s 45 prisons during 2025, according to the New York National Guard’s annual report published in July.
Participating troops received regular state active duty pay and allowances, plus monthly bonuses of $4,000.
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The staggering manpower commitment carried an equally staggering price tag for New York taxpayers. Gov. Kathy Hochul said the deployment cost more than $100 million per month at its peak early in 2025.
Other state officials have since placed the continuing cost at approximately $50 million each month.
That spending continued more than a year after most civilian correctional officers returned and the Guard mission shifted from mandatory orders to volunteers.
The crisis began in February 2025, when thousands of correctional officers walked off the job over chronic staffing shortages, compensation and restrictions on solitary confinement.
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Prison employees argued that the state law limiting solitary confinement for disruptive inmates made already dangerous working conditions even harder to manage.
Some correctional officers were reportedly being forced to work 24 hour shifts because staffing had fallen so low.
Hochul initially responded by ordering more than 1,400 Guardsmen into the prisons to keep the system operating.
The strike officially ended in March 2025, but the manpower crisis did not disappear with the settlement.
A majority of the mobilized troops remained inside the facilities because New York still lacked enough civilian correctional officers to safely staff its prisons.
Hochul also fired thousands of correctional officers who continued striking after the agreement was reached.
Reports placed the number dismissed at more than 2,000, while earlier figures indicated as many as 3,000 guards were terminated for refusing to return.
The mandatory Guard deployment ended April 1 and became a volunteer assignment.
Troops who remained continued receiving the $4,000 monthly bonus on top of their regular state active duty compensation and allowances.
“As part of the governor’s agreement with the corrections officer’s union, New York Military Forces troops remained on duty in the prisons to help reduce mandatory overtime for the civilian correctional officers,” the report said. Nearly 3,000 Guardsmen were still serving in the facilities as of Dec. 31.
The annual report did not provide an updated total for 2026. However, a local New York news outlet reported that approximately 2,600 Guard members remained assigned to the prison mission, showing that Albany’s emergency manpower patch had become anything but temporary.
More than 3,100 Guardsmen completed a one week Department of Corrections training course before taking on prison duties.
Their responsibilities included conducting inmate head counts, delivering meals, monitoring prisoners in solitary confinement and guarding medium and maximum security cells and dormitories.
The 42nd Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade played a major role in moving personnel across the state.
Its Black Hawk helicopters transported soldiers from a baseball field in the Bronx to a recently closed prison in a “remote” section of upstate New York.
By April, the aviation unit had flown more than 600 hours and carried 1,050 passengers in support of the mission. That is a remarkable use of military aviation for a prison staffing emergency created by years of personnel shortages and policy disputes in Albany.
Conditions during the opening phase were described as “austere,” with troops sleeping on cots in prison gyms, dormitories or “wherever they could find space.”
Internet access through Starlink and proper mattresses arrived later, while some soldiers and airmen were eventually relocated to motels and hotels.
The mobilization demonstrates how quickly the National Guard can be pulled into a state crisis when civilian systems buckle.
It also shows the enormous financial and operational burden placed on troops when political leaders rely on military personnel to cover a long running staffing failure.
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