NY Prison Guards Struck Over Overtime. It Rose 59% Anyway.
Summary
New York's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision paid $708.9 million in overtime in 2025, up 59.4% from 2024 and equal to roughly 87% of the state's entire $301 million overtime-cost increase, according to the state comptroller. The agency's workforce fell 32.8% since 2016, including a 2,721-employee drop in 2025 alone -- the same year state prison officers ended a 22-day illegal strike, cited in part on complaints about excessive overtime and short-staffing, that ended with roughly 2,000 of them deemed to have resigned.
A shrinking department carries a growing load
DOCCS' average workforce fell to 20,144 employees in 2025⧉, down 32.8% from 29,959 in 2016 -- the steepest decade-long decline of any state agency. The single-year drop from 2024 to 2025, 11.9%, was also the largest of any agency. As the workforce shrank, the overtime load on those who remained kept climbing: average overtime hours per DOCCS employee grew 32.7% between 2024 and 2025 alone, to 432 hours a year⧉ -- nearly triple the 2020 level. Corrections now has the highest share of any agency's employees working overtime at all, 60.6%, and its overtime-working employees average 27.4 hours and $2,234 in overtime pay every two weeks, both the highest of any major agency.
View data as table
| 2016 | 29,959 | Before the decade-long staffing decline |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 22,866 | Down 23.7% from 2016 |
| 2025 | 20,144 | Down 2,721 employees (11.9%) in a single year -- the largest one-year drop of any state agency, coinciding with the strike's roughly 2,000 deemed resignations |
The strike was about this exact problem
The Comptroller's report ties part of the 2025 surge directly to an illegal strike by roughly 10,000 Correction Officers and Sergeants that ran from February 17 to March 10, 2025⧉, spreading from two facilities to 38 of DOCCS' 42 prisons within a week. Per the state's own statutory strike report, officers cited demands for more pay, 'complaints about excessive overtime and short-staffing,' changes to retirement benefits, and safety concerns tied to the HALT Act's limits on solitary confinement. Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency, deployed roughly 6,000 National Guard members, and set a temporary 2.5-times overtime rate to keep prisons staffed during the walkout. When it ended, about 2,000 striking employees who hadn't returned to work by the deadline were deemed to have resigned⧉ -- shrinking the department's own ranks further, in the same year overtime on the employees who remained rose fastest.
View data as table
| Corrections | 708.9 | Up 59.4% from 2024 -- the largest increase, in dollars and percent, of any agency |
|---|---|---|
| OPWDD | 229.7 | Down 2.1% from 2024, the third straight annual decline |
| Mental Health | 201 | Up 14.0% from 2024 |
| State Police | 113.3 | Up 3.4% from 2024 |
The most overtime-dependent corner of state government
Corrections isn't alone in leaning on overtime -- it, the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, and the Office of Mental Health together made up just 21.7% of the state workforce in 2025 but accounted for 68.3% of all overtime hours and 70.1% of all overtime earnings⧉ logged by state agencies. But Corrections stands apart even within that group: its overtime pay rate, $81.46 an hour, is the second-highest of any agency after State Police, and Corrections was the only one of the three whose overtime cost rose sharply in 2025 -- OPWDD's fell 2.1%⧉ even as Corrections' climbed 59.4%.
Statewide, overtime now consumes 7.3% of New York's $22.4 billion payroll⧉, the second-highest share on record since the Comptroller began tracking it in 2007. 'The use of overtime by state agencies continued to climb,' Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said⧉, 'with overtime as a share of payroll at its second highest rate since at least 2007.'
- DOCCS paid $708.9 million in overtime in 2025, up 59.4% from $444.7 million in 2024 -- a $264.2 million increase that alone accounted for about 87% of the $301.2 million rise in overtime spending across all New York State agencies combined.
- DOCCS' average workforce fell 32.8% since 2016 and 11.9% (2,721 employees) in 2025 alone, even as average overtime hours per employee grew 32.7% in one year to 432 hours -- nearly triple the 2020 level.
- The Comptroller's report ties the surge in part to a 22-day illegal strike by roughly 10,000 Correction Officers and Sergeants (Feb. 17-March 10, 2025) that began over pay, retirement benefits, and -- explicitly -- complaints about excessive overtime and short-staffing.
- About 2,000 striking employees were deemed to have resigned for not returning to work by the state's deadline, shrinking the department's ranks further in the same year the overtime burden on remaining employees rose the most.
All overtime, workforce, and payroll figures trace to the Office of the New York State Comptroller's April 2026 report and its accompanying press release; this piece independently recomputed DOCCS' $264.2 million overtime-earnings increase, its roughly 87.7% share of the statewide $301.2 million increase, and DOCCS' 32.8% ten-year workforce decline directly from the report's own agency-level tables, matching the Comptroller's own rounded figures. The strike's dates, scale, stated causes, and the roughly 2,000 deemed resignations come from the Governor's Office of Employee Relations' own statutory report on the strike, which the Comptroller's report separately cites as its source for the strike's effect on 2025 overtime figures.
Sources(3) ▾
- Office of the New York State Comptroller (Thomas P. DiNapoli), New York State Agency Use of Overtime and State Workforce Trends, 2016-2025 (2026-04-09) — The Comptroller's annual statewide overtime report -- the primary source for every dollar, hour, and headcount figure in this piece: statewide overtime earnings and hours 2016-2025 (Appendices A and B), agency workforce counts 2016-2025 (Appendix C), and the per-agency 2025 summary tables (Figures 5-8) showing Corrections' overtime pay, hours, workforce decline, and per-employee overtime load. osc.ny.gov · original document
- Office of the New York State Comptroller, DiNapoli: Despite Third Straight Year of State Workforce Expansion, OT Costs Increased by $1.6 Billion in 2025 (2026-04-09) — The Comptroller's release announcing doc-osc-overtime-2026; source for the on-the-record DiNapoli quote used in this piece and confirms the report's April 9, 2026 release date. osc.ny.gov · original document
- New York State Governor's Office of Employee Relations (Michael N. Volforte, Director), Report Pursuant to Article 14, New York State Civil Service Law Section 210(4), Concerning an Illegal Strike by Certain Public Employees of the Executive Branch of the State of New York (2025-05-09) — The state's own statutory report on the February 17-March 10, 2025 Corrections officer strike -- cited as footnote 4 in doc-osc-overtime-2026. Source for the strike's dates, scale, stated causes (overtime and short-staffing complaints among them), the state's emergency response (National Guard deployment, 2.5x emergency overtime rate, Executive Order 47), and the roughly 2,000 employees deemed to have resigned for not returning to work. oer.ny.gov · original document
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New York's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) paid $708.9 million in overtime in 2025⧉ -- up 59.4% from $444.7 million in 2024, the largest dollar and percentage jump of any New York State agency, according to the Office of the State Comptroller's annual overtime report. That single agency's $264.2 million increase accounted for roughly 87% of the $301.2 million rise in overtime spending across every state agency combined. It happened in the same year that DOCCS' own workforce shrank by 2,721 employees -- and the same year its officers walked off the job.