FCI Ray Brook lockdown to last through next week
Amid low staffing, consistent lockdowns, minor assaults on staff
RAY BROOK — FCI Ray Brook has been on lockdown this week after an inmate shoved a staff member.
Jennifer Rockhill, president of AFGE Local 3882, the union representing FCI Ray Brook’s corrections officers, said this lockdown is expected to last for another week.
Rockhill said the staff member was not injured in the altercation.
“It was more along the lines of pushing the staff member out of the way to avoid getting his contraband taken,” she said. “Obviously, the number one priority is to make sure the staff are safe, and if inmates are placing their hands on staff over contraband, you have to send a message that this isn’t OK.”
This is not the first time a staff member has been attacked by an inmate this year. In August, a staff member was attacked but not injured. Like that one, Rockhill said this push seemed driven by panic and emotion.
She’s not sure how to stop these incidents.
“Unfortunately, that’s the risk officers have to take,” Rockhill said.
She said the inmate is not in more trouble than if his contraband had only been discovered.
And the entire facility is on modified operations.
While on lockdown, visitations at the medium security prison are suspended, inmates are kept in their cells for most of the day and their access to phone calls and email is revoked. Inmates can still send paper mail.
Rockhill said this time, some inmates are still working in the kitchen and other departments.
With low staffing, during lockdowns, staff members who are not corrections officers are pulled away from their jobs to do custodial supervision — a process called augmentation.
Rockhill said staffing levels are at a “critical” level. The medium security prison has around 67 COs, around 70 non-correctional staff and more than 800 inmates, she said.
Rockhill said low staffing at the medium security prison contributes to high stress for corrections officers, frustration for inmates and results in a lot of required overtime, particularly during these lockdowns.
Because of the low staffing levels, some inmate programs like recreation or education are put on hold to run the basics of the facility.
Visitations at the prison have already only been held every other weekend, because they don’t have enough staff to run it each week.
The federal Bureau of Prisons recently opened up a direct hire process to get new hires on the job months faster. Rockhill said this has been helping with a couple new officers. But they need “a ton more.” FCI Ray Brook can have around 100 officers.
Rockhill said the union is pushing for raises, and meeting with North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik about getting raises for this area specifically.
“Anybody knows, living in Saranac Lake or Lake Placid is super expensive,” Rockhill said. “That’s why the majority of our staff live over and hour away, because the housing and the price of everything here is just not affordable for our staff.”
Some officers work double shifts four or five days in a row, she said. Since they commute from an hour away, each way, she said they often sleep in their cars or on cots in the training center between doubles. Neither are comfortable.
In August, James Davis, union treasurer and a facilities employee at the prison, said in the 11 years he’s worked at FCI Ray Brook, lockdowns have been a normal thing, but they were never this frequent.
The prison has been on lockdown, on and off, over the past year for several reasons — mostly inmate fights and one unauthorized drone delivery.
In August, the prison was on back-to-back lockdowns amid a string of fights and contraband deliveries. The fights did not involve weapons. One, was described as an emotion-driven attack on a staff member who was not injured. Another was described as targeted and allegedly gang-related and one inmate suffered “significant injuries” after being assaulted by several inmates in the recreation area.
In May, two simultaneous, targeted and potentially gang-related fights caused no serious injuries and put the prison on lockdown.
The prison was on lockdown for around three weeks in January after the discovery of a drone-delivered package of drugs, phones and chisels.
In February, a similar case of two simultaneous fistfights put the facility on lockdown two weeks after the previous one ended.
In September 2023, a gang-related stabbing put the prison on lockdown for several weeks.