State lawmakers approved the measure on Wednesday and Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law.

The bill establishes some rules for the younger guards, including policies that they cannot obtain or use firearms or transport inmates outside of prisons. They also must be supervised when performing “contact roles” with inmates during the first year-and-a-half on the job.

The push to lower the age for correction officers came after guards walked off the job in February while striking to protest poor working conditions. Hochul was forced to deploy the state National Guard to prisons to maintain operations during the strike.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    The push to lower the age for correction officers came after guards walked off the job in February while striking to protest poor working conditions.

    Fuck’s sake.

    • frunch@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      If the working conditions were poor, i could only imagine how the conditions were for the inmates 😶

      • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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        19 hours ago

        Let the prisoners run the prison? Absolutely not.

        Force the prisoners to fill the labour shortage? Well now you’re spreading their language.

  • Saleh@feddit.org
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    22 hours ago

    Improve working conditions? Pay a proper wage? Naah, lets just encourage people who are barely not kids anymore to do the job.

  • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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    15 hours ago

    Hire the high school bullies to do their dream job while they’re still in high school. I worked at a prison for almost 3 years. You can’t be successful by bullying. The inmates outnumber the guards and they work out. It isn’t a wrestling match, it’s a game of chess. The inmates are always trying to get away with something. You have to be observant, intelligent, patient, and above all you must be fair to all of them. You aren’t there to punish them. Being there is their punishment. Your job is to keep them safe, fed, medicated, and entertained so they don’t riot and to prevent their escape. High school students playing mind games with 50 year old inmates will get tricked into breaking the law. Once you do that, the inmates own you. You end up working for them. Anyone who has spent time in a prison on either side of the bars knows this.

  • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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    22 hours ago

    I know 18 is the age of majority and adult responsibility, but it’s both my observation and my personal experience that you’re not ready for that kind of responsibility until you have a few years of being an adult under your belt.

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Their decision making abilities aren’t also fully developed and I can guarantee more prisoners will be harmed or killed when an 18yo guard feels threatened.

      • HellsBelleOP
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        21 hours ago

        They won’t have guns.

        The bill establishes some rules for the younger guards, including policies that they cannot obtain or use firearms or transport inmates outside of prisons.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Science - the actual, y’know, science - says the human brain isn’t fully formed until early 20s.

  • werty
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    17 hours ago

    Who goes for that job anyway? I know one guy who is interested in that kind of work and it’s the 8k bonus plus he thinks it would be easy. And they give the bonus to attract the desparate and money hungry because who goes for that job anyway? Who actually wants that job? Seriously?