ALBANY – Understaffing in New York’s beleaguered state prisons helped drive the state’s massive overtime spending to the tune of $445 million — even before Gov. Kathy Hochul canned thousands more corrections officers amid an illegal strike earlier this year.
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision was the worst offender across state agencies in 2024, notching a nearly 21% increase in overtime costs compared to the year prior, according to a new report from the New York comptroller’s office.
State agencies overall continued to ramp up overtime spending last year by an eye-watering 10%, or nearly $1.3 billion, from 2023, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s report found.
The DOCCS, the state’s Office for People With Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Mental Health together accounted for roughly two-thirds of the overtime shelled out in 2024.
And that was even prior to a massive illegal strike earlier this year that saw