ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) — Local lawmakers, Congressman Lee Zeldin, and other officials were outside the Elmira Correctional Facility on Wednesday to continue the push for the appeal of the Humane Alternatives to Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act, following multiple inmate attacks inside the facility in the month of August.

Zeldin took the time to speak on the continued violence happening inside correctional facilities across the state and specifically pointed out multiple instances of violence inside the facility in July.

“Six people in one facility, in one week here in Elmira last month,” Zeldin said, “ten correctional officers, in another facility, in one particular incident,” he said. “I had someone contact me from Franklin County, saying that in their area, one of their prisons in the first three weeks of HALT, they had 28 correctional officers who were assaulted,” Zeldin said.

More examples were given on how the HALT Act has caused more harm than good, saying that it protects the inmates more than the correction officers

Zeldin was asked at the end of the conference what he would grade Governor Hochul from A-F, Zeldin responded by giving the governor a G. He emphasized that the G was not meant to mean good or great, but worse than F.