More than a dozen staff members at Fishkill Correctional Facility in Dutchess County have been hospitalized this week after a series of mysterious “unknown exposures” inside the state prison.

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) has confirmed the incidents but has not said what substances correction officers were exposed to or how they’re getting into facilities, only that the cases remain under investigation.

Assemblyman Brian Maher (R, Walden), whose district includes four state prisons, says the exposures are part of a larger crisis that has been building across New York’s correctional system.

“What’s going on at Fishkill Correctional Facility is not new news. This has been going on throughout the entire state. It is absolutely unacceptable,” Maher told News 12.

Maher argues that correction officers, civilian staff, and even inmates who are trying to rehabilitate are being put at risk. “It is absolutely unacceptable that they do not have the safety that they deserve,” he said.

The lawmaker says one of the main ways drugs are getting into prisons is through legal mail, which is not screened in the same way as other mail. “What’s going on is the paper they receive is being laced with substances, then they roll that paper, smoke it and the substance gets into the air,” Maher explained.

Earlier this year, eight officers at Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County were hospitalized after a similar exposure. Maher says the pattern shows the need for immediate action. “DOCCS needs to tighten up or change the process completely on how legal mail gets to incarcerated individuals. It’s unsafe and it needs to change immediately.”

Maher argues that the issue of contraband mail and chemical exposures can’t be separated from broader staffing and policy changes. He points to the HALT Solitary Confinement Reform Act, passed in 2021, as a turning point. The law was designed to curb what advocates described as a long history of guard violence and inmate abuse, but Maher says it has backfired, worsening staff shortages and leaving fewer officers on the ground to deal with the very exposures now plaguing prisons.

“Correction officers are afraid, their family members are afraid, and yet they’re still showing up with passion for the job. But the reality is, the way this reform was handled made prisons less safe,” he said.

He also cited the impact on staffing: “We lose over 50 correction officers every two weeks through attrition, and we have less than 100 currently in the academy statewide. Morale does not even exist when you talk about this,” Maher said.

Maher says the state has been forced to rely on the National Guard to fill staffing gaps created by widespread shortages and attrition. He added that some correction officers are now leaving their posts to join the Guard — where, according to the assemblyman, they can make more money working prison duty than they did as full-time staff.

The lawmaker says the strain has left morale at rock bottom. “On a human level, folks just aren’t willing to admit that things got done the wrong way and we really need to humble ourselves, identify that this is much worse than it’s ever been and fix the problem.”

Maher says he has spoken with the corrections commissioner, met with colleagues including Sen. Julia Salazar, who sponsored HALT, and sat down with Black and minority correction officers to press for solutions. “We put a room together with Black COs and minority officers who told our colleagues directly this isn’t a racial issue — it’s a safety issue. They don’t feel safe, and they want change. I think that really resonated,” he said.

Pro-reform activists, including groups like the VERA Institute for Justice, counter that HALT is necessary to protect incarcerated people from inhumane conditions. They say solitary confinement has been overused for decades and that restricting it is a matter of human rights. They also argue that incidents of guard-on-inmate violence show why reforms are needed, warning that rolling back HALT would only make prisons more dangerous for those incarcerated.

“The health and safety of incarcerated individuals and staff is a top priority," said DOCCS.

The agency says it launched a review into the recent incidents at Fishkill and deployed its Office of Special Investigations K9 unit, which recovered unknown substances that have been sent to an outside lab for testing.

It also provided an update on its completed probe into Woodbourne Correctional Facility, where 10 officers reported feeling ill in one housing unit earlier this year.

Staff described smelling a burning plastic odor before reporting symptoms, but no hazardous substances were found during the investigation.

Marijuana was recovered from one incarcerated individual after a K-9 search, and exterminator use of wasp spray was ruled out.

All staff declined blood tests, according to DOCCS.

News 12 has reached out to Sen. Salazar and to pro-reform groups for comment.

NYSCOPBA, the union representing correction officers, has not commented on the exposures beyond saying the incidents remain under investigation.