The growing crisis in New York’s prison system intensified after a convicted rapist attacked a female officer at Mid-State Correctional Facility, highlighting what corrections officers say are dangerously low staffing levels and increasing violence behind bars.

Corrections officers at DOCCS facilities across New York state are on strike. The National Guard has been activated and deployed to a number of prisons.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing that up to five more New York state prisons be closed — in what critics are calling a negotiating tactic in her ongoing battle with corrections officers who