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Dennis Rossbach, a 51-year-old sergeant and 13-year employee of the prison, expects to lose his sergeant's stripes as a result of the strike. That would "definitely break my heart," he said.

"No matter what happens, guys are going to leave and we're going to have less staff when we go back, which is the worst thing that can happen," he said. "There are good guys giving up their jobs." 

Still, the strike was necessary, Rossbach continued.

While problems are worse at some of the other New York state prisons where officers are also striking, he said, Auburn has its share. Inmates, from their cells, spit in the faces of officers almost daily.

"When you see your fellow officers wiping spit from their faces — you just feel gross, it's just awful," he said. "Everyone's so exhausted."

As officers and their advocates have been saying, the state's 2021 Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act has also worsened conditions in prisons, Rossbach said. Without the ability to confine aggressive inmates who fight, he continued, officers have to move them around facilities so they don't keep doing so.

"I'm afraid the governor is trying to play hardball and doesn't understand the facts on the ground," he said.

Rossbach added that such inmates, and the ones who spit, are "a couple bad eggs" and not representative of the whole incarcerated population. 

More than 80% of Auburn's correction officers are on strike, Rossbach estimated. He worried they would turn on the officers who continue to work, but said they understand the difficulty of the decision.

However, their reaction to an attempt by Rossbach to draw attention to the strike on Wednesday was more mixed. Wearing only swimming trunks in the freezing cold, the sergeant sat in an ice bath in the back of his pickup truck in front of the prison. He then a video of his cold plunge to Facebook, where it's been viewed more than 40,000 times.

While many support what Rossbach did and the attention it drew to the strike, some officers he respects have shared their disapproval. But he has no regrets, he said, given what's at stake.

"When I see us on the news we look like bad guys," he said. "I'd rather look like a big dummy than a killer or beater of inmates."

Rossbach went on to thank the public and businesses for their support of the officers, saying they feel appreciated and loved. That comes as they face scrutiny by Gov. Kathy Hochul and other New York officials for breaking the state's law against public employee strikes, with her telling them Tuesday, "Do what's right. Do your jobs."

"We want to go back to work," Rossbach said. "Stay positive."