The return of workers signals a possible end to a job walkout that began Feb. 17 and had paralyzed the operations of dozens of correctional facilities.

The strike that paralyzed New York prisons for three weeks ended with most workers returning to their jobs and the state firing 2,000 who stayed out.

New York fired more than 2,000 prison guards Monday for failing to return to work after a weekslong wildcat strike that crippled the state’s correctional system, but said enough officers had come back on the job to declare the illegal work stoppage over.