ACU Update
Save these dates! ACU's Third National Corrections Congress will be held Oct. 3-5 in Austin, Texas
Keep your eyes open for more information from ACU in midsummer....
Five officers in the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh were stabbed and slashed
with a homemade knife by murderer Vincent J. Daugherty. "They're lucky to be alive," says Rudy Arensberg, president of AFSCME Local 2500 (Council 13), which represents the officers. Of the three men who were seriously injured, COs Jimmy Noble and Anthony LaVechia are back on the job. Sgt. Jack Gonzalez has not yet returned to work....
The State Women's Prison at Mitchellville, Iowa, suffers from poor morale
and a lack of teamwork, according to a 1996 state report. Overcrowding, understaffing and irresponsible supervisors are a large part of the problem, say union officials....
The number of people behind bars in the country reached 1,630,940 in June 1996
according to a Jan. 20 article in The New York Times. Though the number of prisoners keeps growing, however, that growth is slower than it has been any time in the past ten years, according to a Justice Department study released Jan. 19....
What began in January 1996 as a lockdown of Illinois' Pontiac Prison
has become permanent as the maximum security facility undergoes a conversion into a prison containing only segregation cells....
CO Week will be May 4-10
this year. Why not write a letter to the editor on the role COs play in keeping our communities safe or lobby your legislature for reforms important to COs?...
The first of seven new prisons planned for Oregon got a financial go-ahead
from the state's Legislative Emergency Board this January. The board approved $149 million to build the 1,630-bed Umatilla prison....
Texas COs will no longer risk losing their jobs for refusing a polygraph
if a bill sponsored by Texas Rep. Allen Hightower in March becomes law. Current Texas Department of Criminal Justice policy allows employees to be fired or suspended for refusing to take a polygraph test, though the tests are not admissible in a court of law....
Pennsylvania's newest prison will not be privatized
Martin Horn, the state's corrections commissioner, announced in February. One of his primary reasons? Privatizing the 1,000-bed Chester facility would have cost too much in worker discontent....
Ohio has agreed to pay $1,775,000 to 13 COs
held hostage in the Lucasville siege of 1993. This follows a $850,000 settlement with the family of slain CO Robert Vallandingham. Details to follow in the Summer 1997 issue.
