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THUMBS UP for Wisconsin AFSCME COs, who successfully organized citizens and legislators to prevent the state Department of Corrections from closing over one-fourth of the security towers surrounding the state's maximum security facilities. Closing down the towers would have jeopardized public safety, says Gary Lonzo, president of the Wisconsin State Employees Union and a sergeant at the Green Bay Correctional Institution. Gov. Tommy Thompson's January decision to leave all 44 towers open came after AFSCME members gathered over 8,000 signatures on a petition protesting the proposed closing of 12 towers.

THUMBS UP for New Jersey. The state's April 1996 decision to charge inmates $5 per doctor visit has led to a 60 percent decrease in the number of prisoners seeking medical care, according to a Dec. 2 New York Times article. Though groups including the nonprofit National Commission on Correctional Health Care have warned that this could result in outbreaks of TB and other contagious diseases, New Jersey officials report that there have been no serious outbreaks of disease in the prisons since the fees were imposed. New Jersey is one of at least 18 states charging inmates for medical care, according to the 1996 Corrections Yearbook, up from nine in 1995.

THUMBS DOWN for Pontiac Warden Jerry Gilmore, who gave inmates 45 minutes advance notice of a Dec. 17 shakedown. Sgt. Danny Jarrett, president of AFSCME Local 494 (Council 31) which represents COs at the Illinois maximum security prison, publicly condemned the action, stating: "When you go to do a shakedown like this ... you don't call them up and say 'Fellas, is it OK if we come over in an hour?'"

THUMBS UP for Dale Webber, president of AFSCME Local 2824 (Council 93), who turned up the heat on the Plymouth, Mass., school committee when it considered bringing in prison labor to paint a local elementary school. Though the committee voted against this at its January meeting, Local 2824's fight isn't over. Webber says the local will use grievances and other legal procedures to fight the use of prison labor to do municipal work elsewhere in Plymouth.

THUMBS DOWN for the Virginia Corrections Department, which was warned by its COs in September that staff shortages, high turnover and poor morale in the state's prisons are threatening the safety of officers and the public. One of the reasons conditions stay so bad? Management doesn't listen to the suggestions of the officers, says Nottoway Correctional Center CO Kenny Freitag, who is also vice president of AFSCME Local 3832.

THUMBS UP for Iowa lawmakers, who introduced on Jan. 16 a bill similar to one in New York making it a felony for inmates to throw or expel bodily fluids on prison staff members. The bill looks likely to be passed into law, according to Marcia Nichols, the lobbyist for AFSCME Council 61.

THUMBS UP for the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission, which ordered Suffolk County to pay over 500 COs at Boston's South Bay House of Correction the money owed them -- plus interest -- for extending their workday without pay. The total: $4.5 million. The COs, members of AFSCME Local 419 (Council 93), filed the unfair labor practice complaint in 1991 and expect checks of $5,000 to $7,000 each. Mike Powers, president of Local 419 and a CO at South Bay, says the settlement goes to show "if you stick together then the end result is victory."