On Capitol Hill

Congress has passed three of AFSCME’s top legislative priorities and President Clinton has signed all three corrections bills into law:

Educational Scholarships

Congress unanimously approved a bill to provide educational scholarships to families of public safety officers, including corrections officers, who were killed or disabled in the line of duty.

Protecting Privacy

Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.), at AFSCME’s urging, added an important provision to the omnibus budget bill that will protect the privacy of all corrections officers by prohibiting the disclosure of an officer’s financial and other personal information in an action brought by a prisoner.

Health and Safety Act

Congress approved the Corrections Officers Health and Safety Act. This important legislation provides mandatory HIV testing of all incarcerated persons whose bodily fluids come into contact with federal corrections officers. It requires the U.S. Attorney General, along with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to issue guidelines for similar protections for state and local corrections officers.

On AFSCME’s Agenda

In the 106th Congress, AFSCME will continue to pursue aggressively protections for corrections officers. AFSCME has already begun to build and develop the Correctional Officers Caucus, a collection of members of Congress committed to providing corrections officers with the protections they need to perform their jobs successfully.

At the top of AFSCME’s legislative agenda is the reintroduction of several pieces of unfinished corrections legislation from the last Congress. One of the most important priorities is legislation to give corrections officers the right to bargain over wages, hours and working conditions. Another priority is the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights, which would give corrections officers the same legal protections offered to other professionals, including due process rights for officers who are subject to investigation for non-criminal disciplinary action.

AFSCME will also reintroduce legislation to exempt qualified corrections officers from state gun control laws, outlaw freeweights and other strength-inducing tools in prisons, and encourage states to mandate the death penalty for criminals convicted of killing state or local corrections officers.