Lucasville Remembered

COLUMBUS, OHIO

Close to 400 somber corrections officers gathered here from all over the country. Some of them had defied Hurricane Isabel and traveled by land. They included a busload of 35 members from Philadelphia Local 159 (Council 33) who braved the elements for 12 hours, determined to attend the AFSCME Corrections United (ACU) Sixth Congress.

It was, after all, a time of remembrance. Ten years ago, the ACU held its founding convention in this city. The driving force: a "Mandate for Change" following a siege of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville that claimed the life of CO Robert Vallandingham. He was among 12 COs — members of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA)/AFSCME Local 11 — who were taken hostage by a group of inmates.

At this convention, two of the hostages — Larry Dotson and Ken Daniels — talked about their 11-day ordeal. Both reiterated the need to change nowadays the same kinds of prison conditions that led to the Lucasville tragedy. At that time, for example, Ohio's state system was short-staffed by more than 3,000 COs.

In his welcome remarks, Ohio Corrections Assembly Pres. Tim Shafer bewailed the problems of overcrowding and budget cuts that have shut down a number of prisons. "This is a threat to our profession and to public safety," he said.

Affirming AFSCME's commitment to fight privatization, Pres. Gerald W. McEntee noted scores of victories like the one in Illinois, where Council 31 got a law passed banning private prisons. "We can't allow the lessons of Lucasville to be forgotten," he said. "As long as one corrections employee has to struggle to get the dignity and respect they all deserve, we've got to keep on fighting."

Among the highlights of the three-day convention were presentations on the New Mexico and Puerto Rico organizing campaigns and a workshop on the "Al-Qaeda Threat and Recruitment in Penal Institutions."