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CO Week: Time for Reflection and Action

Twenty-five members of the ACU Advisory Committee gathered in Washington, D.C., May 2-6 in conjunction with National Corrections Officer Week, which was May 3-9. Their busy schedule included a three-day ACU committee meeting, as well as several other events.

Remembering the Dead

An honor guard placed 13 roses on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in honor of the 13 corrections workers killed in the line of duty in 1997. The presentation of roses came as part of a May 2 ceremony sponsored by the International Association of Corrections Officers (IACO) to honor those who risked and gave their lives to protect public safety.

Honoring the Living

A May 2 ceremony sponsored by IACO honored three ACU members for their exemplary performances on the job and in the community. ACU members selected as finalists for CO of the Year were: Jose Flores of Local 1413 (Council 82), a CO and weapons instructor at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y.; Gregory Kulp of Local 543 (Council 13), a CO at Lehigh County Prison in Allentown, Pa.; and Frank Pinzino of Local 1810 (Council 72), a CO at Kansas City (Mo.) Community Release Center. The ceremony also honored for his exemplary performance a correctional supervisor who has worked closely with the ACU members in his facility: George Baldwin Jr., superintendent at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution.

Top Justice Official Opposes Prison Privatization

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder told the ACU Advisory Committee during a May 4 meeting that he agrees with ACU’s position on prison privatization.

A top official at the U.S. Department of Justice, Holder noted that his department has halted additional privatization in the federal system, pending the completion of a five-year study commissioned by the department.

“Housing the District [of Columbia]’s medium- and high-security sentenced felons in privately operated facilities poses a very real threat to public safety,” Holder testified in front of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee in September 1997. “The private sector’s primary experience has been in managing minimum- and low-security inmates and private prison operators have experienced difficulties, even with this limited inmate population. Private-sector, low-security operations under contract with BOP [the Federal Bureau of Prisons] have been marked by an escape rate that is 25 times the escape rate for BOP institutions housing similar inmates.”

CCJC Officials Propose Common Efforts

On May 3, the ACU Advisory Committee met with leaders of the Corrections and Criminal Justice Coalition (CCJC), a group of COs who are members of associations not affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

CCJC representatives proposed that CCJC and ACU work together to counter for-profit prisons and upgrade the profession.

The committee voted to send an official observer delegation to the next CCJC meeting. After this meeting, the committee will review the possible mechanisms for a relationship between ACU and CCJC and determine which, if any, to pursue.

See article on committee members’ press conference launching ACU’s campaign against prison privatization.

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