Publications

Council 82 Leads Testing Fight

In Washington, D.C., and in Albany, N.Y., Council 82 activists are fighting for mandatory disclosure of HIV test results for inmates whose bodily fluids come into contact with corrections workers.

CO Michael Graney, executive vice president of Council 82, and Marilyn Wolfe, wife of Council 82 member and CO Walter Wolfe, presented testimony to a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives on March 26. Their testimony supported the Corrections Officers Health and Safety Act of 1997, a bill which would provide for mandatory HIV testing of inmates whose bodily fluids come into contact with federal corrections personnel, and which would require the U.S. Attorney General to establish national guidelines on testing for transmissible diseases in state and local correctional facilities.

Graney, who works at Auburn Correc-tional Facility, testified that officers are frequently exposed to bodily fluids in use-of-force situations and when such fluids are thrown at them by inmates. He said, “Officers who have been subjected to such treatment have had their health seriously threatened and have had to face the very real risk that they would carry a disease back to their families.”

Wolfe told about her family’s experience after her husband, who works at Coxsackie Correctional Facility, experienced significant blood exposure with an inmate who refused to be tested for HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS. She said, “Our whole lives changed. We became afraid to touch one another intimately. The kids worried that Daddy could not play with them so much anymore.”

AFSCME’s Legislation Department reports that the bill looks promising to pass in the near future.

Meanwhile, Council 82 is pushing for similar legislation on the state level, supporting a bill that calls for court-ordered testing in the event of exposure. The council feels the bill is a good start on an important issue.

Call 1-800-732-8120 to be connected with your U.S. Representative in Congress and ask him or her to support H.R. 2070.

Print Version