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AFSCME Corrections United: 10 Years of Federal Legislative Advocacy

AFSCME Corrections United (ACU) was founded in 1993 to unite corrections officers within AFSCME. From its inception, ACU has been a strong voice for corrections professionals at the national, state and local levels, through legislative initiatives, collective bargaining and mobilization.

AFSCME spearheaded the launch of the Congressional Correctional Officers Caucus, which includes nearly 30 members who devote their time to correctional issues. This bipartisan working group addresses issues affecting the correctional officer community. Its primary purpose is to promote legislation, policies and practices of interest and concern to correctional officers and their families.

AFSCME has had many great successes over the past decade in the fight to ensure that corrections employees are safe on the job and treated with the respect they deserve. But many issues still threaten corrections employees today:

Prison privatization

The surge in prison populations has forced the state and federal governments to drastically expand prison capacity. Seeing an opportunity to make a profit, a handful of "entrepreneurs" approach government officials with proposals to run their correctional facilities. In return for massive contracts, these private corporations promise lower costs and better service. Instead, the corporations run prisons on the cheap at taxpayers' expense, cutting costs by hiring unqualified and poorly trained corrections personnel, and frequently understaffing their facilities, thereby threatening public safety and security.

AFSCME strongly supports H.R. 2305, The Public Safety Act that would end taxpayer-supported privatization. Corporations put public safety and security on the line in pursuit of profit. Incarceration of criminals is a fundamental government responsibility and should stay in the hands of government.

Collective bargaining for public safety officers

Public safety agencies benefit immeasurably from productive partnerships between employers and employees. Studies show that labor/management cooperation produces more effective and efficient delivery of services. Such cooperation is not possible, however, in states that do not provide public safety employees with the fundamental right to bargain with their employers. Congress has long recognized its crucial role in assuring worker rights and has enacted numerous laws granting such rights. Private-sector employees, non-profit agency employees, transportation workers, federal government employees and, most recently, congressional employees all enjoy collective bargaining rights. The only sizable segments of workers not covered by federal law are employees of many state and local governments.

AFSCME strongly supports federal legislation, S. 513 and H.R. 1249, that requires all states to create a mechanism to allow public safety officers, including corrections staff, to unionize and bargain collectively. When public safety officers can bargain workplace conditions, partnerships and cooperation develop, leading to improved labor/management relations and better, more cost-effective service. S. 513 was reported favorably out of committee and is awaiting Senate floor action.

Office of Correctional Health

Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) introduced H.R. 2737, The Office of Correctional Health Act in May 2003. The bill would establish an Office of Correctional Health within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and would set up a program for states to combat hepatitis in correctional facilities. The office would coordinate all correctional health programs within HHS; cooperate with other federal agencies carrying out correctional health programs to ensure coordination; and provide technical support to state and local correctional agencies as well as outreach and information exchange on correctional health activities.

AFSCME strongly supports H.R. 2737, which would give corrections professionals the tools and resources they need to identify, treat, and prevent communicable disease so that they can protect themselves and others who reside both behind bars and beyond the gates.

103rd Congress (1993-1994)

Crime control and maintaining state prison facilities

Public Law 103-322, signed into law by President Clinton, amended the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and, in addition to increasing police presence and strengthening sentencing guidelines, provided $30.2 billion in grants for crime prevention, law enforcement and corrections facilities. Funding included grants to states for correctional facilities and programs becoming a major source of state prison construction money.

The law also provided grants to states to reduce juvenile crime, provided compensation to states for the incarceration of undocumented criminal aliens and provided grants to states for programs to prevent and treat tuberculosis in correctional facilities. Other provisions included training for corrections officers who deal with violent repeat offenders and making the murder of a state correctional officer a federal crime, punishable by death, under certain circumstances.

104th Congress (1995-1996)

Attacks on labor protections and correctional funding

Although the crime bill was enacted into law in the 103rd Congress, the House attempted to reorder the funding priorities in the Crime Control Act. In 1995, the House eliminated a number of crime prevention programs, attempting to replace them with the Local Crime Prevention Block Grant. AFSCME successfully led the fight against this action in the Senate.

AFSCME was also successful in blocking attempts to repeal labor protections for state workers in juvenile justice and delinquency prevention in the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974.

105th Congress (1997-1998)

Counseling for families of slain corrections and law enforcement officers

Public Law 105-180, signed into law by President Clinton, establishes a program to counsel families of slain corrections and law enforcement officers.

Grants to state and local law enforcement for armored vests

Public Law 105-181, signed into law by President Clinton, establishes a matching grant program to help state and local jurisdictions purchase armored vests for corrections and law enforcement officers.

Mandatory testing of inmates for transmissible diseases

Public Law 105-370, signed into law by President Clinton, amends Title 18, United States Code, to provide for mandatory disease testing of incarcerated persons guilty of a federal crime whose bodily fluids come into contact with corrections officers and allows for notice to officers of the results of the tests. This legislation presents to the states proposed guidelines for the prevention, detection, and treatment of incarcerated persons and correctional employees who have, or may be exposed to, infectious diseases in correctional institutions.

Financial assistance for families of slain or disabled officers

Public Law 105-390, signed into law by President Clinton, provides higher education financial assistance for dependents of corrections and law enforcement officers killed or permanently and totally disabled as a result of a traumatic injury sustained in the line of duty.

Additionally, AFSCME worked with the Clinton White House to promote top law enforcement initiatives such as Child Safety Devices, the Community Policing (COPS) Program, the Cop-Killing Assault Weapons Ban and the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative.

106th Congress (1999-2000)

Bullet-proof and stab-proof vests for officers

President Bill Clinton signed The Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act of 2000 into law to clarify procedures and conditions for the award of matching grants to purchase armored vests for law enforcement and corrections officers.

Spouses and dependents of corrections and law enforcement officers educational assistance

President Clinton signed Public Law 106-276, which amends The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, to allow spouses and children of corrections and law enforcement officers killed or severely disabled on the job to qualify for educational funds. It extended retroactive eligibility dates from 1997 to 1978 for financial assistance for higher education benefits.

Mental health diversion courts

President Clinton signed Public Law 106-515, which provides grants to states to establish demonstration mental health courts. The Attorney General was directed to make grants to states, state courts and local courts for programs that involve continuing judicial supervision of qualified offenders with mental illness, mental retardation, or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders, who are charged with misdemeanors or non-violent offenses. The grants also provide for specialized training of law enforcement, corrections and judicial personnel to identify and address the unique needs of a mentally ill or mentally retarded offender and provide for outpatient or inpatient treatment.

Jeanna’s Act

President Clinton signed The Interstate Transportation of Dangerous Criminals Act of 2000, or Jeanna’s Act (Public Law 106-560), that directs the Attorney General to issue regulations relating to the transportation of violent prisoners by private prisoner transport companies. At a minimum, the standards must include background checks and pre-employment drug testing for employees, disqualifying standards for employees similar to federal corrections officers; stringent training; minimum staffing; uniforms and identification for employees, restraints and special clothing for prisoners; 24-hour advance notification to local law enforcement officials; vehicle marking; immediate notification in the event of an escape; and any other requirement the Attorney General deems necessary.

Presidential Medal of Valor for public safety officers

In June 2000, President Clinton signed an Executive Order (EO) establishing a "Presidential Medal of Valor" for all public safety officers, including law enforcement officers and corrections officers, for extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty. The EO establishes a review board composed of 11 members who will recommend candidates to the Attorney General. The Attorney General may then recommend up to 10 persons annually to receive the award.

107th Congress (2001-2002)

Fallen Hero Survivor Benefit Fairness Act

Legislation (Public Law 107-15) to amend The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 to provide for consistent treatment of survivor benefits for corrections and law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty was signed into law. This measure allows survivors of those officers killed in the line of duty before December 31, 1996 to receive annuity benefits that are excludable from taxable income. This would ensure that these survivors receive the same benefit as survivors of officers killed after that date.

Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act

This legislation puts into law the Executive Order signed by President Clinton on June 30, 2000. It establishes a Medal of Valor award to be presented by the President, in the name of Congress, to a corrections or law enforcement officer who has performed extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty. This Medal of Valor is the highest national award for valor for a corrections or law enforcement officer.

Survivor benefit increased to $250,000

PL 107-56, The USA Patriot Act, increases the benefit paid to survivors of public safety officers. The officer must have died as the direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty.

Mychal Judge Police and Fire Chaplains Public Safety Officers’ Benefit Act

Mychal Judge was an AFSCME member and New York City firefighter chaplain who was killed while ministering to a victim of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. PL 107-196, The Mychal Judge Police and Fire Chaplains Public Safety Officers’ Benefit Act, restructures the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program to expressly make survivors of police and fire chaplains eligible for death benefits and expands the list of those eligible as beneficiaries to include non-relatives.

108th Congress (2003-2004)

State fiscal relief

AFSCME, and coalitions headed by the union, have been relentless in their lobbying efforts and forced Congress to include $20 billion for aid to state governments in the 2003 tax cut package. AFSCME members across the country led the charge for this critical assistance and our combined efforts on both the state and federal levels led to this extraordinary achievement in a very difficult environment.

The aid includes $10 billion in increased federal Medicaid payments and $10 billion in general revenue sharing grants to states, which can be used for essential government services such as funding for state Departments of Corrections.

Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits for cardiac incidents

The Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003 (S. 459/H.R. 919) was introduced in both the Senate and House on February 26, 2003. The "Hometown Heroes" bill expands the Public Safety Officers Death Benefits program to allow eligible survivors of federal, state and local public safety officers to collect a one-time financial payment if the officer suffered a cardiac incident while on duty in a nonroutine situation or within a day of responding to an emergency situation. AFSCME strongly supported this legislation because it would make it easier for the survivor to satisfy the requirement that the cardiac incident was "in the line of duty" in order to qualify for the benefit. The legislation passed both the Senate and House and was signed by the President on December 15th, 2003.

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