Union for Federal Prison Officers Requests Immediate Action From Attorney General Eric Holder

November 3, 2009

As Increased Violence Puts Communities at Risk, Union Demands Full Staffing and More Equipment

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A recent outbreak of violence at the United States Penitentiary - Lewisburg in Pennsylvania has led the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and its Council of Prison Locals (CPL) to request an immediate meeting with United States Attorney General Eric Holder to correct the dangerous situation of understaffed and underfunded federal prisons. According to union officials at USP - Lewisburg, two inmates assaulted and stabbed a correctional officer. The correctional officer and four other officers who responded to the situation required medical attention. The attack marked the second violent incident in less than a week at the facility.

"This type of violence, while alarming, happens repeatedly in many federal prisons across the country," said CPL President Bryan Lowry. The Council of Prison Locals represents federal correctional employees nationwide in 115 Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities. "Management continues to turn a blind eye toward dangerous situations that put correctional officers, inmates, and the surrounding communities at risk, while categorizing each instance as an isolated incident," added Lowry. "The union believes this is management's attempt to lessen the seriousness of each occurrence. It's time for the attorney general to hear from us."

In recent months, the Council of Prison Locals has testified on Capitol Hill regarding the dangers of working in understaffed and underfunded federal prisons. The union has repeatedly asked for additional staff and the proper use of appropriated funds to ensure the safety and security of the nation's federal prison system.

Specifically, CPL wants Attorney General Holder to:

    --  Fully staff and fund the BOP - Right now the inmate-to-staff ratio is
        150:1 on most correctional assignments and too often can be as high as
        300:1. Correctional officers are unarmed inside the facility.
    --  Responsibly issue stab-resistant vests to correctional officers -
        Assaults on officers with homemade weapons have spiked in recent years.

    --  Continue the Federal Prison Industries (FPI) program - FPI announced it
        would eliminate factories at 14 facilities and downsize operations at
        four additional locations throughout the country - a move that union
        officials say could lead to potential violence at facilities with
        hundreds of idle inmates.

The FPI prison inmate work program is an important management tool that federal correctional officers and staff use to deal with the huge increase in the BOP prison inmate population. It helps keep 21,836 prison inmates - or about 17% of the eligible inmate population - productively occupied in labor-intensive activities, thereby reducing inmate idleness and the violence associated with that idleness. It also provides strong incentives to encourage good inmate behavior, as those who want to work in FPI factories must maintain a record of good behavior and must have completed high school or be making steady progress toward a General Education Degree (GED).

CPL also has asked the attorney general and Congress for the resignation of BOP Director Harley Lappin.

"The days of 'doing more with less' must end," added Lowry. "If management continues to operate the BOP under its current conditions - understaffed, overcrowded, and with an increasingly violent inmate population - more tragic incidents such as the murder of Jose Rivera are sure to follow."

For more information on assaults throughout the BOP, go to www.cpl33.info.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees