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  • Federal Prison Officer Slain; Union Calls for Emergency Funding from Justice Department
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2008
Enid Doggett
Jason Fornicola
Alexandra Smolen
(202) 639-6419

Federal Prison Officer Slain; Union Calls for Emergency Funding from Justice Department

WHO: AFGE National President John Gage
AFGE Council of Prison Locals President Bryan Lowry
AFGE Council of Prison Locals Legislative Coordinator Phil Glover

WHAT: Due to the recent killing of Jose Rivera, a federal correctional officer at the United States Penitentiary in Atwater, Calif., the Council of Prison Locals is requesting protective vests and emergency funding from Congress to fully staff Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities nationwide.

WHEN: Wednesday, July 2; 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time

WHERE: AFGE Headquarters, 11th Floor Boardroom
80 F Street NW
Washington, D.C.

CALL-IN: 877-494-5165
475649 – Participant Code

WASHINGTON— The American Federation of Government Employees’ (AFGE) Council of Prison Locals (CPL), which represents federal correctional officers, is calling on the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to provide officers with protective vests as well as emergency funding from Congress to fully staff BOP facilities nationwide. AFGE and CPL will hold a press conference on Wednesday, July 2 in response to the slaying of correctional officer Jose Rivera. Federal correctional officers are not currently allowed to carry weapons inside federal prison facilities.

Rivera, 22, was killed on Friday, June 20 by two inmates with homemade weapons at the United States Penitentiary in Atwater, Calif. Rivera was employed by the BOP for less than a year.

For years, AFGE and CPL have been advocates for additional staffing and funding throughout the BOP in an effort to safely maintain our nation’s prisons and surrounding communities. Continued lack of funding and inadequate staffing throughout the BOP has left federal correctional officers and the surrounding communities in grave danger. Staffing levels are decreasing while inmate population levels are increasing.

The union says serious inmate overcrowding and correctional worker understaffing plague the BOP system nationwide, and create hazardous conditions for federal prison inmates, federal correctional workers, and the communities in which they work.

###

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 820,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

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