Slain guard's family goes national in push for reform

ATWATER -- The stabbing death of a U.S. Penitentiary Atwater correctional officer has sparked a national campaign to overhaul safety policies in the federal prison system.

On Thursday, USA Today ran a full-page advertisement featuring a photo of the slain correctional officer, Jose Rivera, and an open letter from his family blaming overcrowding and inadequate protection inside the penitentiary for his death.

"Jose was taken from us because of the situation inside federal prisons today," stated the ad, which was paid for by the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents federal correctional officers.

"Overcrowding, underfunding and depriving our officers of the tools they need to defend themselves will only lead to more violence and more lives lost. ... When will the Justice Department take action? Do more correctional officers have to die?"

Rivera, a 22-year-old Navy veteran who had worked at USP Atwater 10 months, died June 20 after being stabbed by two inmates wielding handmade shanks.

For years, union officials have asked the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to make changes aimed at better protecting correctional officers.

Now, union officials are calling for more funding to increase staffing in federal prisons and policy changes that would make stab-resistant vests and nonlethal weapons, such as batons and Tasers, standard equipment for officers.

Rivera was alone with more than 100 inmates when he was attacked, a standard inmate-to-officer ratio inside federal prison housing units, according to correctional officers.

Unlike California correctional officers, federal officers don't wear stab-resistant vests.

Nor are they equipped with weapons. Rivera was carrying a flashlight, keys, a radio and handcuffs when he was attacked, his co-workers have said.

"I definitely think the ad got the bureau's attention, and that was the point," said Bryan Lowry, president of the Council of Prison Locals of the American Federation of Government Employees. "We need to see these changes before another officer dies."

Bureau of Prisons officials have said they are considering making stab-resistant vests available to some correctional officers.

Lowry said bureau officials told him they will respond by today to a list of safety-related requests submitted by union leaders during a meeting last week with the bureau's director, Harley Lappin.

Merced shows its support

Besides more staff, stab-resistant vests and nonlethal weapons, the union has asked for new surveillance systems that would allow officers in a central location to better monitor entire institutions and improvements to the bureau's inmate classification system that would ensure violent offenders aren't placed in lower security units.

Family members of USP Atwater correctional officers are working to bring about changes.

In response to a request by a coalition of family members formed last week, the Merced City Council passed a resolution Monday calling for safety improvements at the prison.

The group is launching a Web site and a letter-writing campaign. It plans to take resolutions similar to the one passed Monday to the Merced County Board of Supervisors and city councils in Atwater, Livingston, Los Banos, Gustine, Dos Palos, Turlock, Chowchilla and Modesto, said Dennis Anderson, whose son works at USP Atwater.

The signed resolutions will be sent to USP Atwater, the Bureau of Prisons and legislators.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Mer- ced, has called for stab-resistant vests and more funding to staff federal prisons.

If the Bureau of Prisons doesn't comply, Cardoza said last week, he plans to introduce legislation to require vests for all federal correctional officers.

USP Atwater still is on lockdown as a result of Rivera's stabbing, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said Thursday.

The two inmates suspected of killing Rivera, James Leon Guerrero and Joseph Cabrera Sablan, come from Guam, a U.S. territory. Both were transferred off the island because of their violent behavior at a prison there.

Guerrero, 43, is being held at the Federal Detention Center SeaTac in Seattle. Sablan, 40, is at the Bureau of Prison's Dublin prison camp in Alameda County.