GUARD DRUG USE OUTPACES INMATES' AT AREA PRISONS

SPRINGFIELD -- The percentage of prison employees at the East Moline
Correctional Center that tested positive for drugs in fiscal year 1999 was
three times higher than the percentage for inmates.

These figures come from Rep. Cal Skinner Jr., R-Crystal Lake, who said the
employees should be fired and the Department of Corrections, or DOC, should
require that all employees be tested. Skinner is a frequent critic of the
state's prison system.

Skinner's figures, which he obtained from DOC, show that during fiscal year
1999, 79 employees at the minimum-security East Moline prison underwent
drug tests, of which 2.5 percent tested positive. Fiscal year 1999 ran from
July 1998 through June 1999.

In comparison, 0.7 percent of the 732 inmate drug tests were positive
during that period.

Skinner said he was disturbed to learn that at three of the state's four
maximum-security prisons, the guards tested positive for drugs at a higher
rate than inmates.

Overall, 3,506 DOC employees were tested in fiscal year 1999. Positive
results came back for 2.5 percent of those employees.

"It seems to me that if you have 2 1/2 percent of the correctional officers
who are drug users, that they need to be weeded out. There's no reason to
suspect that they aren't selling drugs to inmates," Skinner said.

Of the 30,993 inmates tested, 3.6 percent tested positive.

DOC spokesman Nic Howell said the department supports mandatory drug tests
for all employees. "We've advocated that if you test positive, you're
gone," he said. "We've got zero tolerance for drugs in the workplace."

Howell said that under the existing policy, an employee is fired after the
third positive drug test. He said the union that represents prison
employees has blocked all attempts to toughen this policy.

Henry Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State,
County, and Municipal Employees Council 31, said the numbers don't warrant
the expense of testing everyone. Bayer said the actual number of employees
testing positive during the calendar year of 1999 was either 62 or 65 out
of a work force of 18,000.

"It would seem to us that the department would be wasting a lot of money to
give a drug test to 100 percent of the people," he said. "It would seem to
us that that is a tremendous invasion of privacy. The department could be
doing a lot of other things to enhance the security in our prisons, rather
than expand the testing program that already exists."

He also noted that when inmates test positive, it means they are using
drugs in the prisons. But employees who test positive are not necessarily
under the influence at work.

Bayer said the union believes the drugs come into the prisons through
visitors, not guards. The union supports legislation that would restrict
visitor privileges for certain categories of inmates. Bayer said DOC
opposes that legislation and that Skinner "hasn't lifted a finger to help."

"He's a hard guy to take very seriously," Bayer said. "Representative
Skinner has never been a friend of correctional officers. He's a publicity
hound."