JAIL GUARDS FAIL DRUG TESTS

SPRINGFIELD--Guards at 10 state prisons tested positive for drugs at a
higher rate last year than inmates tested at the same prisons, figures
released Friday show.

The trend occurred in four of the state's five maximum-security
prisons, prompting a legislative call for the Department of
Corrections to negotiate a tougher drug-testing policy with its labor
union.

"My constituents do not understand how drugs can get into a prison
when we control all four walls," said Rep. Cal Skinner (R-Crystal
Lake), a member of a House prison reform panel.

Agency figures released by Skinner show 2.5 percent of 3,506 prison
employees tested randomly last year had traces of drugs in their systems.

"It's obvious that at least 2.5 percent of the guards are a weak
link," Skinner said. "They're a potential source of drug infiltration
[for inmates]."

The maximum-security prisons with a higher percentage of guards than
inmates testing positive for drugs included Joliet, Menard, Pontiac
and Dwight.

Among them, the all-female Dwight prison had the highest percentage of
employees who failed random drug tests: 4.1 percent of 97 employees
tested. Of 2,144 Dwight inmates tested, only 0.7 percent, or 15, had
drugs in their system.

Medium- and minimum-security prisons where this pattern also occurred
included Danville, Sheridan, East Moline, Robinson, Southwestern
Illinois and Taylorville.

The prison with the highest percentage of positive drug tests was
Danville, where 5.5 percent of guards randomly tested were found to
have drugs in their systems. By contrast, 4.4 percent of inmates
tested positive for drugs at that prison.

The prison system is permitted to test 20 percent of its 16,000
employees randomly for marijuana, cocaine, PCP, amphetamines and
opiates. The first time an employee tests positive, he or she is
suspended without pay for 15 days. A second time nets a 30-day unpaid
suspension, and a third occurrence is grounds for dismissal.

Last year, 60 prison employees were suspended under that policy and
three were fired, agency spokesman Nic Howell said.

Skinner and prison officials agree the corrections department needs
the authority to randomly test all employees and fire those with drugs
in their systems after one positive test. But it is constrained by
terms of its labor agreement with AFSCME Local 31, Howell said.

"It's one of the things we're pushing. But it's a negotiable thing,"
he said.

AFSCME and the state are negotiating a new contract to replace the
pact that expires June 30. When asked about the numbers, a top AFSCME
official flatly rejected any expansion of the prison system's
drug-testing procedures.

Roberta Lynch, AFSCME's deputy director, said current drug testing
procedures are adequate and fair, and any expansion would divert
precious resources away from addressing prison understaffing and
inmate violence against guards.

"For a state representative to be focused on the tiny minority of
employees who use drugs, rather than focusing on the overwhelming
majority of employees . . . who confront these serious problems
everyday and have so few champions, I just think it's a disgrace," she
said.