KEEPING DRUGS OUT OF LOCAL PRISONS

When 16-year Correction Officer Michael D. Bradish was arrested and
charged with drug trafficking in Bare Hill Correctional Facility
last week, speculation immediately roiled up as to whether officers
entering prisons for work ought routinely to be searched for
contraband. As insulting as some officers might regard the idea, it
isn't a bad one at all.

Of the thousands of correction officers at work in the one federal
and 10 state correctional facilities in our three-county area, only
a rare few make news for violating the trust the public has invested
in them. When one does stray, it does make news, of course: Their
professional charge is to enhance law and order; when they do just
the opposite, it is as newsworthy as a doctor cheating Medicaid or a
teacher abusing a student.

But, occasionally, an officer does yield to temptation. There is
nothing to indicate that it happens with any greater frequency than
in the general population -- in fact, maybe less. And we're
certainly not convicting Bradish here. But, if he does turn out to
be guilty, he will have delivered a severe wallop to his profession.

Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne has suggested that
heightened security measures should be in force at the entrance to
prisons -- at least, the local ones. His office and the Office of
the Inspector General will be examining possibilities in this
regard. Perhaps, for example, entering officers should be obliged to
empty their pockets to be sure they are not carrying contraband in.

This prospect would probably be opposed by the union and even by
some officers. They would be inclined to view it as an unwarranted
intrusion into their rights.

But the security of the inmates and their colleagues is the stake in
this debate. Every responsible correction officer should welcome the
chance to head off another embarrassment. Their dignity relies more
on certainty of a clean record than by free passage to the inside of
the facility.

Being searched, clearly, is not the way any of us dreams of
beginning our work day, any more than we would embrace the notion of
providing a urine sample. Yet, if that's what it takes to maintain
our good name and the reputation of our profession after a
serious compromise by an errant member, the price is not too high.

More important, it would be a giant step in stopping drugs from
getting into the prisons, which would surely be an even bigger step
in the constant fight to retain order on the inside.

For the sake of thousands of our friends and neighbors working hard
in an already-dangerous setting, we endorse anything that makes
their workplace a little bit safer and protects their good name.