PRISON GUARDS GET BONUS FOR PASSING DRUG TESTS

Despite a gaping deficit, Suffolk County Sheriff Richard J. Rouse is
handing out $1,000 bonuses to prison guards - just for passing mandatory
drug tests, records show.

The cash payments - hidden in union contracts at both the House of
Corrections and the Nashua Street Jail - are all but unheard of in local
law enforcement, where drug testing has become a standard feature of police
contracts.The bonus payments have cost Rouse's cash-strapped department
close to $800,000 in the past year as he wrangles with a $6.5 million
budget deficit that has already forced more than 130 layoffs.Over at the
House of Corrections, the Council 93's Local 419 got the $1,000 bonus
rolled into each officer's base pay, meaning the drug test payoff will
continue giving even after the men retire.Rouse's spokesman Rick Lombardi
defended the bonuses as the cost of collective bargaining with the
corrections officers unions."In order for us to get mandatory drug testing,
we (had) to negotiate with the unions," he said. "You need to be able to
give a little to get a little . . . It's just standard labor law."But under
other union contracts reviewed by the Herald the prize for passing a drug
test is keeping your job."If you have someone in uniform and they are
enforcing the law. You would expect them to be following the law," said
Boston Police spokeswoman Mariellen Burns.One Boston cop was surprised when
told of the Suffolk County sheriff's perk, saying, "I don't get a bonus for
showing up and taking a drug test." Another joked that his union had fallen
down on the job by failing to get a drug-testing bonus.The revelations come
just two months after a Suffolk County corrections officer pleaded not
guilty to drug dealing charges.The give and take of union negotiations is
nothing unusual.

Norfolk County correction officers will start taking drug tests on July 1
on the condition that managers also take the tests.Boston police unions
accepted annual drug tests in 1998, the same year the department agreed to
lucrative Quinn Bill payments for education.But city and union officials
say the two controversial components weren't directly related."In any
contract negotiation there's a give and take," said Superintendent in Chief
James Hussey. "There's never really a quid pro quo. There's stuff you want.
There's stuff the union wants. We felt that this was important to us."But
in Suffolk County, the deal is spelled out in black and white."Effective
July 1, 2001, employees who annually meet the requirements of the Municipal
Employer's mandatory drug testing program will receive a cash payment of
$1,000," reads AFSCME Council 93, Local 1134's contract covering the Nashua
Street Jail."I'm all for drug testing," said Terry Zaferakis, president of
Local 1134. "You don't just accept something like that. It's a huge
bargaining chip for the union."Zaferakis said the direct link made it
easier for him to sell the contract to his 300 members."It's fair
bargaining," said Robert C. Zoebisch, spokesman for ASCME Council 93, Local
419, which presents 500 correction officers at the Suffolk County House of
Correction. "The department received something that they wanted and I would
say they needed, and the members received a little bit more money to
support their families."The drug tests can be conducted during a 60-day
window around each correction officer's birthday.

Officers at the jail are also entitled to the passing bonus if the sheriff
forgets to do the test.Lombardi said the drug tests have "paid off" despite
the high price.Of the 687 tests conducted in the past year only 12 - just 2
percent - have come back positive, he said.A positive test results in a
45-day unpaid suspension and three years of random drug tests.A correction
officer who fails two drug tests can be fired, but that hasn't happened
yet, Lombardi said.Both the testing procedure and the penalties appear to
be standard for local law enforcement."We want to have a drug-free work
force," Lombardi said. "The best way to do that right now is mandatory drug
testing."Rouse and officials from AFSCME Council 93, Local 1134 about
talked about deferring the bonus payments until the sheriff is out of the
red. Each side blames the other for failing to come to an agreement.