For the third time in six months, the leadership of Sheriff Officers Association (ShOA), the union representing Nassau County's 1,100 correction officers, along with members and representatives from the American Correctional Officer Network, demonstrated before the Nassau County Legislature on Monday, June 18.

Officers protested the lack of a contract, which they have been without for more than two and a half years, and new legislation introduced by the state to expand peace officers status for non-correction officers working in the Nassau County Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in East Meadow. Officers also want the county legislature to pass binding arbitration legislation, a tool, which ShOA officials say virtually every other law enforcement bargaining unit in lower New York State already can utilize.

"We are demonstrating before the legislature to bring attention to the unfair treatment correction officers are receiving in Nassau County," said ShOA President John Duer. "Not only are we working without a contract for more than two years, offers that have been put forward are so far off base that we cannot take them seriously."

Recently legislation was introduced in Albany to expand the authority of non-correction officers working at the Nassau County Correctional Facility. According to ShOA officials, this specific legislation only impacts Nassau County and would allow untrained individuals - civilian staff - to be granted peace officer status while working at the facility. This, said Brian Dawe, executive director of the American Correctional Officer Intelligence Network, would cause a great risk to the safety of the citizens of Nassau County.

"This legislation sets a precedent that is unacceptable to ShOA and to correctional officers across the state and nation. Untrained individuals cannot take the place of correctional officers," said Dawe. "This is a dangerous proposition for these individuals as well as the correctional officers currently working in the facility. Working as a correctional officer is a dangerous job and if they are forced to work with people who have no training at all there is a strong possibility that someone could be seriously injured."