|
About
Us
We,
the members of the Rhode Island Brotherhood
of Correctional Officers, acknowledge the
necessity to bind ourselve, one with the
other, into a Brotherhood for mutual interest,
protection, welfare, and advancement.
We recognize the moral, intellectual, social,
and economic benefits enuring to correctional
officers and their families from our association
and incorporation within the Brotherhood
of Correctional Officers.
We strive to cultivate the mutual friendships
of fraternity, and foster and encourage
the highest degree of skill, efficiency,
discipline, and loyalty among the correctional
officers for the State of Rhode Island.
The History of RIBCO
 The
Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional
Officers’union (RIBCO) was born out
of necessity in 1971. In an era of perpetual
inmate unrest and violent challenges to
their authority inside the Adult Correctional
Institutions (ACI), in Cranston, beleaguered
correctional officers decided to take matters
into their own hands and form their own
union – essentially to safeguard their
own safety.
Over the years since the union’s formation,
RIBCO has negotiated a series of collective
bargaining agreements with the State of
RI to improve their working conditions and
salary and benefits package. The union has
also worked with the RI General Assembly
on legislation to bolster and protect the
union’s rights and working conditions,
education and training needs, and overdue
recognition as law enforcement professionals
on a par equal with police and sheriffs
statewide.
 RIBCO’s
relations with RI Department of Corrections’
management and the State have often been
contentious, and contract negotiations protracted.
During the 1990’s, for example, the
union worked without a contract for a number
of years and did not at the time receive
pay raises granted to other state employees
because of the impasse over the new contract.
The union also fought attempts at privatization
inside the ACI and a subsequent State attempt
at creating privately run halfway houses
around the state for inmates transitioning
back to society.
As the ACI prison population has increased
during the past decade, so too has the ranks
of the union, which now totals around 1,300
members, comprising rank and file officers,
stewards, inmate industries’ supervisors,
office personnel, and medical and social
work professionals.
While RIBCO has successfully advanced the
interests and needs of its members over
the years, and infused a high degree of
professionalism in its ranks while helping
to operate a vastly improved correctional
institution over the dangerous circumstances
of the 1970s, the union has been increasingly
forced in recent years to resist State challenges
over its bargaining rights and authority
– challenges designed to rollback some
of its hard-won victories.
Rest assured, the union’s elected leadership,
representing those “who work the toughest
beat in the state,” will continue to
fight for its members’ rights and benefits.
|
