Joe Johnson of Local 391
Gets His Job Back

It's been a long road for Correction Officer Joe Johnson of Local 391 of Council 4. With help from his union, however, he recently got his job back after a bizarre saga that included a fraudulent arrest and a flawed investigation by the Department of Correction triggered by anonymous letters and phone calls with racist overtones.

A 12-year veteran of the DOC, Johnson was falsely charged with workers' compensation fraud and essentially placed under house arrest while local newspapers wrote stories about his arrest.

The state prosecutor's office finally dropped the charges late this summer and Johnson recently returned to work.

The 54-year-old Johnson, who works at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, said his journey has been "like going through hell and coming back," with the DOC's callous handling of an internal investigation only making matters worse.

"Thank God for the union," Johnson said in a recent interview that will be published in the February 2007 edition of the 4-Word, Council 4's membership newsletter. "Jon Pepe [the president of Local 391] and the Local had my back every step of the way."
Local 391, along with Council 4 and its other Correction bargaining units (Local 387 and Local 1565) have taken DOC to task for its unethical and possibly illegal handling of employee investigations, such as Johnson's.

Click here to read Joe Johnson's story in the Dec. 23, 2006 edition of the Journal-Inquirer.