nsors. ACU is making a push for addition co-sponsors in advance of “National Correctional Officers and Employees Week” which will occur the week of May 7, 2000. (6)ACU has been successful at lobbying members of Congress to introduce the Public Safety Act. They have also been successful at lobbying support for the bill by members of Congress. Although the fate of the bill is still unknown, it is gaining support with the help of ACU lobbying efforts. I was unable to find out if ACU has been successful in their letter writing campaigns or informing the press and the public.ACU has done a lot of research into private prisons and the results are readily available to the public.ACU has proven that success can come from lobbying. They are only a group of 80,000 and they were able to lobby a few congressmen into introducing a bill that is against the privatization of prisons. The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (or OCSEA) is another organized interest group that seeks an end to the privatization of prisons. A Department of Liquor Control employee from Cleveland, who lost his job for political reasons, formed OCSEA in 1938. A few months after the group formed there were only 150 members. Presently, OCSEA has about 38,000 members. (7) OCSEA has utilized different techniques to attempt to put an end to private prisons.In 1998, OCSEA launched a grassroots campaign aimed at ending the privatization of prisons. OCSEA members participated in marches and rallies, and participated in interviews with the media. They used this grassroots campaign to spread their message against private prisons.Another of OCSEA political methods in the past has been inducting a Senator into their organization. April 27, 1998, OCSEA made Ohio State Senator Robert Hagan an honorary member of their organization. They honored Senator Hagan because of his active support for legislative issues affecting the operations of prisons in Ohio. In particular, asse...
