A union representing state prison guards said Friday it has purchased "captivity coverage" from Lloyd's of London that will pay benefits if a corrections officer is taken hostage during an uprising.
The insurance, believed to be the first of its kind, was spurred by a rebellion at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility last summer in which five guards were held hostage.Lloyds is underwriting the coverage for Council 82, Security and Law Enforcement Employees, and told the 22,000-member union it has never seen another policy like it, union spokesman Chuck Booth said. "As far as we know, it's the first in the world," Booth said. "And we know very well it's the first in the English-speaking world."
Union members taken hostage by prisoners will be compensated for mental strain and injury, and their families will receive a death benefit if they are killed in captivity, Booth said.