A coalition of family members of U.S. Penitentiary Atwater correctional officers has launched a Web site to demand safety reforms across the federal prison system [1].

The group, named Friends and Family of Correctional Officers, formed earlier this month in response to the stabbing death of USP Atwater Correctional Officer Jose Rivera.

The site demands a number of changes that officers say could have prevented Rivera’s death.

Specifically, the site calls for staffing increases at USP Atwater and policy changes that would make stab-resistant vests and nonlethal weapons, such as batons and Tasers, standard equipment for all officers.

It also demands that a lockdown ordered at USP Atwater after Rivera’s death be kept in effect until those changes are made.

The group says it is asking for the reforms because their relatives who work at the prison would face retaliation for speaking out themselves. Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons have agreed to work with union officials to meet some of the safety-related demands.

Rivera, 22, died June 20 after two inmates attacked him with handmade weapons.