FOR THE RECORD

A former inmate seen trick-or-treating dressed in his old orange prison jumpsuit briefly created havoc in Westchester County last week, but a similar problem is unlikely to occur in New York City anytime soon. Most inmates on Rikers Island currently wear their own clothes, although the department has recently proposed outfitting all prisoners with jumpsuits. Only prisoners who have already been sentenced to a year or less wear dark green uniforms called "state greens."

In Westchester County, former inmate Oscar Aponte was seen by a county Correction Officer trick-or-treating with his child in Peekskill. The officer wrote down the man's license plate number and contacted authorities, who locked down the jail until a prisoner count was finished.

"Bad choice of costume," Susan Tolchin, chief advisor to County Executive Andrew Spano, told the Associated Press.

Mr. Aponte, who was in jail from May to December 2005 for violating his probation on a drunk-driving charge, was later arrested and charged with petty larceny and possession of stolen property for taking the prison jumpsuit from the jail.

One longtime city Correction official last week said he's never seen anything like that on Halloween. "If I did, I would throw handcuffs on him and say, 'You want to play inmate? I'll play Correction Officer!"

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While the scandal-scarred union representing school bus drivers apparently isn't concerned about defending its recent contract deal in the media, a management spokeswoman informed us last week that a claim by a union dissident about the negative impact of a clause governing health benefits is off the mark.

In last week's issue, Brijida Pilgrim, a veteran school matron, said that members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 were not informed, at the time they voted on the contract in mid-July, about the consequences of opting out of the union health program in return for cash payments. Among the protections members would lose, she said, were the right to disability and death benefits.

The union's lawyer, Ronald Straci, did not return a call about that assertion and other charges the dissidents made about the troubled union's leadership. Two of its top officials have already pleaded guilty in a Federal racketeering case in which one of the leaders of the Genovese Crime Family, Matty "The Horse" Ianniello, has admitted influencing Local 1181 business; the local's president, Sal Battaglia, is scheduled to go on trial next week.

But a spokeswoman for Jeffrey Pollack, who negotiated the deal for the bus companies, called after the article appeared to say that union members cannot opt out unless their alternative health coverage - either from another job or under a spouse's plan - offers "equal or better" disability and death benefits.

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District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts will chair the New York Labor Campaign for the United Negro College Fund for the second consecutive year after helping to raise a record amount last year.

The New York campaign brought in more than $100,000 in labor contributions in 2005, according to DC 37, far beyond the $70,000 previous high. DC 37 this time plans to hold college fairs and workshops open to union members, their children and grandchildren, with alumni from traditionally black colleges throughout the nation participating.

Those wishing to contribute should make their checks payable to UNCF and send them to: District Council 37, Attn. Program Director Frances M. Curtis, 125 Barclay St., New York, N.Y. 10007.

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The Administrative Judge for Queens Supreme Court, Leslie G. Leach, will receive the New York State Supreme Court Officers' Association's "Man of the Year" award at the union's 26th annual awards dinner/dance Nov. 9.

Tickets for the event, which begins at 7 p.m. in Antun's in Queens Village, are $90 each. Checks should be made payable to the NYS Supreme Court Officers Association. For more information, call (212) 406-4292.