By Joe Rogalsky,
Delaware State News
DOVER - Correctional officers' mass refusal of voluntary overtime might be ending, but state officials are not proclaiming victory.
On Monday, the Department of Correction needed 18 officers to work voluntary court and transport shifts and 14 accepted, the most since the mass refusal began July 26.
Frustrated with pay and staffing issues, officers began declining voluntary overtime assignments in an informal protest. The movement disrupted court schedules because the shifts were all in the Department of Correction's court and transport unit, which takes inmates to and from judicial facilities, medical centers and other locations outside of prisons.
Correctional Officers Association of Delaware President Allan Deal and Senior Vice President David Knight did not return phone messages seeking comment on Monday. The union has encouraged members to accept overtime shifts if they chose.
Cpl. Paul E. Smith, who helped organize officers to refuse overtime, took a wait-and-see approach on Monday. He would not pronounce the movement over.
"We need to let it go for a couple of days and see what happens," Mr. Smith.
Gov. Ruth Ann Minner declined to comment, though spokeswoman Kate Bailey said Monday's overtime numbers pleased the governor.
Commissioner of Corrections Stanley W. Taylor had no comment, said agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Welch, because he wanted to see if the officers continued accepting voluntary overtime.
Pay and staffing had been long-simmering concerns of the officers, but tensions boiled over after a July 12 incident at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna.
A convicted rapist took a prison counselor hostage and raped her before DOC emergency response officers shot and killed the inmate to end a nearly seven-hour standoff.
COAD leaders and state officials are slated to meet again Sept. 1 to discuss ways to implement recommendations from a task force that examined issues facing officers.
Gov. Minner has already authorized a 5 percent pay raise for officers effective Jan. 1.
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Staff writer Joe Rogalsky can be reached at 741-8226 or jrogalsky@newszap.com.
