Delaware State News
DOVER - Gov. Ruth Ann Minner called for an independent investigation into security procedures at the Delaware Correctional Center on Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation.
The governor made her decision after reading the Department of Correction's internal affairs report on a July 12 incident where an inmate took a counselor hostage and raped her. A correctional officer shot and killed the inmate to end the hostage situation.
Gov. Minner said she finished reading the report about 3:15 a.m. Wednesday. Commissioner of Correction Stanley W. Taylor released the report in a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
"After receiving a copy of the report, I have decided we need an independent investigation by community leaders," Gov. Minner said in a conference call with reporters.
"The task force will assess the security at the Delaware Correctional Center. The will also review the findings of the Delaware State Police and the Delaware Department of Justice.
"If there are changes that need to be made, we need to make them as quick as possible."
The state police and the attorney general's office investigated the shooting of the inmate and deemed the action justified.
Gov. Minner said the panel would likely have seven members. She said she hoped to announce the names as soon as today. Seven people would give the task force enough members to be thorough without becoming cumbersome, she said.
The task force's findings will be due Jan. 31, giving the General Assembly time to approve any changes requiring legislative action. Budget writers also will have time to include any new spending requests into next year's state budget, which is OK'd in June.
"I think it is a very serious matter, I have said that from the beginning," Gov. Minner said.
"There appears to be things going on in the correctional department since before I was governor by way of practices. I want it to be investigated and evaluated. I want to get the best advice we can find."
During his news conference, which took place before Gov. Minner's announcement, Mr. Taylor said he would support whatever the governor decided.
"That is and always has been the governor's call," Mr. Taylor said.
"I am not concerned at all about what other people would see or find."
Mr. Taylor asked the federal National Institute of Correction on Sept. 28 for assistance. In a letter, he requested a staffing analysis of DCC, a review of department training, an evaluation of how prisons classify inmates and the agency's emergency response procedures.
Mr. Taylor said Wednesday he had no plans to resign, and Gov. Minner said he had her support "at this point." Gov. Minner also said she had not yet spoken with Mr. Taylor about the report's contents.
"Stan Taylor has come up through the ranks," she said.
"He had led the state correction system for a good long time. There is a lot of support for Stan Taylor in the community. There would have to be something that really was gross for my confidence in Stan Taylor to waver."
Gov. Minner, a Democrat seeking a second term in November's election, had come under fire from opponents for not calling for the task force immediately after the incident.
Republican William Swain Lee and independent Frank Infante, running on the Independent and Libertarian tickets, blasted her for delaying a decision until she received the report.
Mr. Lee said Wednesday he would prefer the federal Department of Justice, which includes the federal Bureau of Prisons, investigate the state's prison system.
"It's a shame we didn't get an independent investigation immediately," Mr. Lee said.
"I will have to wait to see who the governor appoints to the task force. Her pattern for the past three years is to appoint people who agree with her and wait for a report to come in that agrees with her viewpoint. Then she does nothing."
Mr. Lee, a retired judge, also questioned the governor's motives.
"To the extent that what I am saying is political, her decision is political," Mr. Lee said.
The Correctional Officers Association of Delaware released a statement Tuesday night saying an investigation would "preserve the professional integrity" of the state correction department.
COAD President Allan Deal and Senior Vice President David Knight did not return phone messages seeking comment Wednesday night.
Post comments on this issue at newsblog.info/0407.
Staff writer Joe Rogalsky can be reached at 741-8226 or jrogalsky@newszap.com
