By Tom Eldred,
Delaware State News
DOVER — A former security expert for the federal Bureau of Prisons was critical Thursday of a report outlining the results of an internal Department of Correction investigation into the July 12 hostage incident at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner named six members of a seven-member panel she said she wants to conduct a "thorough (and) complete" review of the DOC report.
The report, presented Wednesday by Correction Commissioner Stanley W. Taylor, contained accounts from correctional officers and others involved in a siege that began when inmate Scott A. Miller abducted correctional counselor Cassandra Arnold at DCC.
Holding a homemade knife to his hostage's throat, Miller barricaded a room, communicated on and off with prison negotiators, and was finally shot to death by a correctional officer hiding in the false ceiling of an adjoining room.
Miller, a serial rapist serving 699 years in prison, raped Ms. Arnold, 27, shortly before he was killed.
The report concludes Miller abducted Ms. Arnold and assaulted her but it does not conclude who was responsible and what caused the situation and what should be done to prevent future incidents.
"There's really no conclusions drawn in the report,'' said Douglas Ingram, who was employed by the federal Bureau of Prisons before going to work for a private company contracted by DOC to provide inmate counseling and substance abuse programs.
He was suspended from his job as a program supervisor at the Sussex Correctional Center boot camp near Georgetown earlier this year after he released a voluntary report criticizing inmate transport security to the Delaware State News.
"This looks like it only contains raw information from the investigators,'' he said. "There is no timeline of what happened that day. There are no findings. There are no conclusions.
"There is not even a timeline for the negotiations and that's where Stan Taylor played the largest role.''
Mr. Ingram said the review, by DOC's Internal Affairs Unit, failed to answer the one major question — how Miller was able to pass, apparently unattended, from a secure inmates' area through two security doors to a nonsecure office corridor where he accosted Ms. Arnold.
"Everything in the report says he did it, but we don't know how he did it,'' Mr. Ingram said. "Nobody is held responsible. Everything is left to the reader to figure out. I don't think Internal Affairs did what they were told to do.''
The report contains a 37-page memorandum addressed to James J. Lupinetti, director of the Internal Affairs Unit, from investigators Steven E. Rogers, Ronnie E. Drake and Mike Tigue.
"This investigation was assigned to Internal Affairs to collect and review facts and aspects of the case, regarding policy and procedures, security in general, classification procedures and staffing,'' the memo's introduction states.
"Physical evidence, documents generated through normal procedures and extensive interviews with witnesses collectively contributed to the investigative findings.''
A "conclusion'' section on page 32 of the memo identifies some of the people who were in the administrative area where the incident took place, including officers "frozen" to work back-to-back eight-hour shifts.
"In spite of the extended hours, none of the officers interviewed gave any indication that they were overly fatigued on the day of the incident or could not perform their duties at the necessary level,'' the conclusion portion of the report says.
"However, sleep deprivation continually drains one's senses of observation and causes mental lapses. Staff responded expediently to the (incident) when called and took up operational positions in compliance with their orders.
"Overall, there was a very large response to the situation by various officers from all levels of the institution.''
DOC spokeswoman Elizabeth Welch said Mr. Taylor was not available for comment Thursday afternoon and early evening.
She said Mr. Lupinetti has since retired.
She said Internal Affairs was not asked to review how the hostage situation was managed but rather to determine what contributed to the incident.
Mr. Ingram questioned why Mr. Taylor, Bureau of Prisons chief Paul Howard and DCC Warden Thomas Carroll were not interviewed and included among the dozens of synopses of interviews in the report.
According to the report, a command post was set up in the warden's office and manned by Mr. Taylor, Mr. Howard, Mr. Carroll and four other top officials, including former DCC Deputy Warden Lawrence McGuigan.
The report said a Maj. David Holman was put in charge at the hostage-taking site and received orders from the command post.
None of the top officials except Mr. McGuigan was interviewed for the report.
When asked why Mr. Taylor and others weren't interviewed, Mrs. Welch said Mr. Taylor answers to the governor.
She said DOC doesn't think it "prudent" to reveal specific hostage negotiation and emergency response techniques because it "helps the inmate population defeat us should another situation occur.''
Mr. Ingram questioned why it took DOC so long to complete and release the report, given that most of the interviews took place in late July through mid-August.
According to the report, 33 interviews were conducted between July 28 and Aug. 18, the day DOC investigators spoke with Ms. Arnold. Three more followed, the last on Aug. 23.
"I don't understand what took them so long to compile their report after they finished the interviews,'' Mr. Ingram said.
"I don't think this is the original report. I think there was something else. I wonder if the original said no policies were broken and they were told they had to change it because of the heat they'd take. I think there was another report. I don't know how or why, but I feel it in my bones.''
Mrs. Welch flatly denied Mr. Ingram's allegations.
"That's not true,'' she said, noting the investigators spent weeks sifting through reams of documents and writing the report.
In naming six of seven members of an independent investigative panel Thursday, Gov. Minner said she expects a full report on any needed improvements in security and procedure by Jan. 31, 2005.
"I am confident that this panel of respected community leaders will return a thorough, complete review of the Department of Correction internal affairs investigation,'' Gov. Minner said in a prepared statement.
"This serious situation certainly warrants a second review, and I am grateful to these members of our community for giving of their time to see that this matter receives all the attention it deserves.''
Named were:
l Retired Superior Court Judge Vincent A. Bifferato Sr., Wilmington
l Former Court of Chancery Chancellor Grover Brown, Wilmington
l Attorney Brian Shirey, Milford
l Attorney Rebecca Batson Kidner, Dover
l Attorney Thomas McGonigle, Wilmington, who was chief counsel to former Gov. Thomas R. Carper
l Tony Allen, Wilmington, former executive director of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League.
A seventh member remains to be named.
Gov. Minner said the panel would independently examine the events surrounding the hostage incident and security issues at DCC.
She said the panel is expected to examine the findings of investigations conducted by both DOC and the state police, and make recommendations to assure safety and security at DCC.
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Senior writer Tom Eldred can be reached at 741-8212 or teldred@newszap.com
