By Tom Eldred,
Delaware State News
WILMINGTON - Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's prison task force had its first public confrontation Friday with rank-and-file Delaware correctional officers.
They got an earful.
More than 30 officers, many wearing dress uniforms, attended the regular public meeting of the task force held in a conference room in the New Castle County Courthouse.
When given a chance to speak, they told the panel of long-standing problems within the Department of Correction - ranging from oppressive mandatory overtime policies to allegations that staff shortages are much more serious than the numbers DOC puts out.
Sgt. David Phillips, who works at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna, spoke of the July 12 incident at the prison in which an inmate abducted and raped a female counselor before he was shot and killed.
"There has been no progress since July 12,'' Sgt. Phillips told the panel. "There was no major shakedown afterward. We opened up all the buildings within 48 hours. Minimum staffing is making everybody worry about security. It's actually going down from what it was.''
Also for the first time, the task force's hired consultant, nationally recognized prison expert Dr. George M. Camp, was present. Mr. Camp did not speak but took copious notes as the officers voiced their concerns.
Thomas P. McGonigle, vice chairman of the seven-member group, conducted the session in the absence of chairman Grover C. Brown.
Other members attending were Guy Sapp, Rebecca Batson Kidner and Tony Allen. Brian D. Shirey participated by speakerphone. Vincent A. Bifferato Sr. was absent.
Gov. Minner ordered an independent review of the July 12 incident after she read the results of an internal investigation undertaken by DOC.
Created by executive order, the task force is to present its findings to the governor by Jan. 31.
The DOC report, released Oct. 6 by Correction Commissioner Stanley W. Taylor, contained accounts of interviews with dozens of correctional officers involved in the hostage-taking incident. It did not indicate who was responsible or what should be done to prevent future incidents.
According to DOC, inmate Scott A. Miller, 45, a serial rapist sentenced to 699 years behind bars, abducted 27-year-old prison counselor Cassandra Arnold, barricaded a room, and kept negotiators at bay for nearly seven hours before he was finally shot and killed by correctional officer Keith Hoffer.
Miller raped Ms. Arnold before he was killed. She has since filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Minner, Mr. Taylor and other prison officials. The lawsuit claims security lapses, inadequate prison staffing, poor supervision and overworked employees contributed directly to Ms. Arnold's ordeal.
The four members attending Friday's meeting listened intently as officers vigorously repeated their concerns about an institution they warned must be fixed before a tragedy such as the July 12 incident occurs again.
"The Department of Correction is taking chances every day,'' said Lt. William Mounet, who works at the Dolores J. Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in New Castle.
"Every single day, DOC, through nonaction, is taking chances and giving inmates a chance to rape, to assault and to murder. Operating procedures are obsolete and out of date, the (inmate) classification system is broken down.
"We have administrators with absolutely no security training. When you have no one to watch the inmates, then you are risking lives.
"Please recommend to the governor that this investigation be more than just a door left open. We're not just asking, we're begging.''
David Knight, senior vice president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, said inadequate staffing is reaching a level of grave concern.
He said DOC is less than forthcoming when announcing the number of correctional officer vacancies in its facilities.
Mr. Knight said there are currently 1,285 full-time correctional officers in DOC and 30 new hires on probationary status.
"We have a closed shop,'' he said. "There are 1,850 positions. That's what the state says DOC is supposed to be manned at. That means we're 565 people below what is assigned. It's getting ridiculous.''
Mr. Knight warned the panel to be on the lookout for incomplete information from DOC as it continues to review security policies and procedures.
"You have a department here that believes it is autonomous to the state,'' he said. "You have a department that believes it is its own government. They try to keep everything bottled up away from everybody. There's a credibility problem - you've got to know that going in.''
Gail Stallings Minor, a DOC spokeswoman, said after the meeting that Mr. Taylor would decline comment on any of the issues until the task force completes its work and sends a report to the governor.
She said that as of Nov. 18, DOC had 337 correctional officer vacancies, including 51 on military leave.
Mike Lenigan, COAD's secretary and a member of the union's executive board, works at DCC. He said massive overtime is taking a tremendous toll on rank-and-file officers.
"With voluntary overtime and freezing (involuntary 16-hour double shifts), at a bare minimum we're seeing between 66 and 100 overtime shifts per day at DCC,'' he said. "They're running DCC on two-thirds of the people we need.''
George F. Krauss works at the Sussex Correctional institution in Georgetown. He said some officers are forced to work back-to-back 16-hour shifts, with as little as four hours of rest, including travel time to and from home.
"If you all had to stay in this room to work for 16 hours, and then went home and had to come back in four hours, year after year, do you think you could do it?'' he asked the task force.
There was no reply.
Sgt. Phillips said security is a daily concern.
"Just yesterday we had a female staff member in the cook series [a job classification] transporting an inmate in a closed vehicle to deliver food,'' he said. "That is a female at risk.''
He urged panel members to make unannounced visits to DCC, rather than scheduling a tour in advance through DOC administrators, as was done a month ago on Nov. 3.
"When you guys came to visit, they stacked the institution with correctional officers and you didn't see any inmates,'' he said. "You need to come unannounced to see what really happens at DCC.''
Task force members appeared interested but said little as other officers spoke out Friday with repeated warnings of lax security, poor morale and inadequate leadership within DCC.
Although the task force normally meets every other Friday in Wilmington, members agreed to convene the Dec. 17 session in Dover to accommodate the many officers who live and work Downstate.
Mr. McGonigle said the time and place for the next session would be announced and communicated to DOC personnel.
"We very much appreciate this,'' he said as he closed the meeting. "This is very helpful to us. We've got a ton of work to do.''
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Senior writer Tom Eldred can be reached at 741-8212 or teldred@newszap.com.
Reprinted with permission from newszap.com
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