Al Mascitti
12/07/2004
When Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's prison task force convened last Friday, only three Delaware corrections officers were set to testify. After they poured out their frustration at years of short-staffing and mandatory overtime, over a dozen more clamored for the attention of the four members of the committee who had time to attend.
Most urged the panel to look beyond the July 12 hostage crisis at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna. Several told horror stories to illustrate their urgency. One told of repeatedly working mandated 16-hour shifts with only four hours off in between. Another told of a female cook who, only the day before, transported food in a closed vehicle while accompanied only by an inmate.
"To the people who work there, they're obvious statements, and to people who don't work there, they're astounding statements," says David Knight, senior vice president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware. "The stuff we deal with on a day-to-day basis, the amount of stuff that's jury-rigged to deal with the staffing shortage, most people would find shocking."
Knight said the full extent of the manpower shortage has been blurred by Department of Correction number-juggling.
"We're a closed shop, which means [the union] is paid for each person assigned to a correctional position." The union counts 1,285 paid positions; another 30 to 50 recent academy graduates, still on probation, also are on the payroll.
The state actually allocates money for 1,850 officers, at least 515 more than actual staffing levels, but the department lists the shortage at about 340 officers.
Why the discrepancy? Because the state is not counting up to the allocated staffing level but a "minimum staffing level." Once staffing dips below that minimum, the state's contract with the corrections officers allows it to order mandatory overtime.
Whatever the true size of the shortage, officers association secretary Mike Lenigan estimated prison officials order from 66 to 100 overtime shifts each day at the prison near Smyrna alone. The effects go beyond the stress on overworked officers. The state's $2.4 million women's treatment center in New Castle, scheduled to open in August, remains closed because of staffing shortages, Knight said, and two residence buildings on the prison grounds near Smyrna stand unused for lack of bodies to man them.
Unfortunately, only four of the committee's seven members were on hand to hear the guards, with another participating by speakerphone. The absences underscored the fact that most of the volunteer panel members have demanding jobs that consume higher-than-average amounts of time.
Yet, unlike the internal investigation that took months to determine that a door had been propped open - something inmates were telling me within 48 hours of the tragedy - this task force has a strict deadline of Jan. 31 for reporting its findings to the governor.
This is yet another sign that this panel can't possibly compile a meaningful report on its current schedule of meeting once every other week. At this point, many corrections officers don't care that the whitewash is being stirred. They're looking forward to the panel's next meeting, Dec. 17 in Dover.
The committee agreed to an extended schedule so it can hear from more corrections officers - those who aren't working mandatory double shifts, of course.
Contact Al Mascitti at 324-2866 or amascitti@delawareonline.com.
