DOVER- Help may be on the way for Delaware's troubled prison system.
The legislature's Joint Finance Committee has approved a more than $200 million budget for the Department of Correction. That is around $8 million more than this year's budget.
Part of the money will go to help to fill the almost 300 empty positions at the DOC and the rest will go toward making improvements within the prison system.
The red flag was raised back in July of last year when counselor Cassandra Arnold was held hostage and raped by inmate Scott Miller at the Delaware Correctional Center in Smyrna. The hostage situation came to an end only after a DOC sharpshooter shot Miller to death.
Following that incident, a panel of experts took a look at what happened. The panel found staffing shortages and lax security were a major problem. DOC officials say the extra money will help them make some major changes.
"We're going to be doing a lot of equiptment purchases: new radios, security cam equipment for our tactical response team, those kinds of things and it will go a long way to help us increase the amount and quality of equiptment we give to our personel," said DOC spokeswoman Beth Welch. She also said every prison guard will get a raise.
As for if the the guards' union (Delaware Correctional Officers Association) thinks these changes are enough, union spokespersons say it is too early to comment.
They will be meeting with their members on Thursday to look at the proposal. Before any of those changes can be made, the final budget will have to be approved by both the House and the Senate next month.
