DOVER, Del. --- Leaders with Delaware's Department of Correction on Tuesday went before the legislative budget-writing committee to present its $344 million budget proposal, though agency officials also faced questions about staffing levels compared to two years after a deadly prison riot in which a correctional officer died.
Delaware Correction Commissioner Perry Phelps told lawmakers on the state's influential Joint Finance Committee that the state had 1,695 security staffers assigned, with roughly 209 vacancies --- an 87 percent rate of manned positions. That figure compares with 1,669 security positions filled on Feb. 2, 2017, the day inmates seized control of a building at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center and took hostages.
Steven Floyd, a correctional officer, was killed during that incident, which sparked massive scrutiny over staffing levels and a report that said Vaughn dealt with chronic staffing shortages that forced COs to work overtime to ensure positions were filled.
"We want to see that number drop downwards," Phelps said in an interview following the hearing.
However, DoC has acknowledged the number of rank-and-file correctional officers employed by the agency at the beginning of the month is 1,506 --- just 17 more correctional officers than on the day of the riot.
The state hiked correctional officers' starting salaries to $43,000 last year and hired two new recruiters to bring in correctional officers from other states.
Last year, Delaware began the process of moving inmates to Pennsylvania to alleviate the need to force COs to work overtime. The move will cost Delaware roughly $30 million over two years, a move Phelps said is already reducing forced overtime but one that would not necessarily save the state money.
"Hopefully we can see some additional cost savings in addition to the health safety, welfare issues that we intended from this," he said.
However, the union representing correctional officers said the movement of inmates out of state is a small fix to a decades-old problem.
George McClure with the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware told JFC members that 18 of the 22 newest correctional officers graduating from a recent class indicated they were already searching for another employer --- an issue the union contends could be addressed by raising salaries to a level that is more competitive with other law enforcement agencies.
On top of that, McClure said there will be 320 officers eligible for retirement in the next 5 to 7 years.
"Those of us who work in the facilities throughout this great state know what is wrong. We now depend on you for the remedy," he said.
Some lawmakers like Rep. Bill Carson (D-Smyrna) are sympathetic to the correctional officers' request for raises.
"They are very, very dedicated people," he said. "They come to work every day in a very hazardous environment and they're very first line of defense for the citizens of Delaware."
