Agency needs bigger budget, more staff, commissioner says

The state Department of Correction has a $4 million women's work release center it can't open because it doesn't have enough staff, a shortage of about 300 officers and rising medical bills for inmates.

To help address those issues, Commissioner Stanley W. Taylor Jr. went before a Joint Finance Committee budget hearing Thursday to ask lawmakers to approve his request for a $209 million budget for the coming fiscal year, up about $14.3 million from this year's spending plan.

Although he is requesting more funds to address staff shortages, Taylor told lawmakers he sees some encouraging signs in recent events.

For example, he said, corrections officer attrition rates are down for the past quarter, more than 60 men and women are in training to be corrections officers, and the quality of applicants is high.

In response to questions from lawmakers at Thursday's hearing, he said a special task force investigating the July 12 rape of a prison counselor could have an impact on his budget request.

The task force's report is due to be released Monday.

Committee members questioned Taylor and some of his staff closely about the high number of empty positions and the department's system for classifying inmates.

State Sen. James T. Vaughn, D-Clayton, said he thinks the Delaware Correctional Center's classification system needs to be revamped to prevent more incidents such as the July 12 rape of counselor Cassandra Arnold.

Vaughn, himself a former corrections commissioner, said inmate Scott Miller, who was serving a 699-year sentence for a series of rapes, should not have been allowed to "roam" through the prison.

"I told the commissioner when that system was put in place that he was going to get burned by it," Vaughn said, "and he got burned."

Paul Howard, chief of the Bureau of Prisons, disagreed with Vaughn but acknowledged the classification system may have to be changed once the task force's report is issued.

State Sen. David B. McBride, D-Hawks Nest, asked Taylor about his plan for coping with the high number of vacancies among corrections officers. Taylor, whose department last year paid out about $8 million in overtime, said he will continue to use that option to fill in shift vacancies. He also has shut down some wings that cannot be adequately staffed and shifted inmates around to wings that are staffed. In addition, he is using retired officers to work some shifts as well as training officers and probation officers.

The hearing was attended by a number of corrections officers, probation officers and prison counselors, several of whom addressed the committee after lawmakers questioned Taylor.

Brian Douty, a probation officer who is also secretary of the Delaware State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, said low pay has driven many of his colleagues out of the department.

"We can get them in the front door but can't keep them from running out the back in pursuit of better pay," he said. "Delaware police departments and federal law enforcement agencies are full of ex-Delaware probation officers who went to work for them for better pay."

Taylor's budget, which includes a 5 percent salary increase for corrections officers, does not include a similar pay raise for probation officers.

The committee will continue hearing from other state departments throughout the month.