Delaware sending 330 inmates to Pennsylvania at cost of $40,000 per day
Delaware has begun sending 330 inmates to Pennsylvania prisons in an attempt to reduce the amount of overtime correctional officers work, the Department of Correction announced Wednesday.
All the transferred inmates are heading to Camp Hill from James T. Vaughn in Smyrna. Some of the incarcerated men have already been moved as of Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. Transfers will continue in the coming months.
"We remain focused on improving safety for correctional officers and inmates in all of Delaware's correctional facilities,” DOC Commissioner Perry Phelps said in a statement. "This new agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is designed as a temporary measure to help us reduce mandatory overtime for correctional officers, which was a critical recommendation of the Independent Review team commissioned by Governor [John] Carney."
This decision comes after the state spent more than $30 million in the last budget year on overtime at the prisons. That was a 39 percent jump over the $22.2 million paid out in extra time in the previous year.
Correctional Officers Association of Delaware President Geoff Klopp said moving inmates out of state was a "necessary step" because although the DOC has hired hundreds of people since last year's deadly riot at James T. Vaughn prison, it has not been enough to keep pace with the number of people leaving the department.
"While it's necessary to move the inmates out of state, it is a step in the wrong direction because we are not fixing the issues in the Department of Correction, which is staff shortages," he said.
Klopp said the DOC will need to hire 650 correctional officers in the next three years to be at a safe level.
An independent review team issued a report last year that found the uprising was a long time coming because of deteriorating conditions, inconsistent rules and regulations and overworked staff. The review team called on the Legislature to act quickly to make changes.
While the state said it has made many advancements, a sticking point remained the Department of Correction's inability to reduce forced overtime, a condition that contributed to last year's nearly 18-hour prison siege that claimed the life of corrections officer Lt. Steven Floyd.
State prosecutors filed murder charges against 16 inmates. Three of them are currently on trial for killing Floyd.
Wednesday's announcement hopes to address the independent review team's overtime concern.
"To be clear, this is a temporary measure aimed at making our correctional facilities more safe and secure for officers and inmates," Carney said in a statement.
Carney pointed out that under his administration they were working to reduce mandatory overtime by raising officer salaries in an effort to recruit more officers. The DOC also has offered bonuses.
"This agreement with Pennsylvania is another tool that will help us to address the critical issue of safety and security inside our facilities," the statement read.
Under the two-year agreement, Delaware will pay $123 a day per inmate. The 330 inmates will cost Delaware $40,590 each day to stay in Pennsylvania.
The selected inmates would not have open cases and have more than five years left on their sentences, said Jayme Gravell of Delaware's DOC.
Once the vacancy rate of correctional officer positions drops, the inmates will be returned to Delaware, Gravell said.
A 2017 report urged the DOC to find alternatives to relying on overtime in the prison system. The department responded by offering incentives to hire more officers, including $1,000 bonuses to current staff who refer officers who are successfully hired, and giving a $3,000 signing bonus to cadets.
"Reducing mandatory overtime will provide relief for Delaware’s correctional officers, and help make our facilities safer for officers and inmates,” Phelps said in his statement.
DOC overtime on track to surpass $30M this year with no sight of ending forced overtime
Contact Josephine Peterson at (302) 324-2856, jhpeterson@delawareonline.com, or Twitter at @jopeterson93.
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