More on the Delaware Dept of Corrections
A couple of interesting articles emerged focusing on the Delaware Department of Corrections. The first ARTICLE addresses some major issues (overcrowding and lack of correctional officer staff) that were reaching a tipping point prior to the riot and hostage situation that left one seasoned correctional officer dead. There are some pretty chilling foreshadowing comments made prior to the hostage-taking events. The second ARTICLE focuses on the recent decision to place the Warden of that prison on paid leave.
Interesting.
So was the uprising a result of one warden’s negligence, the negligence of the State of Delaware, or an unruly crowd of convicts? Hopefully we will find out prior to the end of class.
Thoughts?
“I think it’s a shame that a correction officer would have to lose their life before we would realize the issues we have.”
I think that they were well aware of the issues going on in the prison before the officer died, with all the overcrowding, lack of staff, and shortage of funding, but just did not do anything about it. Hypothetically thinking, I think there was negligence from the warden and State of Delaware and the inmates did not know what else to do other than riot since they were not listened to otherwise. It is sad that by rioting, an officer had to die. Now hopefully something will be done about the issues going on.
I think these articles are interesting; I was wondering what the corresponding factors were leading to this uprising. This prison very clearly had many issues that needed to be addressed. I liked the comment, “Understaffing and overcrowding — that is a formula for misfortune.” I agree with the thinking that these problems were ongoing and little was being done to change them. It is very sad that it takes tragedy for attempts towards change.
I think it is really sad that Governor Carney and other DOC officials would not comment on this issue of overcrowding. It is as if they know what they did was wrong and were caught. Therefore, I believe this action proves that the administrative staff knew that the prison was understaffed and overcrowded, while choosing not to do anything about it. It is disappointing that there has to be a mishap for something to be done in this day in age. Also, it is not fair for the inmates to have undertrained and underpaid officers, which lead to understaffing issues. Hopefully, there will be more done in the future for not only the inmates, but the officers as well.
It is really concerning that they knew all of the factors that contributed to the inmates feelings and aggressions could have been prevented or at least addressed. Things like over crowding and understaffing are things that have been issues for a long amount of time and even the President of the association knew that something was bound to happen. It is also interesting that after the incident had happened that the warden has been placed on leave and I am curious as to whether he had a large part in the uprising or if they are just starting to make changes with the staffing by starting with the warden. It will be interesting to find out.
Finding out that a motivation for the occurrence of the hostage situation was partly due to the Donald Trump presidency as well as a want for more rehabilitation programming are both alarming in their own rights. Seeing that the prisoners want more opportunities for betterment, in the sense of rehabilitation or the like, is cause for concern to what the current state of the criminal justice system is. This as well as the apparent understaffing mixed with overcrowding facilities can present chances for opportunity and growth within the criminal justice community if only they were able to look in depth to find solutions to the problems that tend to happen in these situations.
When are we going to learn from our mistakes? The article describes employees being assaulted, held captive, and even killed resulting from staff shortages. But yet we aren’t changing our actions. I believe the uprising was caused by the state of Delaware being negligent.
Although it does’t seem to just be Delaware, or even the U.S., that are having issues with rioting. The Nebraska story surprised me because there were three incidences of C.O.’s being sent to the hospital in just a two week period.