The final progress report on implementing recommendations from the independent review of Vaughn Correctional Center was released Tuesday.
Delaware’s Department of Corrections said it’s making measurable progress on 40 of the 41 recommendations laid out last September.
Those include better communication with inmates, more staff training and upgrading technology.
Vaughn Warden Dana Metzger said hundreds of new cameras are also making staff and inmates safer.
“That doubles your manpower, increases your safety, increases the amount of people watching for security incidents to stop them from happening or to finish it before it gets into a larger situation,” he said.
Vaughn inmate Andre Peters has already served 8 years of a 23-year sentence. He said correctional officers treat those incarcerated there with more respect than before.
“The way the guards treat us, for the most part you see alotta alotta change in that," he said. "The way they talk to us, the way they handle us and deal with us. It’s like some of that don’t care attitude has went out the window a little bit.”
But Peters said the ongoing staffing shortages at Vaughn and other prisons continue to impact inmates as well as correctional officers.
The lone recommendation that needs more substantive action is decreasing mandatory overtime. Vaughn is short nearly 100 positions, requiring its continued use. But DOC says it will present plans to reduce it this fall.
The independent review of Vaughn was launched last year after an 18-hour riot in February 2017 that killed Lt. Steven Floyd.
The full report is below:
Final Vaughn Recommendation Report DOC Special Assistant by Delaware Public Media on Scribd
