Correction officer’s death sparks demand for more officers

The death of Correction Officer Steven Floyd in the line of duty is the first in Delaware history, a death union officials say could have been prevented.

“Sgt. Floyd did not have to die,” said Geoff Klopp, president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, during a press conference Feb. 2 at the union headquarters near Dover – a day before Floyd was promoted posthumously to lieutenant.

Klopp’s view was seconded by Sgt. Spencer Brittingham, a retired corrections officer who last year stepped down from Cape Henlopen school board. Brittingham, who retired from DOC after 25 years, said he ran a transitional unit at Sussex Correctional Institution similar to the unit Floyd ran at Vaughn center. If they were lucky, he said, there were four officers for about 210 inmates. “That’s far, far from where they should be,” he said.

Floyd, 47, of Dover, was pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m., Feb. 2, as a siege ended at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna. Inmates held prison employees hostage for 19 hours at the facility, where Floyd had worked for 16 years.

Klopp said Floyd is a hero who saved others that day. At the beginning of the siege, he said, inmates put Floyd into a closet, and Floyd yelled out to other officers, telling them they were walking into a trap as they entered C Building – the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center facility taken over by inmates. Hearing Floyd's warning, Klopp said, the officers were able to flee to safety. However, two other officers and a counselor were captured by inmates.

Klopp said he did not have details of Floyd's death. Division of Forensic Science completed an autopsy Feb. 3 and determined Floyd’s death was a homicde caused by trauma.

Officials say the counselor was released unhurt and in good condition. The two other guards, however, were assaulted, suffering broken bones, lacerations and, in at least one case, a broken orbital socket, Klopp said. In a video posted on Blue Lives Matter’s Facebook page, one officer appeared bruised and battered. He was visibly shaken when he said he wished it was him and not Floyd who died.

A hard worker

Floyd worked as a shop steward in C Building, transitional housing for inmates moving from medium- to high-security or vice versa. 

Klopp said investigators are looking into whether Floyd was targeted by inmates. Correctional officers were aware that some inmates had been checking out staffing levels at the building to find weaknesses.

“Inmates practiced to see what our response was going to be to the building so they could plan for the response of the staff that was going to arrive at the building,” he said.

Understaffing at Vaughn center has plagued the facility for years, Klopp said.

“When we have a major issue, it's at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center because they can't retain employees,” he said. In 13 years, there have been two other major incidents at Vaughn: a counselor was taken hostage and raped in 2004, and two guards were assaulted in 2010. Since August, there have been nearly 25 assaults against prison staffers, according to COAD.

A task force convened following the 2004 incident, and its report recommending improvements to staffing, salaries and retention was never followed, he said.

“None of the recommendations were implemented,” Klopp said. “COAD does not want to end up with another task force or report like the one in 2004, in which we didn't see any positive results in any way, shape or form,” he said.

Klopp said the Markell administration failed to take prison staffing seriously. He said he was told by the Office of Management and Budget that paying overtime is the cheapest way to staff the prisons. Department of Corrections has a $20 million overtime budget, and staffing is usually down by about 90 officers a day, said Robert Coupe, secretary of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, who previously headed the Department of Correction.

“We face staffing problems every day,” he said. “When we are shortstaffed we compensate with overtime.”

Brittingham said while the Markell administration deserves 75 percent blame for low staffing levels, the Minner administration, when Carney served as lieutenant governor, deserves 25 percent blame. As a member of the Board of Pardon, he said, Carney knew about staffing problems. “Carney was there before Markell was there, and he had a closer heartbeat to DOC. I can’t put all the blame on the Markell administration,” Brittingham said. 

In November, further strain was put on DOC staffing after a settlement agreement was implemented, Klopp said. The settlement was the result of a lawsuit filed by Community Legal Aid Society and supported by the ACLU on behalf of prisoners in solitary confinement.

Lisa Furber, a senior paralegal with legal aid, said the settlement with DOC included at least 17.5 hours a week of unstructured recreation outside of the cell for inmates in solitary confinement, 10 hours of structured therapeutic time, and training for prison guards to learn de-escalation techniques.

“It has made our jobs more taxing without more staff,” Klopp said. “Parts of it are empowering to inmates, and we're struggling with it.”

Klopp said he looks forward to working with the Carney administration to make long-needed changes. Changes must be made so that another life is not needlessly lost, he said.

“We believe Sgt. Floyd's death is due directly to staffing issues that have been going on with the Department of Correction through the Jack Markell administration for the last eight years,” he said. “We have brought these issues to light, and we had absolutely no assistance from the previous governor.”

Coupe said there were 120 prisoners in C Building when hostages were taken. He did not know how many inmates were involved with the siege, but all 120 are now suspects. Video recordings taken from the scene will be reviewed as evidence, police said. Once the investigation is complete, Coupe said, appropriate charges will be filed against the inmates.