A service of Salisbury University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Up to 330 Vaughn Correctional Center Inmates to Move to Pennsylvania

creative commons

DOVER, Del. (AP) - Delaware prison officials plan to move hundreds of inmates from the site of a deadly inmate uprising to Pennsylvania to reduce overtime for severely understaffed correctional officers.

Delaware's Department of Correction said Wednesday that officials entered into a two-year agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to accept up to 330 Delaware inmates. The agreement calls for Delaware to pay Pennsylvania $123 per inmate, per day, to house offenders sentenced in Delaware.

Officials say the selected inmates have more than five years remaining on their sentences and will return to Delaware to complete their sentences when the correctional officer vacancy rate is projected to be "significantly lower."

There are currently 237 vacancies statewide.

A review conducted after a fatal riot last year found Delaware's maximum-security prison to overcrowded, understaffed and mismanaged.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.