Why Should Delaware Care?
Work-release programs have shown to be effective ways to help inmates transition back into society after prolonged periods in prison. Delaware is consolidating its work-release programs in response to one aging building racking up hefty maintenance bills. But the move has sparked a wave of criticism from across northern Delaware.
The impending closure of the Plummer work-release center in Wilmington has left many in Delaware feeling anxious, frustrated, and uncertain about what will come next.
Former inmates, Wilmington-area politicians, and prisoner advocates have all said that the closure of northern Delaware’s only work-release center will cause incarcerated people to be forced to live farther from their jobs, families, and support systems as they seek to transition back into society.
One former inmate who lived at the Plummer Center last year said its staff was respectful and supported inmates’ efforts to secure jobs. The former inmate, who requested anonymity to discuss his experience while seeking full-time employment, worries that the situation won’t be the same at work-release facilities adjacent to prisons in Smyrna and Georgetown.
“We lose that helping hand,” said the inmate who went to prison last year after being convicted of assaulting a police officer. “It feels like a punishment, and you’re punishing people for things that they can’t control.”
For decades, the Plummer Community Corrections Center housed individuals nearing release or under community supervision in a Wilmington location that allowed inmates to maintain employment in the state’s biggest job center. For many, the location also kept them close to family.
But in September, the Delaware Department of Correction announced that the Plummer Center would shut down in March.
In their announcement, corrections officials cited a drop in the number of people at Plummer, along with high maintenance costs at the century-old facility. They estimated that the state would have to spend about $4 million over the next two years to maintain the Plummer Center.
Department of Correction Commissioner Terra Taylor also said the savings would allow her department to invest in other correctional facilities and to reduce staff vacancies, which would reduce a reliance on correctional officer overtime.
Excessive correctional officer overtime has been a front-of-mind issue for many DOC officials ever since 2017, when a state report concluded that an overworked staff was one of several factors that led to a deadly siege at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna that year.
Still, the announcement of Plummer’s closure has been met with pushback from local politicians and residents who have argued that work-release inmates will lose a vital community space that helps them to become part of society again.
“They need the Plummer Community Center, not displacement. Funding concerns should never supersede rehabilitation, dignity, and public safety,” Wilmington City Councilwoman Shané Darby said in a November press release.
A month after Darby’s statement, eight New Castle County lawmakers sent a letter to Gov. Matt Meyer urging him not to allow “budgetary considerations to morph into final decisions in a vacuum.”
“We need to know the true cost to the impacted communities and the true prospects for
alternative or complementary paths,” the letter stated.
In response to such concerns, Department of Correction spokesman Jason Miller said that no one currently staying at the Plummer center will lose their jobs. The men currently housed there will finish their sentences at Plummer while its operations wind down, he said.
Miller also noted that the DOC will continue operating the New Castle County work release program and that individuals from Wilmington and northern Delaware transitioning from prison to work release will be provided shuttles from Smyrna or Georgetown to their jobs and family visits.
Nevertheless, some former inmates fear that the culture among correctional officers downstate will be less supportive for work-release inmates than it has been at Plummer.
Lamar Smith, who previously served time at the Sussex Community Corrections Center in Georgetown for violating parole, said that harsher living conditions in Sussex will cause many to return to prison rather than reenter society.
While at the Sussex facility, Smith said he experienced racism and mistreatment from correctional officers
“I was scared for my life down there,” he said.
Asked about the claims, Miller said “we do not accept any notion that individuals of color – whether staff or individuals under DOC supervision – cannot live, work, or be supervised in any community or in any facility across our state.”
He also said “the DOC welcomes and embraces diversity, and discrimination of any kind is not tolerated.”
The best path forward?
Last month, the Wilmington City Council passed a resolution, introduced by Darby, requesting that the Plummer Center be kept open.
Separately, Darby asked Gov. Matt Meyer to pause the transport of individuals out of the Plummer Center, and to tour the facility and meet with community members.
Rachel Sawicki, a spokeswoman for Meyer, told Spotlight Delaware that the governor has spoken with stakeholders including corrections personnel, Plummer residents, elected officials, and community members to “determine the best path forward.”
Last month, Meyer also said during a graduation ceremony for a reentry program that if he ever had the opportunity as governor to close a jail and reallocate its resources into things like reentry programs and education, that it would be “a victory.”
During the ceremony, Meyer also noted that violent crime rates and recidivism rates in Delaware are at historic lows.
Over the past 20 years, the state’s work-release population has dropped 70% to 369 individuals, according to DOC officials.
The Plummer Center specifically housed around 150 individuals prior to the COVID pandemic. Today that number has dropped to about 30, according to Miller.
Darby told Spotlight Delaware that she has been collecting signatures for a letter and petition that calls on Meyer to reverse his decision to close the Plummer Center.
She appears to have found allies in progressives circles as the letter has been circulated by the Working Families Party, and among its signatories is the ACLU of Delaware.