Why Should Delaware Care?
Work-release programs are widely seen as effective tools for helping people transition back into society after incarceration and reducing recidivism. After Delaware officials consolidated these programs, citing rising maintenance costs at an aging facility in Wilmington and a declining population, the move has drawn criticism from advocates and some lawmakers, who say the transition to the Smyrna facility has created new barriers to employment and reentry.
A month after state officials shut down Wilmington’s only prison work release program, the transition to a Smyrna substance abuse treatment center has garnered mixed reactions from lawmakers and inmates.
On Tuesday, the Senate Corrections & Public Safety Committee held a hearing to understand the current state of the program. During the meeting, officials from the Department of Corrections gave updates, calling the transition from the former Plummer Center to the Community Corrections Treatment Center in Smyrna “successful.”
The DOC’s New Castle Work Release Program now utilizes extra space at the Smyrna center located adjacent to the Vaughn prison, where low-risk offenders are housed and offered programming when they are not working, DOC spokesperson Jason Miller said.
Still, the Tuesday meeting presented more questions and confusion, as some residents and advocates say individuals are being treated improperly at the Smyrna center, where harsh restrictions and inadequate resources limit them from finding work and being with their families.
State Sen. Ray Seigfried (D-Claymont), who chairs the Senate committee, told Spotlight Delaware he wants to make reforms to the program to ensure it’s “working the way it should.”
Seigfried said the Smyrna facility is not equipped to handle a work release program and also noted concerns around individuals being treated unfairly at the facility.
“I think [the Department of Corrections] testimony just simply was not correct,” Seigfried said. “You heard the mother, I’ve heard from residents of the prison, and it’s like I’m hearing two different stories.”
Seigfried said it is too early to point to specific changes he wants to make, but he will be discussing the matter with other committee members.
But another lawmaker on the committee, State Sen. Marie Pinkney (D-Bear), did not share Seigfried’s concerns.
Pinkney said she was not worried about the Smyrna center’s ability to manage the work release program after Plummer’s closure.
“It didn’t sound like there was actually too much of a significant difference in how the [Plummer and Smyrna] programs were run,” she said.
DOC officials maintain that Smyrna’s new work release program is being run as it should. Individuals in the program receive counseling and assistance with resumé preparation, job applications and interview preparation, Miller said.
“This decision [to close the Plummer Center] was ultimately about strengthening services, not reducing them,” DOC Commissioner Terra Taylor said during Tuesday’s hearing. “We did not eliminate or reduce the work release program.”
DOC highlights improvements, some remain unsure
During Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Taylor highlighted improvements that have been made to the program under the Smyrna facility, like new transportation services that help individuals get to their jobs across New Castle County and in some parts of Kent County.
Miller noted that, depending on how many individuals require transportation per shift, drop-offs are either door-to-door or to public transportation hubs.
Taylor also said the department has expanded its behavioral cognitive therapy program at the Smyrna center, allowing people in the work release program to use it in addition to individuals who are there for treatment.
Rachelle Wilson’s son has been incarcerated for 17 years and is currently residing at the Community Corrections Treatment Center in Smyrna.
Wilson said she prepared her statements three days before testifying at Tuesday’s hearing. She had not heard of many DOC initiatives prior to attending the hearing, and she questioned when those programs were put in place.
Instead, Wilson said she has spoken with other residents and parents at the Smyrna facility, and has heard of people who have lost job opportunities because of the center’s regulations and strict policies.
Residents are doing what is required of them, but they are unable to rebuild their lives because of “internal programming conflicts, a lack of transportation, understaffed and inflexible policies,” she said.
Ultimately, Wilson said the facility is a treatment center and is not equipped to function like the former Plummer Center.
We’re not here to sound defensive. We’re here to continue to work together with our partners and keep moving forward.
Correction commissioner terra taylor
But after Wilson’s testimony, Taylor, the DOC commissioner, said “there’s really no difference” between treatment centers and work release.
Taylor said programs and supports are still in place, and the work referral practices that were used in Plummer are also being used inside the Smyrna center.
At the end of the tense, two-hour meeting, Taylor acknowledged the department is not perfect, but she said it has “evolved.”
“We’re not here to sound defensive,” she said. “We’re here to continue to work together with our partners and keep moving forward.”
Future of Plummer building remains unclear
During the public comment section of the meeting, Bradley Owens, the director of the Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission, questioned what would happen to the Plummer Center building now that it is closed.
Owens, who has more than a decade of experience working inside prisons, said the building has the potential to become housing for those experiencing homelessness or with mental and substance abuse issues in Wilmington.
In recent months, Spotlight Delaware has spoken with people living in Christina Park, the city’s only sanctioned homeless encampment, and other housing advocates have expressed concern over the lack of housing options in the unhoused in Delaware’s largest city.
“It is a facility that has adequate housing, it has medical capacity, it has a cafeteria, and it has potential use for people coming out of prison, people with mental health, substance use disorder, homelessness issues,” Owens said.
Asked if the city would have an appetite to repurpose the center for such uses, officials in Mayor John Carney’s office noted that the building is state-owned, would require substantial investment to rehabilitate, and that such uses “fall outside of the city’s purview.”
What led to this hearing?
For decades, the location of the Plummer center kept individuals close to family as they neared their release from prison, especially those who were transitioning out of the Howard R. Young Correctional Institute in Wilmington.
But last September, the Department of Correction announced the Plummer Center would shut down in March.
The announcement was met with pushback from local politicians and residents who argued that work release inmates will lose a vital community space that helps them become part of society again by keeping them close to family, jobs, and support systems.
“They need the Plummer Community Center, not displacement,” Wilmington City Councilwoman Shané Darby said in November. “Funding concerns should never supersede rehabilitation, dignity, and public safety.”
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 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.
On Tuesday, Taylor noted an additional $8 million would have also been needed in capital improvements for the building.
In the wake of the hearing, it remains unclear what actions, if any, Siegfried will take to address his concerns about the fallout from Plummer’s closing. For now, at least, the program will continue operating from Smyrna.
