Criminal Justice & Reentry

Public Safety, Accountability, and Second Chances

A Delaware policy platform focused on safer communities, fair sentencing, addiction treatment, successful reentry, lower repeat offenses, and trust in the justice system.

Delaware deserves a criminal justice system that keeps communities safe, treats people fairly, holds offenders accountable, supports victims, and helps those who have paid their debt to society successfully return home.

Public safety and justice reform should not be viewed as opposing goals. A smarter justice system can do both: protect law-abiding families while reducing repeat offenses, addressing addiction and mental health challenges, and making sure taxpayer dollars are used effectively.

For too long, Delaware's criminal justice system has struggled with the same cycle: crime, incarceration, release, relapse, and reoffense. That cycle hurts victims, families, neighborhoods, law enforcement, taxpayers, and the individuals trying to rebuild their lives.

We need a system that is firm where it must be, fair where it should be, and focused on outcomes that actually make Delaware safer. A smarter justice system can protect the public, support victims, treat addiction, and reduce repeat offenses.

Our Priorities:

Protect Public Safety

The first responsibility of the justice system is to protect the public. Violent crime, repeat offenses, organized theft, domestic violence, drug trafficking, and crimes against children and seniors must be taken seriously. Delaware should ensure that law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, correctional officers, probation officers, and victim services have the resources they need to do their jobs effectively. Public safety policy should be guided by results, not political slogans. We support policies that strengthen community safety, improve coordination between agencies, and focus enforcement resources on those who pose the greatest risk to the public.

Fair and Proportionate Sentencing

Justice requires accountability, but accountability must be fair, consistent, and proportionate. Delaware should make sure sentencing laws distinguish between violent offenders, repeat dangerous offenders, individuals struggling with addiction, and people who made nonviolent mistakes but are capable of rehabilitation. Excessively harsh or inconsistent sentencing can weaken trust in the justice system and make it harder for people to successfully return to society. At the same time, weak accountability for serious or repeated offenses undermines public safety. Delaware should review sentencing practices to ensure punishments fit the crime, victims are respected, and judges have appropriate discretion to consider the facts of each case.

Addiction and Mental Health Treatment

Addiction and untreated mental illness are major drivers of crime, homelessness, family instability, and repeat offenses. Delaware cannot incarcerate its way out of addiction. When addiction or mental health challenges are at the root of criminal behavior, the justice system should connect people to meaningful treatment, recovery support, and supervision. This does not mean ignoring crimes or excusing harmful behavior. It means addressing the cause so the same person does not keep cycling through police stations, courts, prisons, emergency rooms, and shelters. Delaware should expand access to drug courts, mental health courts, diversion programs, crisis response options, and treatment-based alternatives for appropriate nonviolent offenders.

Reentry Support That Reduces Repeat Offenses

Most people who go to prison eventually come home. If Delaware wants safer communities, we must care about what happens after release. Successful reentry requires more than a bus ticket and a warning not to reoffend. People leaving incarceration need identification documents, stable housing, job training, employment opportunities, treatment access, transportation, family support, and clear expectations. Delaware should strengthen reentry programs that help people become productive, law-abiding members of society. That includes partnerships with employers, trade programs, community organizations, recovery programs, faith-based groups, and local governments. A strong reentry system is not soft on crime. It is smart on public safety.

Reduce Repeat Offenses

Reducing recidivism should be one of the central measurements of Delaware's justice system. If people keep reoffending after release, the system is failing victims, taxpayers, law enforcement, and communities. Delaware should track outcomes more clearly, identify which programs actually reduce repeat offenses, and invest in the approaches that work. Programs that do not produce results should be reformed or replaced. Public safety improves when fewer people commit new crimes after returning home.

Accountability in the Justice System

Accountability must apply across the system. Offenders should be held accountable for their actions. Government agencies should be held accountable for their performance. Public officials should be held accountable for how taxpayer money is spent. And the justice system itself must be transparent, fair, and worthy of public trust. Delaware should improve data collection, increase transparency around outcomes, and make sure decisions in policing, prosecution, sentencing, corrections, parole, and probation are guided by fairness, public safety, and evidence. Victims must also be kept at the center of the process. Their voices, safety, restitution, and dignity should never be treated as an afterthought.

A Better Path for Delaware

Criminal justice policy should not be driven by the extremes. Delaware does not need empty "tough on crime" rhetoric that ignores addiction, reentry, and prevention. Delaware also does not need policies that minimize accountability or leave communities feeling unsafe. We need a balanced approach: protect the public, punish serious crime, treat addiction, support victims, help people successfully reenter society, and reduce the chances that new crimes happen in the first place.

The goal is simple: safer communities, fewer victims, lower repeat offenses, and a justice system Delawareans can trust.