Delaware ACLU Highlights push for probation reform in Delaware State Senate

DOVER, Del.- The ACLU of Delaware is pushing for a new bill in the legislature that would reform the state’s probation system for those recently released from prison. 

Senate Bill four aims to reform a system that the ACLU tells us has set people up to fail, with a recidivism rate, and length of probation that far exceeds neighboring states.
The ACLU of Delaware says the state’s recidivism rate and cost to taxpayers are far higher than its population should be based on a per-capita basis.

They say this bill shares many of the pieces of last session’s senate bill 345 and contains the three pillars of the ACLU’s Smart justice campaign.

“We are still looking to limit probation terms to a max of 12-month limits, only have incarceration occur when someone has committed a new crime, and allow for customizable conditions those are three elements the same as SB345 last year,” said Delaware ACLU Smart Justice Campaign Manager John Reynolds.

He says the changes would take a system that can have people return to prison for reasons such as missing probation officer meetings, and failure to file-paper work and make those minor violations not turn into an automatic return to the penal system.

He tells us the language of the bill has been modified from the version introduced last year, which he believes will help the bill succeed where previous efforts have failed.