Del. ACLU to push for probation reform in 2024 Legislative Session

DELAWARE- The Delaware ACLU is taking up its latest push for probation reform in the First State for the 2024 legislative session.

The group says the current system is too punitive, and is too frequently violating people for missing meetings with probation officers or failing a drug test, sending people who might otherwise succeed back to prison.

“We have a lot of people who are currently incarcerated right now for violation of probation for petty violations,” said Delaware ACLU Smart Justice Advocate Keandra McDole.

McDole tells 47 ABC WMDT she has had personal experience with how inflexible the system can be, and the anxiety it creates for those who must abide by it.

“I was pregnant and I had to make a decision whether to go get checked up at the hospital, because I was told I was in labor. I was having a lot of contractions and I had to make the decision to not go to the hospital, and going to see my probation officer, because I didn’t want to violate,” she said adding “That was a life or death situation for me and my child. So, I shouldn’t have had to sit there and play Russian roulette to figure out which way do I go.”

The ACLU of Delaware Campaign Manager John Reynolds tells 47 ABC WMDT the latest reform law they will be pushing will seek to drop the general probation timeline from a maximum of 3 years down to one; preserving the exemptions already in place, as well as limiting re-incarceration for those who commit new crimes.

Reynolds tells 47 ABC WMDT that the law is looking to enshrine best practices already in use by the Department of Corrections into state law. Additionally, as well as create a more personalized probation system that meets people where they are.

“Those conditions are relevant to those and that individual’s needs to ensure that they return safely and effectively to their communities because everyone on probation is coming home,” Reynolds said adding those changes would include a return of phone or online probation meetings, in lue of requiring folks from Kent or Sussex County to travel to Wilmington for in-person meetings.

“We are asking people to do superhuman actions, especially folks who are low income, who may not have a car to make it upstate regularly,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds says the reform bill aims to make the system easier on employers looking to hire those on probation, easing documentation and monitoring guidelines on employers, in turn making it easier for those in the system to maintain work.

“Rather than making probation a massive hurdle to finding and maintaining employment, instead we try and demonstrate that people on probation again are there, they are their home for a reason. It’s been determined that they should be home, they should be working, they should be supporting themselves and their families,’ Reynolds said.

The ACLU says that while the measure failed in the previous session, a smoother path should be awaiting the measure in the 2024 session.

Documentation and tracking requirements that helped contribute to a significant portion of the reform measure’s financial note were removed during the final days of the session, removing what was the major complaint launched by lawmakers in opposition to the measure.

Reynolds says that while the measure will cost, with current estimates not yet out on the new financial note, keeping people in their homes and in their jobs will prove cheaper than sending them back to prison at the taxpayer’s expense.

“The cost of implementing this bill has been severely reduced since it was considered fully by the Senate last June, we expect with that challenge addressed, while this will not be free, it’s going to be far less, and create a system that will result in longer-term savings for Delaware by minimizing to only where necessary, the use of incarceration and supervision for individuals as they are on probation or trial out there,” Reynolds said.

The legislative session in Delaware is set to begin on Tuesday, January 9th.