Vote to Protect and Expand

Justice Reform in 2026

Ending the era of mass incarceration means dismantling the “tough-on-crime” approach and racial bias that has come to define justice reform. Too many Delaware residents have been adversely affected by the criminal legal system, which disproportionately impacts people of color. From instances of police violence to the barriers to jobs, education, and housing due to excessive probation conditions and draconian responses to minor rule violations—the devastating consequences of our harsh, ineffective, and costly criminal legal system have fallen overwhelmingly on low-income people and Black and brown communities.

Justice reform in Delaware means reducing the size of our prison population so that more resources can be devoted to high-quality programs that support communities and reduce the footprint of mass incarceration. The majority of Delawareans agree that only people on probation who have been arrested for a new crime should be sent back to prison.

Delaware needs elected officials who are dedicated to ending mass incarceration and challenging racial disparities in our justice system. This election season, let’s support candidates who are willing to fix our broken probation system, combat racial inequities, push for accountability and transparency to policing, and enact regulations on surveillance.

Our Justice Platform

Learn more about what justice reform issues to consider when casting your ballot.

Probation Reform

For individuals returning home after incarceration, the barriers to successful reentry are substantial. People in the re-entry process struggle to find housing, transportation, medical care, and employment at a livable wage. On top of this, many face mental health and substance use challenges. The probation system and its one-size fits-all approach to standard probation supervision requirements, meetings, costs for treatment, curfews, and surveillance creates unnecessary and insurmountable hurdles for too many. The probation system is not making
Delaware safer. Instead, it is costing the state millions of dollars that could be spent on victim services and community-based treatment and rehabilitation programs.

According to The Council of State Governments Justice Center (2024), Delaware had the worst rate of reincarceration in the country in 2010, with 68% of people released from Delaware prisons being reincarcerated within 3 years. While the state has made strides, reducing the rate of reincarceration to 50%, Delaware far exceeds the national average (28%) and is tied for the third worst reincarceration rate in the nation.

Delaware’s approach to violations of probation is one of the primary drivers of incarceration in our state, according to the Delaware Justice Reinvestment Task Force Consensus Report (2012). We must elect lawmakers who are ready to break this cycle of reincarceration and implement significant reforms Delaware’s probation system. Real probation reform begins with elected officials who are prepared to champion the following reforms:

  • Shutting down Operation Safe Streets and The Governor’s Task Force;
  • Restricting the use of incarceration for technical violations;
  • Measuring the probation department’s success by its ability to keep people on probation from incarceration;
  • Collecting and publishing comprehensive data about community supervision, including racial demographic and technical violations data;
  • Investing in community-based reentry programs to provide formerly incarcerated people the help they need; and
  • Reducing the length of time people are surveilled by the probation system.
Body-Worn Cameras and Police Accountability Boards

State law must be changed to explicitly require that body-worn camera footage be available to the public. When legislators required police departments to wear body-worn cameras, we pointed out the absurdity that most requests for the footage by the public are routinely denied. In today’s society where cell phone camera footage is routinely available, it undermines the public’s trust in officials when body-worn camera footage is kept secret or released only when they have decided they will do so.

Law enforcement is still allowed to police themselves, leaving residents unable to access disciplinary records, or have meaningful oversight. The meager police review boards that were created in recent years have little power, resources, or independence. Accountability boards should have independence, tools to enforce their decisions, and be steered by community advocates who have credibility with those most likely to experience police discrimination and violence.

Accountability should not look drastically different when the shooter is a police officer. Delaware must confront these challenges head on and truly fulfill the commitments made by many of our state legislators in 2020 to reform how policing transparency and accountability function in our state.

Data Privacy and Surveillance

Delaware made history in 2026 by passing House Bill 145 and becoming the first state to sharply restrict the use of reverse keyword search warrants, an unconstitutional tool used by law enforcement to conduct dragnet-style fishing expeditions on Americans. Delaware has the opportunity to continue to be a leader by ensuring peoples’ privacy is protected from other incursions. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their location data and reverse geolocation warrants are subject to the Fourth Amendment. Rather than wait for the fine details of our privacy rights to be resolved in the courts, Delaware’s legislature should pass legislation to clarify and protect Delawareans from highly intrusive government surveillance of their location data. In addition, lawmakers can join Montana and pass a “Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale” bill to protect Delawareans’ private information from being purchased by law enforcement through private data brokers to avoid constitutional warrant requirements. In an age where peoples’ entire lives are often chronicled through data, it is more critical than ever that our lawmakers put reasonable restrictions on how law enforcement can obtain this information and ensure they abide by the fundamental protections in our Constitution.