The Community Corrections Treatment Center or CCTC, a Level IV facility in Smyrna, recently saw an increase in the number of work release program residents, jumping from 30 to 57 participants between February and May.
Level IV covers quasi-incarceration, meaning residents can leave the facility with pre-approved passes to visit family, work and look for jobs.
Some of them were originally assigned to go through a work release program at the Plummer Community Corrections Center, which closed in March.
Of the CCTC’s 57 residents approved for work release, 25 have jobs.
But residents and advocates said there are a litany of problems at the CCTC that got in the way of having a productive work-release program.
Two of those residents who were still at CCTC spoke to Delaware Public Media on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation from the state’s Department of Correction. For this reason, their names have been left out and voices have also been altered to protect their identities.
Participant A had been in the CCTC’s work-release program since January. They would be released in just a few weeks at the time of the interview with Delaware Public Media and still didn’t have a job.
Lee asked, "So it's three, it's four months in, essentially, and...” A responded, "and nothing."
A said the only thing he’d learned from this program was, "Well, first of all, not to come back, and for the most part, is that try to help everybody else navigate it, get over the hurdles that I failed at or they failed me at.”
Participant B was two months into his four-month-long stay in the program after being incarcerated at a Level V facility for more than ten years. Level V means total incarceration in prison without opportunities to leave the grounds.
He said he found a job opportunity that paid at least $27 an hour, but the Delaware Department of Correction wasn’t working with him to make that happen.
“They’re not gonna take me to work. They need me to be in a stable location. At first they were saying, I couldn't do it at all. Now they say, Ah, well, if you find your own ride, and you find this and all that. So I'm supposed to get somebody to come all the way from Wilmington, drive all the way down here to take me to work, drop me off, pick me back up.”
For context, the drive from Wilmington to Smyrna can range from around 45 mins to an hour via the highway, sometimes even longer. The DOC reported work release residents had access to vans and buses that would take them north for visits with family or work.
Since the CCTC is a combined treatment center and work release facility, there are some policies applied without exception to people in treatment for substance use and work-release participants.
Rachelle Wilson is a journalist and justice advocate based in Wilmington. Her son is currently in the CCTC’s work release program.
She said if there is a guest speaker coming in to talk to people on the treatment center side of the complex, residents aren’t allowed to leave, whether they’re in treatment or work release.
“What does that you talking about fentanyl over on the treatment center have to do with these people going out and getting a job. The key word is work release. So release them to go to work or look for work. There are no computers, so they can't sit there and apply for jobs. What's wrong with you?”
And on top of that hurdle, Participant B reported the transportation offered by the DOC was not reliable or flexible.
“They had people on schedule to be there at nine o'clock. They weren't taking people to be there until 9:50… Long story short, they’re definitely interfering. People [are] not getting to work on time,” he said.
In a written response, the DOC said the hours spent off-property by work-release residents were dependent on their work release activities.
Wilson added the challenges didn’t stop there.
She reported the CCTC’s work release residents were also required to pay rent despite already being responsible for court-ordered fines, fees and probation costs. That’s a weekly payment of $15 for anyone working part-time and $25 for full-time workers.
It used to be better, Wilson said, when Wilmington had its own work-release program at Plummer, which was located on Todd Lane, near Pine Street Park and the North Wilmington Library.
In September 2025, Delaware’s DOC announced Plummer would close in March 2026. DOC officials like Commissioner Terra Taylor said demand for lower-level facilities had declined over the last few years.
“It boils down to the data. I mean, it was not an easy decision, but with the data that we have available to us, it was a reasonable decision and a responsible decision, and it is a decision that was part of a larger effort to modernize our community corrections system as a whole.”
DOC reported a 70% reduction in the Level IV population between 2007 and today. Taylor saw that as a direct result of the DOC’s work and collaborations with community partners, legislators and governors.
But Taylor also said Plummer’s maintenance costs were looking steep, with a minimum value of $12 million needed for those projects, “And that's just the known maintenance projects. It's not those things that kind of happen that you're not planning for and they do happen as well.”
Community advocates said Plummer’s central location allowed Wilmingtonians – who made up most of CCTC’s work release residents – to stay close to home and their families.
That alone was worth keeping the program in town, advocates said, even if it had to move to another facility in Wilmington.
While Delaware has seen a decline in Level IV and Level V incarceration, racial disparities persist. About 5,400 people are incarcerated in Delaware alone. And while Black people made up 22% of the state’s population, the Prison Policy Initiative reported they represented 61% of the incarcerated population.
That was on par with national stats, which also showed disproportionate representation of Black people in the carceral system: 38.5% of incarcerated Americans were Black, despite representing only 13.7% of the total population.
When asked how DOC supports Black and brown incarcerated individuals – who are disproportionately represented in prisons – Commissioner Taylor said, "All of our residents are one of our highest priorities. I mean, making sure that they are best equipped for success is our highest priority.”
Wilson said she finds colorblind approaches to the justice system common and infuriating, and believes they are fueled by monetary gain, "If you stop arresting people and stop putting them in jail, you slow down the money… It's a setup for failure for the Black and brown men who come through, and it's a revolving door.”
She said removing a work release program from Wilmington hurt the community, which largely affected Black and brown men.
Wilmington City Councilmember Shané Darby called for a reversal of the decision as soon as it was publicized, citing concerns for Black incarcerated people.
“You have to think about budgets. You have to think about numbers, right? But that's not thinking about the impact on people, and I think there has to be a balance between that. So I don't believe that was the only option. I think that probably was the easiest option,” Darby said.
DOC originally planned to send incarcerated individuals initially bound for Plummer to a work-release program in Georgetown.
Darby said that plan was unacceptable because residents would be a two-hour drive away from their support systems in Wilmington, "I just do not believe there's any research that supports that bringing someone further away from their family and home helps them with rehabilitation, because work release alone isn't just going to work. It has to be work release with family support.”
Darby said she sees the CCTC in Smyrna as a compromise, but not one she’s excited about.
Long-time Wilmingtonian Tony Dunn said he’s not at ease with the change, “Smyrna is only a hop, skip and a jump from Georgetown. We all know that here in Wilmington, we all know that Smyrna, they don't play by the same rules. They're they're more of conservative people for their people.”
Dunn was incarcerated in the late 80s and early 90s, including some time at Plummer. He says Plummer allowed him to gradually adjust to life in society again and be productive.
Now, he spends some of his time working with incarcerated people through community organizations.
Dunn credited his success in part to being in his home city while going through the corrections system.
Wilson concurred and called Plummer a “well-oiled machine.”
“And to this very day, many men who have come through the Wilmington Plummer Center will tell you that they're in a better place now because of that than had they not had the support and the resources available,” she said.
A 2025 study from the University of Chicago found the probability of prison readmission within one year of release rose by 9% with a 100-mile increase in placement distance.
The study stated distance was largely tied to recidivism because of its effects on in-person visitation. While the CCTC is about 38 miles from Wilmington or a 45 minute drive, many Wilmingtonians don’t have cars.
But DOC Commissioner Taylor said in-person visitation at Plummer was “almost nonexistent.”
She said, "So family members coming to facilities now for in person visitations, although they still continue to occur, it has dwindled down because we now have a one to one tablet ratio. So even every resident in our level four facility, they have their very own tablet, and they do video visits right on their tablet.”
It’s not clear whether declining in-person visitation is tied to distance in Delaware. But research at the national level finds increased distance leads to fewer in-person visits, which then increases the likelihood of recidivism.
Dunn said pulling Wilmingtonians out of the city harms incarcerated people in the long run, “It's just impossible for the state to say that taking people out of their environment, putting them in another environment, far away from their home, that it's going to be productive for them. It's not going to be productive. It's going to be misproductive because they're not going to be able to do the things that they need to do to be functionable in Wilmington society.”
And that lined up with what Participant B said about CCTC’s work release program, “They don't really want it to be a work release, so they don't really care. They only doing whatever it takes to keep the heat off of them. But the honest and God truth is they're doing more to hurt people than helping right now.”
Participant B said his saving grace right now is Project New Start, a behavioral change and workforce development initiative that a few CCTC residents go off-property to participate in.
Participants A and B also suggested CCTC staff can also be part of the problem.
Lee asked, "Do you think, in your opinion, going off of that, that the COs there have your best interests in mind?"
A and B said, "nope, nope, nope, nope.”
Wilson said there was a sense of camaraderie at the Plummer Center that’s not present at the CCTC, “The people there, the residents respected the counselors and the correctional officers, but they weren't even considered as correctional officers. They were more like just counselors, if we can use that language, and so there was mutual respect between the faculty and the residents.”
When the Delaware State Senate’s Corrections and Public Safety Committee met in April, the DOC stood by their decision to close Plummer.
Committee members also heard from UD scientist and criminal justice professor Dan O’Connell, who presented current research on work release programs. He said work alone had little impact on reducing recidivism, "They're fairly conclusive that just having a job is not enough… We like to say that jobs that change a person's identity are important. So, ‘I used to be a drug dealer, now I'm a carpenter,’ right? So a long term, non-transitory job that I'm dedicated to tends to have an impact.”
A 2016 study called “Not Just Any Job Will Do” found similar results: “a good job will make it easier to satisfy needs and desires through legitimate means and the risk of losing such a job could stimulate offenders to desist.”
It also found that formerly incarcerated people were less likely to recidivate when they worked in higher positions like manager and real estate agent.
Commissioner Taylor said this advancement in work-release programs was already on her mind, “I really want to stay on on path with looking at ways to expand our workforce development, to bring trades into our facilities, to connect with establishments in our community that do offer trade skills, to look at avenues to provide higher paid employment opportunities for those folks living within our facilities and transferring back into the communities.”
Community advocate Wilson said she commended Taylor for her willingness to listen and consider making changes.
Wilmington Councilmember Darby agreed there needed to be changes to match incarcerated people with good-paying jobs.
Advocates throughout Wilmington including Wilson agreed with Commissioner Taylor’s goals for work release in Delaware, but they parted ways when it came to opening a program based in Wilmington.
“But I want everyone to understand that she's one woman with a host of old white men around the table. They're all old white men who are used to doing things systemically. We need them to back up and let her get this done," Wilson said
Dunn said that was a non-negotiable for him, “I don't care if it's smaller or not, we need a level four facility. It helped me. It helped a lot of us. And with it going, it just took away a resource, a very valuable resource.”
As of May 2026, Delaware’s DOC has no plans to open a work release program in northern New Castle County despite the calls from incarcerated people and Wilmington-based advocates.
