Experts swap ideas for prison reform

Forums organizers hope discussion will lead to a better justice system

Three criminal justice experts from around the county joined Delaware leaders in a Friday forum that explored ideas for improving the prison system.

The event was the first in what planners hope will be a series of discussions presented by the Delaware Center for Justice and the group, Stand Up for What’s Right and Just.

The nonprofit center is dedicated to creating a safer Delaware through a high quality of justice. Stand Up for What’s Right and Just is a 1,000-member statewide effort to reform the state’s criminal justice system and attack the causes of crime.

Topics discussed during the four-hour program included the need for prison drug and alcohol abuse treatment and alternative probation ideas that put offenders to work improving their communities.

The event, which was free to the public, was intended to get people talking. About 165 people attended.

Thomas P. Eichler, executive coordinator of the reform group, said Delaware cannot initiate reforms without an idea for how to improve.

“Having a vision doesn’t do anything if you don’t intend to put it into action,” he said.

Speaker Peter Greenwood, past president of the California Association of Criminal Justice Research, called the group’s reform goals “much harder than rocket science.”

”It’s politics and values and justice,” he said.

The audience also heard from a Washington, D.C. consultant who specializes in victim issues and an Oregon official whose county program for rehabilitating youth offenders received a national award.

Littleton Mitchell, former head of the Delaware conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said that Friday’s event was worthwhile but that the momentum for change is futile without legislative support. He said he would like to see similar conferences in Kent and Sussex counties, in hopes legislators statewide would start hearing from constituents.

“All of this is political,” he said.