The organization Stand Up for What's Right and Just has focused much of its energy on improving Delaware's criminal justice system. It needs improvement. Reducing the number of people jailed under poorly thought out minimum mandatory sentencing laws is obvious. Other aspects such as improving the pay and working conditions for corrections officers are not.

One in $13 in the Delaware budget goes for corrections. And that doesn't count money spent on the judicial system, the Department of Justice or police operations. The state just completed a $180 million prison expansion that increased capacity to 6,587 beds yet it is already overcrowded. Recidivism remains a problem statewide.

Responding to a SURJ suggestion, House Speaker Terry Spence and other House and Senate members from both parties have sponsored House Bill 358, to create a special commission to study Delaware's justice system and make recommendations for changes.

A commission would examine the whole process, from how and when charges are brought against an individual to the services for ex-offenders.

Often legislatures create new offenses and mandate sentences in response to social problems like drug abuse. But instead of dealing with the different levels of abuse, the Legislature adopted a one-size-fits-all approach that crowded prisons and helped turn first offenders into hardened criminals. This is counterproductive.

Sometimes adjustment in one area cause unforeseen problems in another. For example, additional funds for police increased the number of arrests, defendants in court and then convicts in prisons. Helping police without also increasing funds for prosecutors, public defenders, judges and the correction system resulted in major problems.

H.B. 358 would give a commission access to all elements of the justice system. Its 17 members would have authority to call witnesses. One report would be due next year, another the year after.