Delaware
Community members vow to fight closure of prison jobs program in Wilmington
Community members vow to oppose Plummer Center closure
Correction officials say there is more opportunity for inmates to learn job skills at the Sussex Community Corrections Center in Georgetown than at Plummer.
“We have the auto body shops,” DOC Deputy Commissioner Shane Troxler told state lawmakers. “We have a power washing business. We teach them how to vehicle wrap. We’re teaching welding, aquaponics, construction, just the list goes on and on and on.”
DOC officials also say new laws and advancing technology allows prisoners to be released on ankle monitoring and to complete their sentence through house arrest.
Joint Finance Committee members state Sen. Darius Brown and state Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha, who both represent Wilmington, voiced their support for decommissioning the Plummer Center during the hearing.
But some Wilmington residents say it is a valuable resource that should be saved. Wilmington City Councilwoman Shané Darby held a community meeting earlier this week to try to build momentum among Wilmington residents to preserve the mission of the center.
“We live in Delaware,” Darby said. “Everybody knows each other. We’re like a half a degree of separation here. You probably know somebody who’s connected to [Gov.] Matt Meyer, who’s connected to a state representative. Or you could say, ‘Hey, I need you to tell Matt Meyer not to close this Plummer Center.’ And let’s have another conversation about keeping level IV in the city of Wilmington.”
Tim Santa Barbara, with Prison Outreach of Delaware, said he believes closing the Plummer Center will lead to more recidivism. He also went through the work-release program there.
“If you put guys from Wilmington down in Smyrna, and by some chance of God, they get a job, OK, great. I live on Fourth and Washington. How am I going to get to work at Smyrna? So what happened to the job? It’s gone. What do they do? They go right back to what they know. Imma sling. I’m gonna go sling and get mine, because they ain’t helping me.’”
Recidivism rates can vary based on how they’re calculated. According to the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, Delaware’s recidivism rate as of April 2024, is 52%, down from 68% from 2008 when Congress passed the Second Chance Act to improve release outcomes.
Possibilities being considered for redeveloping the site
Some residents are also trying to pressure the state and the city of Wilmington to save the Plummer Center land as a community resource instead of allowing private developers to purchase the property.
The state’s plans for the site, once shuttered, are currently unclear. Gov Meyer’s office did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Wilmington Mayor John Carney said his office is not currently involved in any discussions about the Plummer Center.
WHA Executive Director Ray Fritzgerald said the agency and its nonprofit affiliate, Delaware Affordable Housing Group, are interested in developing affordable housing on the site. However, he said the DOC has not yet decided on a direction.
Wilmington resident Tony Dunn is a graduate of the Plummer Center after leaving prison in the late 1990s. He said this is another step in the gentrification of the city.
“This is an attack on poor people in general,” he said. “We had a community over there at Riverside. They tore the whole Black community down. These big developers are coming in here, destroying our families, destroying our livelihoods, all because of money.”
DOC Commissioner Taylor said during her budget presentation that the decommissioned Plummer Center could be used for shelter housing, for offering medical care and behavioral health services, or even turned into a local market.
Thomas Jefferson University is opening a regional campus of its Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Delaware, an effort that will result in the state’s first medical school.
Jefferson beat out three other bidders to establish the four-year program in partnership with the state. The other bidders were the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, Spotlight Delaware reported.
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The inaugural class of 40 medical students will begin instruction in July 2028. Initially, the campus will be based at the University of Delaware in Newark, with Jefferson faculty providing instruction. A permanent home for the campus is still being finalized, the Inquirer reported.
The medical students will receive 18 months of preclinical training on campus before receiving clinical training from healthcare providers in Delaware’s southern counties, where the state’s physician shortage is most deeply felt. That shortage is compounded by an aging population, Delaware officials said.
“Jefferson is committed to being part of the solution to Delaware’s physician shortage,” Jefferson CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione said in a statement. “We are proud to help build a future where every Delawarean has access to the care they deserve. Jefferson is all in.”
The school’s creation is being supported by $157.4 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Delaware is one of three states without a Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program. Since the late 1960s, Jefferson and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine have reserved seats for Delaware students.
“Sidney Kimmel Medical College has trained generations of physicians for more than 200 years, more than any other medical college in the country,” Said Ibrahim, dean of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, said in a statement. “It is a privilege to bring our mission to Delaware’s patients and communities.”
Jefferson has announced several expansions recently. The university is establishing a full-time doctor of nursing practice-nurse anesthesia program and several online graduate programs at the Lehigh Valley Health Network Center for Healthcare Education in Lehigh County. It also is opening a satellite respiratory therapy lab at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown.
Delaware officials said medical students will start their classroom instruction at UD and then do their clinical training at offices and health care systems in Kent and Sussex counties, where the shortage of doctors is most acute.
However, ChristianaCare, which has its own partnership with Jefferson, is not participating. The state’s largest health care system was part of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s unsuccessful bid to operate the school. In a joint statement from ChristianaCare and PCOM, the two organizations expressed disappointment with not being part of the consortium of higher education institutions and healthcare organizations.
“The path forward raises genuine questions about whether the school’s goals can be fully realized without ChristianaCare’s meaningful participation in its clinical training mission,” it said. “The success of any four-year medical program depends not just on an academic institution, but on a true and committed partnership with its clinical partners — one built on shared mission, mutual investment and trust developed over time.”
Students in the first class can get their tuition subsidized, covering all of their education costs, in exchange for an agreement to work in rural Delaware for five years.
Running the medical school is expected to cost Jefferson $78 million over the next five years. The money is from a federal rural health grant through the Rural Health Transformation Program, which congressional Republicans created in the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
The program will give $50 billion to every state over five years, though exactly the total each will eventually receive is unclear. Half of the money is to be distributed equally to states and the other half is awarded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services based on a variety of factors.
The state applied for $1 billion late last year to improve health care in Kent and Sussex counties. The Trump administration has so far allocated Delaware $157 million. Delaware is expected to receive at least $500 million over the life of the fund.
Delaware Ohio Housing Growth
A look at the rapid expansion of housing developments in Delaware, Ohio.
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Every few weeks Delaware city approves a new housing development. The city has more than 4,000 housing units in its development pipeline, contributing to the rapid growth in one of the fastest-growing counties in Ohio.
A crash shut down U.S. 42 in Delaware County in both directions June 2.
As of 7 a.m., U.S. 42 was closed from U.S. 23 to Jegs Place near the Delaware Municipal Airport.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured in the crash or when the roadway would open.
This is a developing story and will be updated
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
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