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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.