In a hearing on the Delaware Department of Correction’s annual budget request Feb. 24, Commissioner Carl C. Danberg defended a proposal to eliminate the state’s Board of Parole, arguing that the panel has outlived its usefulness and is no longer a wise use of state money.
Danberg told members of the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee that he supports a plan put forward by Gov. Jack Markell that would transfer the board’s duties to the DOC.
The move could save the state more than $500,000 per year, if the DOC could absorb the board’s six full-time positions and eliminate vacant positions elsewhere in the department to balance them out.
He said the state’s 1989 truth-in-sentencing law has made the board all but obsolete, as evidenced by a workload that has diminished dramatically over the last decade. In 2007, Danberg said, the board held only 46 hearings and paroled just seven inmates.
The board only has authority over inmates sentenced before June 30, 1990.
Those sentenced after that must have their terms evaluated by the court that heard their cases. In many instances, courts have little leeway in granting parole since the law requires prisoners to serve a certain percentage of their sentences.
Danberg said the board now has authority over approximately 300 prisoners, while DOC oversees the parole of approximately 21,000 inmates each year.
“We need to pick a point in time and say, ‘Enough is enough,’” Danberg said. “We’ve reached the point of diminishing return.”
However, Sen. Bruce C. Ennis, D-Smyrna, said the board is a vital independent arbiter that needs to stay in place.
“There is a need for the Board of Parole,” Ennis said. “The fact that it’s independent is important.”
The board’s five members are appointed by the governor to staggered four-year terms. The longest-serving member of the board, William C. Pfeifer, first was appointed in 1970.
Danberg argued that the General Assembly essentially agreed to the eventual dissolution of the board when it passed the truth-in-sentencing law.
“Is there really a need for independence to deal with 46 out of 21,000 people?” he asked. “The decision has already been made by the General Assembly.”
Joint Finance Committee chairwoman Sen. Nancy Cook, D-Kenton, reminded Danberg that it would be unconstitutional to eliminate the board while its duly appointed members are in the midst of their terms.
Danberg said the non-appointed board staff could easily be moved around, and there are ways to keep the board members on until the expiration of their terms.
Committee vice chairman Rep. Dennis P. Williams, D-Wilmington North, said he thinks the issue could be resolved.
“We have enough attorneys to give us an opinion on how to do this constitutionally,” he said.
