‘Setting them up for failure’: Wilmington community members vow to fight closure of long-standing prison jobs program

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Wilmington resident Matthew Levitski has been in and out of prison for the past 20 years. The 42-year-old has a job and renewed hope for the future, he said, thanks to the work-release program at the Plummer Community Corrections Center.

But the state is planning to close the facility next month, despite concerns by those currently imprisoned, their families and community members that the move will hamper reentry efforts for Wilmington residents and lead to more men being reincarcerated.

“It’s not fair at all,” Levitski said. “The people getting out, they’re setting them up for failure.”

According to the Delaware Department of Correction, work release provides people sentenced to level IV confinement with an opportunity to work, participate in skills training and attend treatment programs. They are allowed to leave the facility for work, medical care and counseling appointments, returning back to their unit daily. People classified as level IV means they are housed in work-release centers, residential drug treatment programs, violation of probation centers or in home monitoring.

Plummer residents moved downstate

Levitski has been working at a local grocery store since around Thanksgiving. He was released back into the community in January. But for other men who were part of the center’s work-release program, they’re being moved downstate. There are work-release sites at Community Corrections Treatment Center near Smyrna and Sussex Community Corrections Center near Georgetown.

The Plummer Community Corrections Center is a 2-acre property located on Wilmington’s eastside and is DOC’s oldest facility, with two of its seven buildings constructed in 1900 and 1921. It housed approximately 100 people as of September 2025.

DOC Commissioner Terra Taylor told the General Assembly’s budget writing committee that the current population at the Plummer Center was down to 17. She said 11 of those will likely transfer to the work-release program in Smyrna, 30 miles away from the Plummer Center.

A DOC spokesperson said New Castle County work-release participants will only be housed in Smyrna.

DOC has estimated the closure of Plummer will save more than $1.1 million. But it is unclear how much it will cost DOC to transport work-release prisoners to their jobs, especially back and forth to Wilmington. The DOC spokesperson said the department believes that operating “a shuttle service using a small number of existing staff and fleet vehicles is far less than the staffing, operational, and maintenance costs for an entire correctional facility.”

Family members said they are concerned it will fall to them to drive hours across the state so work-release participants can get to their jobs.

Levitski said a co-worker of his, who is also in the Plummer Center work-release program, is scheduled to be shipped downstate and will have to find his own transportation to his job in Wilmington. DOC spokesman Jason Miller said its shuttles “may transport individuals to public transportation hubs.” He also pointed out that previous Plummer Center work-release recipients had to find their own transportation to work.

According to data from the DOC, only about 18% of the 130 people eligible for work release have jobs. In Sussex County, 16 are employed. Most of the people at the detention center near Smyrna are in the early stages of finding work, including job searching, interviewing. They said a total of 23 people in the program statewide are working.

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.