The final forum yesterday for the Access to Justice Commission Committee heard calls for smarter reforms of the criminal justice system.
Much of the testimony surrounded issues ranging from ending bail and reducing mandatory sentencing to ending the three strikes law and the death penalty.
The Wilmington News Journal reports Carri Seward with the Delaware Coalition to Dismantle the New Jim Crow told the panel that the harm that has been done to the African American community needs to be repaired.
The panel was created by Delaware Supreme Court Justice Leo Strine Jr. to find ways to end the racial disparity in the state’s criminal justice system.
While African Americans only make up 22 percent of the state’s population they are over 50 percent of the prison population.
This was the last of six hearings where the public and experts were able to weigh in.
