With his signature, Governor Matt Meyer signed three criminal justice reform bills into law earlier this month. The bills are designed to create a fairer justice system.
“For too long, our criminal justice system has criminalized poverty, treated privacy as optional and abandoned people at the exact moment they needed our support the most,” Meyer said. “These bills recognize that public safety and justice go hand-in-hand in a system that values fairness, dignity and second chances alongside accountability. That’s how you build a stronger, safer and more just Delaware.”
The first legislation signed, House Bill 133, sponsored by Representative Claire Snyder-Hall and Senator Darius Brown, gives Delaware courts the discretion to waive fines and fees, in whole or in part, when circumstances warrant. The legislation also creates a presumption against imposing certain fines and fees when a defendant demonstrates financial hardship, including receiving public assistance or being represented by the Office of Defense Services.
“House Bill 133 reflects our shared commitment to a fairer justice system, one that allows individuals to move forward without being weighed down by debt, especially our economically disadvantaged neighbors,” Brown said. “By protecting individuals on public assistance from unnecessary court fines and fees, we continue our work to right the wrongs of our justice system that has historically place unjust burdens on low-income and underserved residents.”
The legislation establishes a process for individuals already sentenced to pay fines or fees to seek relief and implements recommendations form the Criminal Legal System Imposed Debt Study Group. It is intended to ensure Delaware’s justice system does not punish individuals simply because they cannot afford to pay.
“Right now, even small offenses can leave someone with hundreds of dollars in court debt. For some people, that might not seem like much, but for others, it can be overwhelming. It can turn a one-time mistake into a life sentence of debt and poverty,” Snyder-Hall said. “HP 133 is very important because it addresses the unjust impacts that the current structure of the criminal justice system has on low-income people by making sure that these fees, the vast majority of which already go unpaid by defendants who are struggling financially, do not have an outsized impact n someone’s future.”
House Bill 145, sponsored by Representative Madinah Wilson-Anton and Senator Marie Pinkney, prohibits law enforcement and courts from requesting, issuing or enforcing reverse-keyword orders and requests, except in limited investigations involving suspected Class A felonies when a search returns five or fewer results.
A reverse keyword search warrant is an investigative tool where law enforcement compels a tech or search engine company—most frequently Google—to provide identifying information for every user who entered a specific keyword, phrase, or address during a set timeframe. Instead of starting with a suspect and searching for their data, police start with a digital query related to a crime (such as the address of a burglarized home) and ask the provider to reveal who searched for it.
“No Delawarean should be subjected to the invasive surveillance of reverse keyword warrants. These methods show no regard for individual’s consent and create s slippery slope that infringes on people’s privacy,” Pinkney said. “This bill is necessary to guarantee that Delawarean’s smartphones and any other day-to-day online use will not be used against them.”
The legislation is intended to ensure government searches remain grounded in individualized suspicion while protecting Delawarean’s constitutional privacy rights as digital technology increasingly records where people go, who they communicate with and what they search online.
“As the use of reverse keyword warrants continue to increase and people become more aware that everything they search online, from their casual curiosities to their most intimate queries, could be caught up in a digital dragnet search, online speech will be chilled,” Wilson-Anton said. “HB145 represents an important first step in protecting Delawareans’ and Americans’ private search data from government overreach. In our modern world where community conversations, relationship building, and access to important resources predominantly occur online, people may become hesitant to seek information and support that they need. With HS 1 for HB 145 now signed into law, we’ve taken an important step to start to alleviate these concerns for Delawareans and ensure that their constitutional right to privacy remains protected. More work remains to be done to protect Americans from mass surveillance and government overreach and I look forward to working with my colleagues to do that in the years to come.”
The third bill signed into law by the governor was Senate Bill 292, known as the Grace Peterson Act, sponsored by Stephanie Hansen and Representative Kendra Johnson. This bill requires landlords whose tenants receive state-funded reentry housing assistance to complete a discharge plan before terminating a lease, helping ensure individuals are connected to services before losing housing.
“Our criminal justice system is centered around rehabilitation, and that doesn’t end when they leave prison,” Johnson said. “Imagine coming back into society after several years of being put away from it, with no money, no housing and limited resources. It’s hard. And just as we have the power to put people away, we must make sure they are able to re-enter it. SB 292 helps to ensure a smooth transition from incarceration to re-entry housing, to their next stage in life, without the pain of being left to fend for themselves with no resources.”
The legislation was inspired by Grace Peterson of Seaford, who survived a violent attack after an individual with a history of violence was removed from transitional housing without a coordinated handoff to community supervision and support. The law was designed to prevent similar situations while improving coordination among re-entry providers.
“In 2023, Grace Peterson was brutally assaulted, kidnapped and left for dead by a man who was evicted from a Seaford halfway house without any real plan for his re-entry into society. Her story is why I took the lead on Senate Bill 292, which requires landlords to develop a discharge plan and provide a warm hand-off when an individual is evicted from re-entry housing,” Hansen said. “This bill will help ensure that no Delawarean has to endure what Mrs. Peterson did and puts in place proper procedures that help individualism their re-entry journey.”
Peterson and her family were in attendance when the bills were signed. Meyer recognized them and thanked them for truing what was a deeply personal tragedy into legislation that will help protect other Delawareans.
