This Senate Concurrent Resolution recognizes February 2018 as "Self-Care Month."
This Act makes a number of changes to Chapter 21, Title 11 of the Delaware Code, with the goal of modernizing the pretrial process, reducing reliance on monetary conditions, improving the efficiency and outcomes for the criminal justice system, and ensuring the safety of the community. An analysis of data for pretrial detention and bail shows that Delaware’s bail system is failing in two ways: we unnecessarily detain individuals who lack funds for their release, and on the other end of the spectrum, we release defendants who fail to appear or remain law abiding during their period of pretrial release. The Courts, the Department of Correction, the Office of Defense Services, the Attorney General’s Offices, members of law enforcement and the private defense bar, and the Delaware Center for Justice have worked collaboratively to propose the changes embodied in this bill, and will continue to work on further revisions. Specifically, this Act makes the following changes to the bail/pretrial process: - Use risk to determine conditions: Require courts to consider risk by using empirically-based tools to determine whether a defendant is likely to stay out of trouble and come to court, and use that information to make individualized “assignments” of conditions of release. - Defines purpose of release conditions: Limit conditions of release to things that will reasonably assure the defendant will show up in court, and protect victims, witnesses, and community members. - Create more opportunities for conditions to be added or removed: Make release conditions “living documents” that will automatically be reviewed if a defendant does not initially meet them, if a defendant does meet them and then violates those terms, or if the defendant or their custodian makes a motion to modify those conditions. - Empower pretrial officers: Gives Department of Corrections more tools to investigate and address violations of release conditions so the courts can address violations promptly and impose sanctions if necessary. This bill further requires the court to conduct a review of conditions of pretrial release for a defendant who remains detained after 72 hours from the defendant’s initial presentment because of inability to meet any condition of release (including a financial condition). Such a review must happen within ten days of detention.
In 2011, as part of a general overhaul of Delaware’s drug laws, this provision was inserted into Title 16 to allow juvenile adjudications to count as prior qualifying offenses for purposes of increasing the sentence of certain drug offenders. Pursuant to this provision, some defendants convicted of certain drug crimes who have one prior adult drug conviction and one prior juvenile adjudication within the past 10 years face a drastic increase in sentence as follows: A defendant convicted of “drug dealing – aggravated possession”, a class D felony, will be sentenced as if he had committed a class B felony. The sentence for a class D felony is up to 8 years imprisonment. For a class B felony the sentence can be up to 25 years, and 2 years is the minimum mandatory. A defendant convicted of aggravated possession – class E will be sentenced as if she had committed a class B felony. The penalty is elevated from a maximum of 5 years incarceration to, again, a maximum of 25 with a 2 year minimum mandatory. A defendant convicted of aggravated possession – class F will be sentenced as though he committed a class C felony. Class C felonies are punishable by up to 15 years, rather than the maximum of 3 years for a class F. There is no other part of the criminal code that uses a juvenile adjudication as a statutory sentence enhancement in an adult conviction. While repeat drug offenses are a legitimate concern for communities and the criminal justice system, the elevation of the punishment for a crime based on a juvenile adjudication, which was not tried before a jury, and which may be relatively remote in time is of questionable legal merit. Furthermore, in two of the above scenarios, the crime is elevated to one which requires a minimum mandatory sentence, thus reducing the discretion entrusted to judges. This bill removes that portion of Section 4751B that allows a juvenile adjudication to be used as a second “prior qualifying Title 16 conviction.” Prosecutors may still apply the sentencing enhancement for the single qualifying adult conviction that meets the criteria set out in that section, and may use the enhancement for two prior convictions where both convictions occurred when the defendant was an adult. Judges will continue to be able to consider the defendant’s juvenile record as a factor in determining the appropriate sentence. Finally, where a juvenile was tried and sentenced as an adult, that conviction may still be used for the sentencing enhancement.
This Act restores the Delaware Prescription Drug Payment Assistance Program which was eliminated in the Fiscal Year 2018 Annual Appropriations Act.
This bill seeks to expand the eligibility criteria for the Juvenile Offender Civil Citation Program by including the offense of possession of drug paraphernalia and permitting a second referral to the Juvenile Offender Civil Citation Program where the first referral occurred more than 18 months ago and was not a referral for the same offense.
This Act codifies a juvenile's right to counsel in Family Court delinquency proceedings. The bill outlines certain circumstances where a juvenile may not waive the right to counsel: where the juvenile is accused of a felony, where the juvenile is in the custody of the Division of Family Services, where the juvenile is under the age of 16, or where the victim of the alleged delinquent act is a family member or guardian or where the family member or guardian has an interest adverse to the juvenile. The bill also codifies a right to counsel in criminal contempt proceedings related to truancy in the Justice of the Peace Court. The procedures for appointment and waiver are the same as set forth for Family Court.
Individuals who receive health care via Medicaid deserve the same dedication to treatment of substance abuse disorders as individuals who receive health care via private insurance. This Act extends the same access to treatment of a substance use disorder within the Medicaid framework that Senate Bill 41 of the 149th General Assembly afforded to individuals covered by private health insurance, except that a 72 hour supply instead of 5 day supply of emergency medication is required. This Act also clarifies that Medicaid health plans must use the full set of American Society of Addiction Medicine criteria when determining whether “medical necessity” exists for the placement, continued stay, and transfer/discharge of patients with a substance use disorder in treatment programs. Additionally, this Act aligns protections relating to services, specifically 5 days of treatment in detox centers and 30 days of treatment in Intensive Outpatient Programs, with the residential treatment option that is protected pursuant to Senate Bill 41 of the 149th General Assembly.
This bill creates a requirement that all public high schools, including charter schools, shall offer at least one computer science course at the high school level by the 2020-2021 school year. Also, this bill creates a requirement that, by the 2018-2019 school year, a computer science course may satisfy one year of the total credit requirement in mathematics, excluding Algebra I, Geometry, or Algebra II or the equivalent courses. The State Board of Education shall develop guidelines addressing how computer science courses can satisfy graduation requirements.
This Act requires health insurance policies to cover any medically appropriate drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of stage 4 metastatic cancer without requiring a patient to first prove that the patient failed to respond to a different drug or drugs. This Act is based on a similar bill in Georgia that was inspired by President Jimmy Carter’s recent battle with cancer.
This bill will add 4 new check-off donation boxes on the Delaware personal income tax return whereby individuals may choose to donate a portion of their tax refund, or designate an amount in addition to the tax they owe that will be transferred by the Division of Revenue to one of the following organizations: Food Bank of Delaware, Sussex County Habitat for Humanity, Central Delaware Habitat for Humanity, or Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County.
