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Advocates press JFC to fund restorative justice, indigent civil legal services and to move fee revenue to General Fund
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Summary
Nonjudicial agency leaders and community advocates urged the Joint Finance Committee to fund restorative justice (VOMP) programs, increase indigent civil legal services, and eliminate or replace court security fees with General Fund support; OPG and OCA also sought staff and contractual adjustments.
Nonjudicial agencies that operate under the judiciary umbrella made direct appeals to the Joint Finance Committee and received public comment from community groups pressing for sustained funding.
Alexandra McFassel, public guardian, requested a $9,000 conversion to a web‑based financial case management system, one additional guardian case manager FTE for Newcastle County and conversion of a casual seasonal monitoring position to a permanent FTE to expand routine monitoring capacity. Tanya Cawley, Delaware’s Child Advocate, requested statutory support and a dedicated position for juvenile trafficking tracking (anticipated reintroduction of HB170), relocation of grant‑funded contractual dollars into the state contractual line to avoid cash‑flow delays, and alignment of OCA attorney pay with other state lawyers to retain experienced staff.
Presenters from restorative justice providers (Delaware Center for Justice, People’s Place) described wait lists and program growth for the Victim‑Offender Mediation Program (VOMP) and asked the committee to restore and expand funding; speakers cited metrics (threefold and fivefold increases in program referrals for key family‑court services) and warned that delays in services create backlogs and reduce program efficacy.
Several public commenters, including advocates for fee elimination, urged repeal or replacement of the court security fee (a surcharge imposed on convictions) and for the General Fund to assume that revenue stream to avoid creating a perverse dependence on convictions. Speakers asked the JFC to consider HB391 (referenced as a prior attempt to eliminate the fee) and to fund civil legal services (CLASS/Community Legal Aid) at an increased level, citing a $400,000 governor recommendation to raise state support for indigent civil legal aid to $1 million.
Committee members asked presenters for historical budget lines and performance measures and indicated they would consider annualization and conversion requests during markup. Several legislators expressed support for restorative approaches but asked for outcome data tied to recidivism and case resolution to evaluate funding priorities.
