September 3, 2026

I pledge to end debtors' prisons

I'm proud to sign the Poverty Is Not a Crime pledge because justice shouldn't come with a price tag that traps people in cycles of debt and incarceration. Fines and fees don't make our communities safer—they make it harder for people to rebuild their lives, reunite with their families, and become contributing members of society. By funding our justice system responsibly through the General Fund, rather than on the backs of the people it processes, we can create a system that's both fiscally transparent and genuinely oriented toward second chances.

I'm committed to ending the practice of balancing budgets through court fees and fines, and to building a Delaware where a person's path forward isn't determined by their ability to pay.

While providing volunteer pet therapy visits to inmates at Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, I heard from inmates serving time for exactly this reason — not because they posed a danger to anyone, but because they were poor. I'm proud to stand with the Campaign to End Debtors' Prison, and my support doesn't end with this pledge. If elected, I'll keep pushing to finish the reforms this campaign has spent years fighting for — because a justice system that treats poverty as a crime isn't justice at all.