WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Gov. Jack Markell is set to sign three bills giving Delaware judges more sentencing discretion and criminal offenders more opportunities to get back on the right path.
One bill to be signed this week allows prison officials to offer jobs for up to six months to ex-offenders who demonstrate exceptional skills while enrolled in vocational programs, notwithstanding prior felonies.
Another bill, aimed at prison overcrowding, allows judges to impose concurrent, not consecutive, sentences on criminals with multiple convictions. But the bill still requires consecutive sentences for several types of violent felonies that already can carry long prison sentences.
The third bill to be signed Wednesday repeals a state law requiring the revocation of the driver's license of anyone convicted of a drug offense, regardless of whether a vehicle was involved.
