✊🏽 Stand for Humanity • Speak for the Silenced • Demand Justice

To: Governor Matt Meyer, Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, and Delaware State Representatives

RE: The Immediate and Permanent Shutdown of the SHU Unit at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center (Smyrna, DE)

We, the undersigned, demand the immediate closure of the Secured Housing Unit (SHU) at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, Delaware. This facility is no longer operating as a means of protecting the general population but is instead functioning as a warehouse for abuse, suffering, and inhumane treatment — a modern-day torture chamber hidden behind correctional walls.

The SHU was intended for the most dangerous individuals — those deemed unfit to live in general population due to severe behavioral concerns. However, Delaware does not have 1% of the violence compared to states like California, New York, or Pennsylvania. And yet, those states have already begun reducing or fully shutting down their SHU units based on clear research on the severe, often irreversible harm they cause.

So why is Delaware still operating one?

What Is Happening Inside the SHU?

• Residents are locked down 23 hours a day, with just one hour for “rec,” if that.
• There is no consistent access to therapy or medical care, even for those in active need.
• Meals are served cold and lack nutrition.
• The living conditions are contaminated with bugs and filth, and the temperatures are extreme year-round.
• The lights are kept on from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day — a total of 17 hours of bright exposure, which is torturous for residents with poor eyesight and contributes to headaches, disorientation, and poor sleep. Continuous bright light can be psychologically destabilizing, even for healthy individuals.
• Residents are sprayed with mace, kicked, stomped, and beaten — even while handcuffed.
• Abuse is constant — physical, mental, emotional, and sexual. No transparency. No accountability.
• Many residents are held in indefinite detention in the SHU — without a release date, without a disciplinary record, and with no way out.
• Delaware is using the SHU as overflow bed space, hiding behind a corrupt and baseless “Point System” that allows individuals without disciplinary problems to be placed in SHU housing — indefinitely.

💔The Human Toll

This is not correction. It is systemic psychological destruction. Many residents turn to medications or illicit substances simply to escape the trauma they endure daily. Others completely lose their grip on reality, spiraling into mental health crises.

One tragic example is Keith Gibson, a Delaware resident who spent years enduring abuse in the SHU. After release, he suffered a complete mental breakdown and killed six people in 2021. This is not an isolated incident. This is the cost of brutal, unchecked conditions.

"Hurt people, hurt people. The SHU doesn’t rehabilitate — it produces violence and breaks people down."

✊🏽Our Demands

We are calling on Governor Matt Meyer, Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, and Delaware state representatives to:

1. Immediately shut down the SHU at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.
2. Launch a full, independent investigation into abuses inside the SHU.
3. End the use of the SHU as overflow bed space or a substitute for actual rehabilitation.
4. Establish humane, transparent, and ethical alternatives to isolated housing.

🗣️Take Action — Be Their Voice

This petition is for:

• Those locked in a cell no one can see inside.
• Those beaten while handcuffed.
• Those who cry silently in the night and have no one to listen.
• Those who need help — not punishment.
• Those who never committed a violent act but are treated like the state’s worst criminals.

  📞Contact and Demand Change

Call or write the following officials to demand the SHU be shut down and the residents be treated with dignity:

Governor Matt Meyer:

(302) 744-4101

Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay: 

(302) 744-4333 (Dover)

(302) 577-8787 (Wilmington)

Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester: 

(202)-224-2441 (Washington, DC)

(302)-674-3308 (Dover, DE)

(302)-856-7690 (Georgetown, DE)

Delaware State Representatives: 

(302)-744-4114

Let them know that Delaware citizens, families, and community members will no longer tolerate this human rights crisis.

We refuse to stay silent while our fellow human beings are tortured behind steel and concrete.

Sign the petition. Make the calls. Be a voice for those who are silenced.