DOVER, Del. (AP)- The state Board of Parole is asking Delaware lawmakers for a budget of $280,000.
The board is not included in Gov. Jack Markell's spending plan for next year but instead is being funded through his budget office.
Markell tried to abolish the board last year and move its functions to the Department of Correction, saying that with parole abolished almost 20 years ago, few inmates remain eligible for parole, and the number under board supervision continues to decrease.
Some crime victims worry that the DOC would be too eager to release inmates on parole to ease prison crowding.
But in asking for separate funding Thursday, parole board members suggested that the opposite is true, and that prison officials would rather waste money keeping offenders in prison than see them released.
