Criminal Justice Platform

Transcription

1 Criminal Justice Platform Paid for by Friends of Ben Jealous, Jason Small, Treasurer

2 Dear Marylanders, For the past 40 years, the number of incarcerated Americans has continued to grow at a rapid pace. While only 5 percent of the world s population, America is home to as much as a quarter of the world s prison population, exceeding the prison populations of nearly every other developed nation. The rise of mass incarceration, particularly since the advent of so called tough on crime policies, including mandatory minimums, has cost our country precious financial resources. As we ve invested more in prisons, we ve seen less and less investment going into crime prevention programs and education. Even worse, despite more and more incarceration, our communities have not grown any safer. The data could not be more clear - we cannot incarcerate our way out of a crime problem. To achieve a safer Maryland, we must begin to bring an end to this era of mass incarceration through the pursuit of what many criminologist and practitioners have called smart on crime policies. This means prioritizing the apprehension of violent repeat offenders, diverting those incarcerated non-violent offenders into more effective rehabilitation programs and ensuring resources are in place to support those who were formerly incarcerated as they seek to reenter society. Being smart of crime will actually achieve safer communities while more efficiently allocating taxpayer funds, creating greater opportunities for increased investment in education and other areas over time and without compromising public safety. As a civil rights leader, community organizer and former National President and CEO of the NAACP, I ve worked in a bipartisan manner to build broad diverse coalitions to help shrink prison populations and abolish the death penalty, including here in Maryland. As governor I d build upon these efforts to continue bringing real reforms to our state. I ll introduce gun courts to quickly and more efficiently adjudicate gun crimes, removing violent repeat offenders from our streets. I will also expand the use of violence interruption programs such as Safe Streets in Baltimore and the Capitol Violence Intervention Program in Prince George s County, both of which have proven track records of improving public safety by working closely with communities and both of which are not currently adequately funded by Governor Hogan. My plan would also end cash bail, so that the only criteria for release is whether or not the person is a public safety threat, not whether or not they could afford to post bail. Additionally, I ll legalize marijuana for adult use, effectively ending a major pipeline of nonviolent low level drug offenders into our prisons. We will support those currently incarcerated with more opportunities to turn their lives around while finishing their sentences, so that once released we have already begun the work of reducing recidivism, including more rehab for addicts while behind bars. I ll also create an office dedicated to helping the formerly incarcerated navigate a complex system which makes it difficult for those most in need to access basic services like housing, employment and expungement programs. 2

3 My plan will make Maryland safer and begin to bring about an end to this era of mass incarceration, which has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and disproportionately harmed women and communities of color and failed to keep us safe. I ll lead much more aggressively in this area than perhaps any governor Maryland has ever had. Much of my life s work has been about bringing meaningful change to our criminal justice system. We have the opportunity here in Maryland to get big things done on criminal justice reform and when I m governor we will. Onward, Ben Jealous 3

4 Reducing Violent Crime Adapting the New York Community Safety Act for Maryland In 2013, New York advocates like Communities United for Police Reform helped pass the Community Safety Act ( CSA ) at a state level. 1 The CSA focuses principally on ending discriminatory policing and bringing real accountability to the NYPD. 2 In the years since, the CSA has come to be seen as groundbreaking, while paving the way for future reform efforts that bring about substantive change to policing in NYC. 3 The CSA was, essentially, a legislative omnibus containing four more discrete bills with very specific purposes: 1. Ending discriminatory profiling a. Established a strong and enforceable ban on profiling and discrimination by the New York City Police Department. b. Expanded the categories of individuals protected from discrimination. The current prohibition covers race, ethnicity, religion, and national origin. The bill would expand this to also include: age, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, and housing status. c. Created a meaningful private right of action for individuals who believe they have been unjustly profiled by the NYPD. d. New Yorkers can now bring intentional discrimination claims and/or disparate impact claims, though not for monetary damages Establishing independent oversight of the NYPD a. Assigned responsibility for NYPD oversight to the Commissioner of the Department of Investigation. (In NYC, the DOI currently oversees about 300 city agencies - including the Fire Department, Department of Education and Human Resources Administration but not the NYPD.) b. Oversight includes reviewing NYPD operations, policies, programs and practices. c. Reports will be made public and revisited annually to see if recommendations have been followed. 3. Protecting New Yorkers against unlawful searches a. Ends the practice of the NYPD deceiving New Yorkers into consenting to unnecessary searches; Requires officers to explain that a person has the right to refuse a search when there is no warrant or probable cause; and requires officers to obtain proof of consent to a search. 5 4

5 4. Requiring officers to identify and explain themselves to the public a. Requires officers to provide the specific reason for their law enforcement activity, such as a stop-and-frisk; and requires officers to provide document to the person with the officer s name and information on how to file a complaint at the end of each police encounter. 6 Beyond being a catalyst for reform within the NYPD, the CSA has become a key spur for improving the relationship between the NYPD and the community it serves, by restoring faith that the police department has normalized an equitable, accountable approach to public safety. As governor, Ben Jealous will bring these outcomes to Maryland by securing passage of our state s own Community Safety Act, patterned on New York s successful model. Creating Gun Courts to Combat Gun Violence In January 2016, New York City launched a multi-program gun violence initiative called Project Fast Track. 7 One of Project Fast Track s key programs is new Gun Courts focused entirely on gun-possession cases. In announcing these specialized new courts- two courtrooms, both located in Brooklyn- Mayor de Blasio outlined a twin focus: identifying strong cases so that high-risk repeat offenders are dealt with quickly, while not letting low-priority offenders and bad cases languish in Rikers. 8 The idea is to more effectively combat crime by making the court system more targeted in its application of justice, rather than casting the wide net that outdated stop-and-frisk tactics rely on. By normalizing the justice system s approach to gun-possession cases, the City also hopes to create more consistent sentencing for offenders. Gun court judges preside over gun-possession cases from start to finish: this includes arraignments, indictments, trial, and sentencing. The courts work hand-in-hand with a newly created Gun Violence Suppression Division in the New York City Police Department, which allows for more targeted, accountable enforcement. The Division assigns specific officers to oversee each case from beginning to end. The borough s District Attorney also authorized a team of special prosecutors to focus strictly on gun-possession cases before the gun courts. This specialized approach helps increase conviction rates by improving case management and the subject matter competence of the personnel involved, but helps focuses those convictions on the narrow universe of violent repeat offenders that tend to drive violence. The new courts and the related police division are about a smarter use of resources, not an increase in resources. Neither the courts nor the division required additional funding from the City. Instead, each draws from a reallocation of existing court and police resources. 9 The City did, however, provide an additional $2 million to its medical examiner, in order to allow for quick testing of DNA evidence from illegal guns. 10 The new program has its roots in a similar program that was tried from by Mayor Bloomberg. Studies by the New York City Criminal Justice Agency found two great achievements took hold within the gun courts first year of existence: 1) the courts increased the speed and success of gun-possession related prosecution, and 2) prosecutors began to become more selective in the cases they prosecuted, by more closely considering which cases would survive judicial scrutiny. 11 Unfortunately, the program continued through Bloomberg s escalation of stop-and-frisk tactics, which led to a glut of cases coming before the gun courts, many of which faced the constitutional barriers 5

6 that stop-and-frisk tactics tend to elicit. The increased caseload and weakening of case quality began to undermine the courts efficacy. With Mayor De Blasio s explicit (and successful) focus on ending stop-and-frisk, the gun courts can again successfully serve their purpose. As governor, Ben Jealous will work with local law enforcement on a strategy that is tailored towards violent repeat offenders, and that better respects the constitutional rights of their citizens. By doing so, the criminal justice system will be able to more effectively and efficiently deploy its resources, leading it to bring both stronger but fewer cases to trial. When paired with courts, prosecutors, and officers who specialize in gun-possession cases, this strategy offers Maryland residents a real opportunity to improve their safety, without subjecting more residents to the criminal justice system. Expanding the Capital Area Violence Intervention Program from Prince George s County The Capital Region Violence Intervention Program ( CAP-VIP ) is a hospital-based violence intervention program housed at the University of Maryland Prince George s Hospital Trauma Center. 12 It uses an evidence-based, trauma-informed approach to care for survivors of violent injury, with the aim of reducing violent recidivism. 13 CAP-VIP s success is based in acknowledging and addressing structural conditions that serve as catalysts for violence. These conditions can range from a history of involvement with the criminal justice system to difficulty securing employment. As such, the hospital focuses on providing patients with referrals to employment, educational training, housing, mental health, and legal assistance depending on the patient s particular quality of life need. Rather than stopping its burden of care at immediate physical trauma, the hospital treats that trauma as an opportunity to preemptively prevent future trauma by helping improve the patient s long-term quality of life. By doing so, the hospital creates a systemic commitment to its goal of empowering patients and facilitating a relationship between those patients and other caregivers. As governor, Ben Jealous will expand the CAP-VIP model to hospitals around the state, so that every Marylander who is trapped in a cycle of violence has well-traveled access to tools that will help them break that cycle, and a support system as they attempt to break that cycle. In doing so, Maryland s hospitals will improve outcomes not just for the patient, but also for the community whose health is ultimately impacted by the cycles of violence the patient experiences. Bringing Roca s Track Record of Success to Baltimore In December 2017, Mayor Catherine Pugh rightly embraced a 30-year old program that many subject matter experts cite as a nation-leader in violence diversion: Roca. 14 Roca operates using a four-year intervention model, aimed principally at high-risk young people, who are not yet ready, willing, or able to change. 15 The first two years of its program are focused on providing intensive services to the youth, and the second two years of the program are focused on providing supportive follow up to the youth. 16 The long term nature of the intervention is intended not just to provide the youth with more time to benefit from the program, but to prolong access to opportunities that will help them successfully transition away from the program in the years ahead. 17 Roca s first step is determining whether the young person is a good fit for the program, which typically takes 2-months of evaluation. If the young person is a good fit, she enters a 4-month period of trust building that involves establishing a foundation for behavior change and initial exposure 6

7 to opportunities for participating in Roca programming. The next 18-months form the bulk of the behavior change, which involves building skills and competencies that help the young person interact more positively with their surrounding environment, while also developing a genuine desire to sustain their change in the years ahead. Once this initial 2-year period is complete, the youth transition to jobs, but are still given constant contact from Roca in order to maintain the social support the program has established, especially in critical moments when the young person is making lifechanging decisions. At this point the youth have all the skills they need to succeed, but they need to know someone believes in them and is willing to help them in times of duress. Above all else, Roca works. In 2017, Roca served 854 high-risk young men, 84% of whom did not experience any new arrests after entering the program % of the young men stayed with Roca, and 76% held employment for 3-months or more. 19 That s an improvement of 61% from the 15% of young men who held jobs before entering the program. 20 Of course, Roca comes with a cost. Mayor Pugh is seeking $17 million in funding to bring the program to Baltimore for at least 4-years, so that the City s youth can benefit from a full cycle of Roca s programming. 21 As governor, Ben Jealous will support Baltimore City and its youth by committing to funding Roca for the entirety of his time in office, and if the results prove strong, to sequestering funding for Roca in the decades to come. Increased Investment in Safe Streets Many Baltimore City residents and leaders can attest to the success of Safe Streets. The program is housed in Baltimore City s Health Department, and has been studied extensively by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The program seeks to address gun violence by focusing especially on City residents between the ages of 12 and 24, and has its roots in Chicago s CeaseFire program. 22 Safe Streets functions by using community based organizations to employ outreach professionals who organize at a neighborhood level. 23 These organizers build relationships and establish credibility in the community, so that they can begin to mediate and de-escalate disputes that might otherwise become violent. 24 The program has a strong track record of success, making notable impacts in 3 of the 4 Baltimore neighborhoods that it has been deployed in. The program was associated with reductions in homicides of 56% in Cherry Hill and 26% in McElderry Park. 25 Ellwood Park s program was associated with a 34% reduction in nonfatal shootings. 26 Beyond the immediate impact of de-escalating situations that might otherwise become the violent, the program attempts to have a long-term normative impact on the community s codes of conduct: In two separate surveys, one 6 months into the program and the other 21 months after program implementation, the study found youth in the program area much less likely to find it acceptable to use a gun to settle a conflict compared with youth in the neighborhoods without the program. 27 Moreover, the program s impact encompasses other quality of life indicators beyond violence. 88% of participants reported receiving help finding employment, 95% reported receiving help getting into school or a GED program, 100% reported receiving help mediating family conflict, and 80% of clients reported their lives were better as a result of the program. 28 7

8 One of the most impressive things about Safe Streets, is that the program is incredibly cost effective. Each Safe Streets site costs just $500, Though it entered 2017 as a casualty of Mayor Pugh s budget, the Mayor has since come to embrace the program. In late December 2017, Mayor Pugh announced that the program would be expanded to $10 million, if the City can philanthropic donors to provide the funding. As governor, Ben Jealous will not require Baltimore City to depend on philanthropic donors in order to provide essential services that improve every resident s safety. He will fully fund Safe Streets at its $10 million price, and enter into discussions with the City to potentially expand its footprint even further. Under Ben Jealous, Baltimore City s police spending will focus heavily on preventative strategies like this that stop violence before it starts, and offer value added benefits beyond violent reduction both to participants and to the community. Ensuring Maryland s Justice Reinvestment Act Achieves Real Justice Expanding the Justice Reinvestment Act to Deliver Real Reductions in Incarceration On any given day, there are approximately 33,000 Marylanders being held in prison or jail throughout the state. 30 The Justice Reinvestment Act signed by Larry Hogan in 2016, however, only seeks to reduce this population by 1,200 beds over the course of the next 10-years. 31 A goal to reduce the incarcerated population by less than 0.5% per year is negligible and lacks the appropriate urgency, given that mass incarceration makes us less safe and costs the State millions each year. Even the reduction of 1,200 is estimated to save the state $80 million, or $66,667 per inmate. 32 A bipartisan effort led by Newt Gingrich and Van Jones, called #cut50, seeks to reduce the prison population by 50%. 33 Using the $80 million in savings for 1,200 inmates as a ratio, cutting Maryland s incarcerated population by 30% would save the state over $660 million. That s enough to cover college tuition for over 30,000 undergraduate students at Maryland s average in-school tuition rate. 34 Significantly driving down incarceration is no far-off dream. Georgia undertook reforms beginning in 2009 that reduced the incarcerated population by 8,000 from projected levels as of States like California and New Jersey have reduced their incarceration rates by 27% 36 and 24%, respectively in the last decade. 37 The question, of course, is how have these states accomplished their inmate reductions? Texas invested in massive expansions of drug treatment programs, tied to parole for inmates who complete the programs. The same principle using savings from reduced incarceration to provide offenders with access to needed resources holds for mental-health treatment, and for subject matter-specific court tracks: drug courts, veterans courts, and mental health courts are all provided in Texas. Texas also pushed back on re-incarceration for technical violations of probation and parole, that were not paired with another crime of some sort. Now, instead of resulting in a return to prison, violations lead to enrollment in programs that provide greater supervision of the citizen while they remain free. Through reforms like these, the crime rate in Texas has fallen 27%. During this same time period, the incarcerated population in Texas has fallen so dramatically that the state has closed three prisons and will likely see additional closures. 38 8

9 Maryland can learn from and build on these national best practices and return to a leadership position on issues of justice and equity. In keeping with an attainable precedent from states like Texas and New York, Ben Jealous will reduce Maryland s prison population by 30%. He will do so by ending returns to prison for technical violations, downgrading drug possession, expanding opportunities to earn parole, and investing in reentry programs. Doing so will create savings of up to $660 million. Fixing Corrections Staffing Issues to Increase Safety After their union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees raised the issue, Maryland s Department of Legislative Services reported that corrections officers and inmates are endangered by a severe staffing crisis, with 981 vacancies, representing 14 percent of front-line staff. This shortage contributes to record high levels of overtime spending and increasing safety concerns. 39 This is unacceptable for the guards, the inmates, and taxpayers. Corrections officers who are overworked or who are not properly prepared lead to prisons that are unsafe. They are more likely to make mistakes that can lead to harm for inmates, their visitors, and other corrections officers. As governor, Ben Jealous will support our public service employees, and work hand-in-hand with AFSCME to craft an employment strategy that will ensure our prisons are safe. Not only will doing so lead to better service for all parties involved, but it will create a more responsible approach to spending for the State, by curbing unanticipated costs like overtime. Sentencing and Probation Reform Ending Cash Bail in Maryland to Reduce Harm to All Parties In 2017, a new judicial rule went into effect in Maryland, requiring courts to seek alternatives to cash bail because of the unjust burden it places on the poor and working class. 40 A subsequent report from the Maryland judiciary found that the rule was working well, in that it had led judges to utilize alternatives to cash bail, and did not expand the number of defendants who failed to appear for trial. As the Baltimore Sun reported, many jurisdictions are saving money on unnecessary detention while allowing individuals who have been arrested, but not convicted, to maintain their jobs, housing and family commitments while awaiting trial, without being penalized for their economic status. An unintended consequence of the judicial rule, however, is that judicial officers are now holding approximately three times more pretrial defendants without bond than before the rule, because they do not have alternatives available to them. This unintended consequence must be remedied. In September 2017, the Vera Institute of Justice released findings from its study on cash bail alternatives in New York City. 41 The report focused on partially secured and unsecured bonds which, respectively, require payment to the court of a refundable 10 percent or less of the bail amount, or no upfront payment at all. Also of note, the alternative bail options were not limited to lowlevel offenses, with 54% of cases carrying a top charge of a felony. Partially secured and unsecured bonds were granted on a wide range of cases running the gamut from drug possession, larceny, and robbery, to assault, criminal contempt, and weapons possession. For the cases studied, only 12% of defendants released on bail failed to appear in court subsequently. This is roughly equal to the failure-to-appear rate already experienced in Maryland. 42 As such, the cash bail alternatives in New York perform as well as Maryland s historically cash bail-driven system. 9

10 As governor, Ben Jealous will work with legislators and the judiciary to provide our court system cash bail alternatives that drive down the number of Marylanders being held without bond. Doing so will be an important step towards a more humane, efficient justice system. Improving Pretrial Services that Help Marylanders Comply with the Judicial Process Maryland can further improve its approach to pretrial release not just by ending cash bail, but by improving other processes like risk assessment and supervision upon release. In 2017, the National Institute of Corrections released a report on best practices for pretrial services. 43 They recommend a 6 part system for improving the treatment of pretrial defendants. Its recommendations include: 1. Universal Screening a. Pretrial service programs should conduct universal screening using a standardized interview format and objective approach (e.g., point scale) to determine eligibility for release. Information collected through the interview should be verified, and together with the program s recommendation or eligibility determination, should be provided to the court of jurisdiction in an expeditious manner Validated Pretrial Risk Assessments a. Research reviews repeatedly showed that actuarial instruments performed better than clinical or professional judgement when making predictions of human behavior Sequential Bail Review a. Responsibility for ongoing review of the status of detained defendants: The pretrial services agency or program should review the status of detained defendants on an ongoing basis to determine if there are any changes in eligibility for release options or other circumstances that might enable the conditional release of the defendants. The program or agency should take such actions as may be necessary to provide the court with needed information and to facilitate the release of defendants under appropriate conditions Risk-based supervision a. The monitoring and supervision of released defendants is a crucially important part of any pretrial release system. If arrested defendants are to be released before trial, judicial officers and the community, particularly including victims of crime must have confidence that the release order includes any conditions reasonably needed to guard against risks of non-appearance and dangerousness. This can include drug testing and electronic monitoring. 47 As governor, Ben Jealous will use the framework created by these proven national best practices to facilitate a pretrial services system that improves outcomes for all parties involved. Increasing Judicial Diversity, and Increasing Judicial Autonomy in Sentencing A community should be judged by members of the bench who understand that community. Increased judicial diversity serves this end, and in so doing, positions judges to exercise the nuanced 10

11 understanding that an equitable criminal justice system depends on. Of course, that nuanced understanding can only truly bring itself to bear if it is not bound to antiquated sentencing guidelines that create a one-size-fits-all approach to the men and women who comprise a community. As such, increased judicial diversity must be paired with increased judicial autonomy, so that a more diverse bench can fully exercise its range of experience and understanding. As governor, Ben Jealous will increase the diversity of the Maryland bench through his judicial appointments, and fight for sentencing reform that allows judges to tailor sentences on a case-by-case basis. This more tailored criminal justice system will be a more just criminal justice system, and every Marylander deserves greater justice. Taking the Politics Out of Parole In its 2018 State Policy Priorities, Maryland s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union discusses the importance of taking the politics out of parole. 48 It explains that, unlike virtually every other state, Maryland requires the governor to personally approve the parole of any inmate serving a sentence of life with the possibility of parole. This turns what should be a straightforward recommendation from the Parole Commission into a contentious political issue. As a result, thousands of Marylanders are condemned to die in prison, even though their sentence does not require this outcome. This policy has a disproportionate racial impact, as 77% of inmates affected are Black. Moreover, the State of Maryland spends $75 million annually to incarcerate inmates who are affected by this policy. Maryland could be building state-of-the-art elementary schools that improve our children s outcomes with this money, instead of locking up inmates into their 70s, 80s, and 90s who have already served for decades. As governor, Ben Jealous will change this backwards policy. Requiring Judges to Include the Cost-to-State in Each Sentencing Order Nearly a decade ago, a Missouri commission required that judges be provided with information on the cost of a sentence being proposed, in order to better aid judges in exercising judicial discretion. 49 This policy appeals both to pragmatism as well as morality. On the one hand, a criminal justice system that de-emphasizes incarceration can drive down the cost of government services, potentially creating savings for taxpayers. On the other hand, the money the government saves can be used to facilitate more positive quality of life outcomes for residents around the state, by being reallocated to programs like addiction treatment or housing-first homelessness programs. In either case, the money is better spent there than incarcerating non-violent offenders, particularly low-level, non-violent offenders. As governor, Ben Jealous will work to increase the transparency of sentencing costs, so that taxpayers know the cost burden that our legal system creates for the state, without necessarily improving our communities. By doing so, he will set the stage for expansive criminal justice reform that de-emphasizes incarceration. Creating a State Office of Innocence Protection In 2016, Delaware created the Actual Innocence Project within the state s Department of Justice. 50 Lawyers assigned to the Actual Innocence Project will consider: petitions from inmates who are in possession of physical, scientific, or documentary evidence suggesting that they committed no criminal wrongdoing. This may include forensic evidence, audio or 11

12 video evidence, electronic evidence such as or phone records, or other physical evidence. The Actual Innocence Project will not consider petitions based only on recantations or revisions of prior statements, or the production of new statements. 51 We have seen new evidence like DNA overturn convictions time and again over the years. In light of that reality, we must recognize that not everyone in prison is actually guilty of their crimes. As such, the justice system must seek not just to prevent innocent persons from going to jail, but also to remove innocent persons from jail and compensate them after they have been wrongly convicted. As governor, Ben Jealous will establish an Innocence Project in Maryland, in order to create a genuine, constant opportunity for redress for wrongly convicted inmates. Reducing the Incarceration of Women by Addressing the Unique Roles Played by Victimization, Caregiving, Race, and Poverty The number of women incarcerated in federal and state prisons, as well as local jails, and in the probation or parole systems, is increasing; especially the share of women in local jails. While federal and state prisons hold people primarily convicted of crimes, local jails are used mainly for the pretrial detention of people who have not yet been charged or convicted. Women s incarceration in local jails has increased 14-fold since 1970, from fewer than 8,000 nationwide to more than 110,000. Women in jail are mostly charged with nonviolent, low-level offenses. When state and federal prisons are factored in, the number of women behind bars is more than 200,000, an increase of 800% in the last three decades. Black women are two times more likely than white women to be incarcerated, while Hispanic women are 20% more likely than white women to be incarcerated. The rates of past physical, sexual, and emotional abuse suffered by women prisoners, as well as rates of serious mental illness and other mental health issues, and substance abuse and addiction, are disparately high. Women disproportionately shoulder the burden of lack of access to proper treatment. In far too many cases, incarceration has become the replacement for adequate healthcare % of women currently incarcerated have a history of experiencing domestic and sexual abuse The Department of Justice found in a 2012 study that 32% of incarcerated women met the criteria for serious mental illness, double the rate for incarcerated men, and six times that of the general U.S. population. Up to 80% of incarcerated women suffer from substance abuse or dependency. Women shouldn t be incarcerated when what they need is access to healthcare. More than half of all women in jails report having a current medical problem, compared to 35% for men, and 2/3 of women report having a chronic condition compared to half of men in jails and 27 percent of people in the general U.S. population. As governor, Ben Jealous will expand access to adequate mental health and addiction services by funding community treatment centers as an alternative to incarceration. Women who are returning citizens may have suffered retraumatization or experienced additional 12

13 abuse while in prison. When the DOJ studied the intersection of mental health, victimization, and incarceration in women, it identified the providing of a continuum of post-release mental health care as one of the most identified solutions recommended by criminal justice stakeholders. That means providing service coordination and clear, best-practice guidelines for professionals assisting in developing after care plans. It also means providing safe transitional housing for women as a significant component of aftercare support. As governor, Ben Jealous will also ensure that continuum of post-release mental health care is made available. 80% of women in jail are mothers, and unlike men, are often the child s primary caregiver. When these women go to jail, there is a uniquely destabilizing effect on families and communities, leading many to say that effectively, when a mother is incarcerated, a family is incarcerated. Children whose mother becomes incarcerated are 4-5 times more likely than other children to become incarcerated themselves. Mandatory minimums and other tough on crime policies may have disproportionate impact on women and families. For example, 82% of incarcerated women were convicted of non-violent offenses, mostly the low-level, non-violent drug or other offenses that are often the target of sentencing reform efforts. Additionally, 20% of all women in jail in Baltimore are there for probation or parole violations, such as missing a drug test or scheduled appointment with a parole or probation officer. As governor, Ben Jealous will specifically pursue sentencing reform that minimizes harm to women, over-incarceration, and the criminalization of poverty or of women s schedules and responsibilities. Ben Jealous will also specifically pursue reform that gives judges discretion to reduce sentences in cases where abuse is a significant contributing factor in a crime committed by a domestic abuse survivor, including discretion to sentence women to community-based alternatives to incarceration. Where women are convicted of crimes against an abuser or for which past abuse plays a significant contributing role, current sentencing practices do not adequately account for the necessity that women defend themselves against chronic abuse. A proposal in the New York State legislature called the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVJA) would do just that. The DVJA as proposed would also permit currently incarcerated survivors to apply be re-sentenced or to participate in an early release program. Protecting the Dignity of Women during Incarceration When women are incarcerated, they encounter a system that can be said to have been designed by men, for men. For starters, jails use assessment tools to determine how inmates should be housed, and what programming or services they might be eligible for. Most of these tools have been developed and tested on men only, or primarily on men. A male-focused or gender-neutral approach to assessment just isn t working for women. As governor, Ben Jealous will work to eliminate gender bias in the assessment of women inmates by implementing and incentivizing policies that reflect relevant research and data. For example, the evidence shows that women pose less risk than men when charges and criminal history are held equal. Women engage in serious misconduct at lower rates than men. Thus, these assessment tools are overstating the risk women pose to the community, affecting access to educational, vocational, and rehabilitative programs, or other privileges, and ultimately, pretrial release programs. The same tools also fail to consider women s needs, including the research showing that trauma, mental illness, substance abuse, relationship problems, or parental stress, appear more often in women or manifest in unique ways. 13

14 As governor, Ben Jealous will rethink corrections procedures to ensure women s dignity. Case management and other daily procedures should be examined for gender bias or failure to account for women s specific needs. Women are far more likely than men to be victims of sexual violence while in prison, which is extremely traumatizing especially given that the most incarcerated women are already victims of sexual assault. In this light, the need to rethink standard corrections procedures is obvious. Searches, restraints, supervised showering, and other standard procedures are retraumatizing to women who have been sexually victimized both before and after coming into contact with the criminal justice system. Finally, as governor Ben Jealous will ensure women have full access to adequate and humane reproductive health services. Women should have convenient, adequate, and free or low-cost access to the full range of needed reproductive health services, including menstrual hygiene products, contraceptive care, and access to abortion, and community-based or other postpartum services that eliminate the trauma of postpartum separation. Reentry Reform Adapting DC s Office on Returning Citizens Affairs into a Statewide Program in MD DC s Office of Returning Citizens Affairs (ORCA) provides a suite of consolidated services that focus on transitioning returning citizens back into their communities. 52 ORCA s success comes from two basic principles: 1. Returning citizens should not have to navigate a labyrinthian maze of bureaucratic agencies in order to receive the services they need, because transitioning from incarceration is difficult enough in itself. Instead, these services should exist in a one-stop-shop with staff focused specifically on facilitating delivery for returning citizens. 2. Returning citizen support should be comprehensive and extended over time, beginning from the day that a resident is incarcerated, and continuing long into their return to the community. Services provided by ORCA begin with family reunion days that it organizes while residents are incarcerated in facilities that might otherwise be difficult for friends and family to reach. In order to ensure that the reunions are positive experiences, ORCA also organizes programming that facilitates fruitful engagement throughout the visits. Services of this nature help maintain strong ties between an incarcerated resident and their community, so that they have an extant support system when they return to the community. Once residents return to the community, ORCA s services range from career-skills like commercial driver s license classes and computer training, to more basic necessities like state-issued IDs and housing vouchers. In order to address other quality of life needs that may become personal barriers to reentry, ORCA also offers access to mental health resources and addiction treatment. As governor, Ben Jealous will create a statewide ORCA for Maryland s returning citizens, and their friends and family in the communities they will once-again call home. By better serving these Marylanders, we can both improve the long-term outcomes for returning citizens and their communities, and save incarceration costs by driving down the rate of recidivism. 14

15 Turning the Montgomery County Pre-Release Center s Education and Employment Program into a Statewide Program for Reentry Literacy and Education, that Also Serves Prison Guards Montgomery County provides a pre-release program for soon-to-be returning citizens who have one year or less remaining on their sentence. 53 Potential participants must receive judicial consent before they are placed with a pre-release center, with the provision that they cannot have attempted escape in the past. Participants must work, pay room and board, file state and federal taxes, and address restitution and child support obligations. 54 Participants collaborate with a case manager to develop their personal reentry plan, aimed at issues like employment, housing, treatment, family, and medical services. The program employs other evidence-based reentry practices including risk/needs assessments, cognitive behavioral programming, monitored community-based treatment, college/ged/literacy classes, and a work first philosophy. 55 The idea is not just to equip participants with skills, but to work through barriers to reentry, and begin facilitating their participation in the community throughout the process. The program s success speaks for itself. In 2013, for instance, the program worked with 683 participants, 85% of which completed the program successfully, and 80% of which were released with private-sector jobs. 56 Moreover, these participants earned more than $1.6 million in compensation, generating $300,000 in taxes, another $300,000 in family support, and $285,000 in program fees. 57 The recidivism rate for participants who complete the program is also 40% less than the national average. 58 As governor, Ben Jealous will expand proven reentry models like Montgomery County s pre-release program. Moreover, he will offer relevant services like college courses and counseling to any program staff or corrections officers who opt to utilize them. In doing so, not only will he better equip these personnel to provide services in the future, but he will preemptively diffuse potential tensions between staff and returning citizens over access to opportunity. Automatic Expungement for Eligible Returning Citizens, Without a Filing Fee For many returning citizens, their criminal records serve as a barrier to subsequent employment and the stability that employment provides. Expungements are an important tool for removing low-level, non-violent criminal offenses from a returning citizen s record, in order to help remove barriers to employment. This can also improve their prospect for other needs like housing. A barrier to this population, however, is misinformation over whether expungements are available to the returning citizen, and an inability to pay for the legal representation or filing fees that may be necessary to obtain the expungements. In order to address this barrier, Ben Jealous will implement a policy of automatic expungements for all eligible returning citizens, removing filing fees for the expungements in the process. Expungements exist because they are a service that lawmakers recognize can benefit returning citizens. There is no reason to create barriers to experiencing that benefit. 15

16 Marijuana Legalizing Marijuana In January 2018, the Drug Policy Alliance released a report on the 8 states that have taxed and regulated marijuana. 59 The report found that, as one might expect, marijuana arrests dropped precipitously in these states. That drop corresponds with hundreds of millions of dollars saved by preventing thousands from becoming incarcerated. The increase in legal marijuana usage across the 8 states corresponds with a decrease both in opioid related deaths, and a decrease in opioid addiction. Moreover, there has been no measurable increase in youth marijuana usage in these states. Discussions around legalizing marijuana often focuses on the benefit of new tax revenue, and at times mention the millions saved in incarceration costs, but far too often overlooks job and business formation opportunities. The marijuana industry employs nearly a quarter million people, with that number continuing to climb as retail marijuana becomes normalized. That means thousands of potential jobs and millions in potential earnings for workers across Maryland if marijuana is legalized. The debate over legalizing marijuana in the United States is resolved when it comes to the data, but there remain questions over how to ensure that legalization is equitable. This includes taking into consideration the disparate burdens that were placed on communities of color through mass incarceration for low-level, non-violent offenses related to marijuana. As governor, Ben Jealous will make sure Maryland is a leader in realizing the benefits of marijuana legalization done with equity in mind. Ensuring that Benefits of Legalization Flow to the Communities Most Impacted by Marijuana Prohibition Under current Maryland law, possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana is no longer a criminal act. 60 Rather, it is a civil offense, punishable by a maximum fine of $ grams to 50 lbs is a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to 6 months in prison. 62 Possession of over 50 lbs is still a felony, punishable with a mandatory minimum of 5 years in prison, and a max fine of $100, In the legislative sessions, Maryland passed legislation creating and then expanding the Maryland Medical Marijuana Commission in order to create a regulated medical marijuana marketplace. 64 In December 2017, the first dispensaries began to open their doors to customers. Thus far the State of Maryland has pre-approved 102 dispensaries, 65 with 34 now open for business. 66 Numerous studies, including a 2017 report by the Brookings Institute, have found that marijuana usage is virtually the same between Black and White populations. 67 Yet still, Black Americans are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. 68 This appalling disparity is a significant contributor to mass incarceration in the United States, and its disproportionate impact on Black communities over the years. With racist drug policies creating decades of disruption in communities of color, a legalized marijuana industry is an important opportunity for restorative economic justice in those communities. Yet, in a state where one-third of residents are Black, none of the 15 licenses that Maryland issued for growing medical marijuana in 2017 went to Black-led firms. 69 Just as troubling, there is no demonstrated plan to involve or encourage minority participation in the industry going forward. 70 This is unacceptable. 16

17 As governor, Ben Jealous will work with political leaders like the Legislative Black Caucus and business leaders like the Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to strengthen the diversity requirements for licenses in the marijuana industry. He will also commission a plan for expanding minority participation in the industry. Other jurisdictions have used techniques such as using micro zip-code targeting or arrest patterns, and other data to create frameworks for apportioning benefits. 71 This kind of framework should apply in the future to other kinds of licenses related to a legal marijuana industry, including cultivation licenses. In addition to licensure, affected communities can receive the benefit of set aside funds and specific reinvestment measures put in place to direct the spending of new tax revenues. With a dedicated focus on equity, the marijuana industry in Maryland will become a path to economic justice for thousands across the state. Additional Criminal and Civil Reforms There is more to equitable legalization than licensing. Maryland should consider additional changes to the law, including re-sentencing of past convictions, expungement, and establishing that the odor of marijuana can no longer be sufficient probable cause for a search. Similarly, consideration should be given to what civil protections are needed for those with past marijuana convictions. Moving Towards Legalization for Recreational Use Because Maryland currently features only nine operational medical marijuana dispensaries, the tax revenue generated by these dispensaries plays a negligible role in the state s budget. The pronounced stream of revenue that is generally referenced in conversations about taxing marijuana, is dependent upon the level of sales that comes from legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. As states like Colorado have featured legalized recreational marijuana markets for up to four years now, they offer data from comparatively mature markets that we can use to better understand the potential revenue impact of legalized recreational marijuana in Maryland. In FY 2017, revenue from Colorado s legal recreational marijuana industry totaled $247 million from both adult and medical use. 72 During the 2017 General Assembly, a strong coalition of legislators introduced legislation providing a regulatory framework for recreational marijuana. 73 The framework would apply a 9% sales tax (the same rate as for alcohol) to all recreational marijuana sales, and an additional fee of $30 per ounce sold. If Maryland, which has a moderately larger population, saw a similar rate of sales as Colorado, the 9% sales tax would generate upwards of $120 million in revenue for the state from a sales tax alone, and additional revenue from the excise tax, as well as relicensing and other business fees. Projections developed by the Marijuana Policy Project indicate total annual revenue for Maryland of $165 million from these sources. 74 Additionally, research by the Marijuana Policy Group finds that spending on marijuana has a significant jobs multiplier effect to the local economy of $2.13 to $2.4 dollars for every dollar spent on marijuana. 75 All told, the economic impact of adult use legalization would clearly be significant. New revenue will likely be paired with additional savings in enforcement costs and incarceration, and may also come with a decrease in the revenue from court fees and fines that marijuana cases normally generate. What is certain however, is that any windfall from legalization can and should be used to benefit communities that were disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition. 17