Pubdate: Fri, 09 Jan 2004
Source: Drug War Chronicle (US Web)
Contact:  http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2514
Author: Phillip S. Smith, Editor

MAJOR NEW REFORM COALITION FORMING IN MARYLAND

Will Call for Treatment, Not Incarceration

Faced with an overcrowded, expensive prison system primarily filled
with black faces, in his inaugural speech a year ago this month,
incoming Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich called for reforms of the
state's criminal justice system. A year later, a potent new coalition
has emerged to push Ehrlich, the state's first Republican governor
since Spiro Agnew in the 1960s, to turn his words into deeds.

"We must work together to get nonviolent drug offenders out of jail
and into treatment programs, where they belong," said Ehrlich in his
speech a year ago.

The Campaign for Treatment Not Incarceration in Maryland
(http://www.TreatNotJail.org) wants to do just that. "We want to pass
a Prop. 36-type bill that would divert people from prison to
treatment, with treatment broadly defined to include things like
education and housing," said Vince Schiraldi of the Justice Policy
Institute (http://www.justicepolicy.org), a Washington, DC-based
nonprofit research and advocacy group seeking alternatives to
imprisonment. "We are also hoping to abolish mandatory minimum
sentences, which are in effect for second- and third-time drug
offenders in Maryland," he told DRCNet. "We also would like to see
good-time credits equalized. Right now, drug offenders are treated
like violent offenders when it comes to good time," Schiraldi pointed
out. "Remember, Len Bias played ball here, so a lot of really dumb
laws got passed after his death back in the day."

And Marylanders, especially black ones, have been paying for it ever
since. In a state that is 28% black, almost 75% of prisoners are
African-American. And when it comes to drug war prisoners, 90% of
Maryland's are black. Drug offenders account for 24% of the state's
prison population, leaving Maryland behind only New York and New
Jersey when it comes to drug offenders as a percentage of the prison
population, according to a Justice Policy Institute report issued in
October.

"Maryland is emerging as a national leader in the dubious distinction
of drug incarceration," said Schiraldi, coauthor of the report and
executive director of the institute.

And that costs money. With the state budget $700 million in the red
and with the state owing an additional $300 million it borrowed from
the transportation fund last year, the prison budget will inevitably
be closely eyed during the state legislative session beginning today.

It's not only dollars that people are concerned about. According to an
October-November poll commissioned by the institute
(http://www.treatnotjail.org/facts_md_poll_summary.pdf), Marylanders
by a two-to-one majority (41% to 21%) said there are too many people
in prison in the state, while 53% said being in prison makes it more
likely that someone will commit more crimes. And a whopping 73% of
those polled said drug treatment was a more effective way of dealing
with drug offenders than prison. That figure stayed high across race,
class, and demographic lines, with even self-described "very
conservative" Marylanders supporting treatment over prison at a rate
of 65%.

The research conducted and sponsored by the Justice Policy Institute
has been key in the emergence of a political movement to undo the
state's draconian drug laws, said Kevin Zeese of Common Sense for Drug
Policy (http://www.csdp.org), one of the 27 state and national groups
that have joined the coalition. "The JPI research on racism in the
Maryland justice system and its polling on attitudes toward reform was
very important in energizing people," he told DRCNet. "They got good
press coverage, and getting those facts out there really made a
difference in opening people's eyes," he said. "Since then, there has
been a gradual process of people meeting and getting to know each other."

It has evidently worked. According to Schiraldi, the Maryland Black
Legislative Caucus was "furious" over the racially disproportionate
imprisonment of African-Americans and will introduce reform
legislation next week on Martin Luther King Day. They will introduce a
"treatment not jail" bill, he said.

A package of bills is being drafted now, said Tara Andrews of the
Maryland Justice Coalition, a group formed specifically to encourage
reform of the state's criminal justice system. "Each bill will reflect
the goals of abolishing mandatory minimums, increasing good time for
drug offenders, and there may be an omnibus bill diverting drug
offenders from prison altogether and into community-based treatment,"
she told DRCNet. "We also anticipate the administration will introduce
its own bill. If it is good enough and positive enough, we will
support it," she said, "but we don't want little bitty bites. This is
the time to be aggressive and do this right."

It's been a long time coming, Andrews and Schiraldi said. "Vinnie and
I were both active in the Maryland Juvenile Justice Coalition, and we
started meeting with folks this summer to put together a push here to
overcome the state's over-reliance on incarceration. After some
preliminary research, it became clear that the best way to do that
given the fiscal and political position of the state was to
concentrate on saving the state money by reducing the prison
population."

"For years, this has not been an issue that grabbed the public, and
that was reflected in lethargy in the legislature," said Schiraldi.
"There had not been an active community advocating for this. It was
our job to rouse the people and the politicians. I think that process
is off to a good start. The black caucus is energized now, and they're
not fooling around," he said. "It is much harder to win reform by
passing legislation than through an initiative -- you have to educate
the public -- but that rough fight for public opinion has longer
lasting effects than a one-time initiative campaign."

The fight for drug sentencing reform in Maryland will be an inside
job, said Zeese. "The question is not will we win, but how much we
will win," he said. "The governor supports treatment over
incarceration, the public supports its, the black caucus is energized.
This is not a time for noisy demonstrations in the street but for
lobbying in the corridors of power." 
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