Pubdate: Sun, 16 Aug 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37

FEWER PRISONERS, LESS CRIME

Maryland Can Follow in the Footsteps of Other States That Have 
Increased Public Safety While Reducing Spending on Prisons

The number of inmates in Maryland's prisons has dropped 10 percent 
since 2006, and crime has fallen at the same time. Yet the state 
corrections department has seen an inflation-adjusted budget increase 
of 35 percent during that period. Something is wrong here, and an 
unusual coalition of Maryland's leaders from both parties and all 
three branches of government is trying to find the solution.

The state's new Justice Reinvestment Initiative, the brainchild of 
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, has enlisted the aid of the 
Pew Charitable Trusts to engage in the kind of deep analysis of the 
state's sentencing, incarceration, parole and probation policies that 
more than two dozen other states have already performed in hopes of 
producing a system that increases public safety, reduces recidivism 
and cuts costs. And with buy-in from Gov. Larry Hogan, House Speaker 
Michael E. Busch, Attorney General Brian E. Frosh and Court of 
Appeals Chief Justice Mary Ellen Barbera, chances are excellent that 
Maryland will adopt some fundamental reforms as a result.

Pew's researchers have only done their first round of data analysis, 
and already they have provided the state with a more detailed picture 
than it's ever had of who is being sentenced to Maryland's prisons 
and for what reasons, how long they're staying there and what's 
happening to them when they leave. Among a wealth of interesting 
findings is this irony: Maryland is stingier with parole than many 
states, even for nonviolent offenders, yet the majority of those 
entering prison are not being sentenced for new crimes but are people 
who had previously been on parole, probation or some other kind of 
supervised release. That is to say, we are keeping people in prison 
longer than their sentences might suggest but not achieving any 
discernible benefit when they are eventually released.

We can likely save money and produce better results by granting 
parole earlier and reinvesting the money that would have been spent 
on incarceration into initiatives to help prevent recidivism, such as 
drug treatment, job training and decreased parole officer caseloads.

As an analogy, the state recently changed its payment model for 
hospitals in a way that gives them incentives to ensure that 
patients, once discharged, are not readmitted soon thereafter. As a 
result, they have invested in substantial follow-up care, for example 
to make sure patients take their medications, go to physical therapy, 
and so on, with the result being that people are kept healthier at 
reduced cost.

The same goes for prisons. The marginal cost of incarcerating someone 
for one more day is about $120. In many cases, the public can be kept 
safer at lower cost by providing offenders with proper support and 
supervision in the community.

There are other policy and legal changes that could help achieve the 
goal of a more effective, efficient criminal justice system. The 
reduction in the state's inmate population in recent years has been 
driven entirely by Baltimore City. Getting other jurisdictions to buy 
into reforms can further the trend. Drug possession with the intent 
to distribute remains the No. 1 reason people are sent to prison, and 
simple possession of drugs is in the top 10. The Hogan 
administration's effort to tackle heroin addiction as a public health 
problem rather than one of law enforcement can clearly make a 
difference. Significant disparities exist in sentence lengths for the 
same crime in different jurisdictions. And, bizarrely, violent 
offenders are released closer to their parole eligibility date on 
average than nonviolent ones.

Pew researchers will work with the state for the next few months, and 
officials anticipate introducing package of reform legislation in 
time for the next General Assembly session. We urge them to follow 
through. Other states have found ways to spend less on prisons and 
keep the community safer. There's no reason Maryland can't too.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom