Report Recommends Reform Of Bail System

The Maryland Public Defender Office has been providing representation since June to all defendants seeking counsel in their bail review hearings. But a Justice Policy Institute report released last month on the bail system in Baltimore City found the money-bail system itself discriminates against lower income defendants.

The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled in January that legal representation must be provided to defendants for their initial bail commissioner hearing, but the General Assembly changed the public defender statute so the state would not have to increase funding to public defenders for indigent clients.

Bail review hearings are done by a judge who can alter initial bail decisions made by non-lawyer bail commissioners.

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