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Thursday, May 07, 2015

Maryland spends $288 million every year to imprison Baltimore residents — and the results are bleak

Washington, DC – According to a report released in February by the Justice Policy Institute and the Prison Policy Initiative, Maryland taxpayers are spending $5 million or more to incarcerate people from each of about half of Baltimore’s communities (25 of 55), with total spending of $288 million a year on incarcerating people from Baltimore in Maryland’s prisons.

Based on data recently made available by a new Maryland law, The Right Investment?: Corrections Spending in Baltimore City shows for the first time where people who are incarcerated are from, and how much Maryland taxpayers spend on their incarceration.

The report includes detailed maps and information that can better inform investment decisions in these communities to help solve long-standing challenges and improve public safety.

“Spending $288 million every year to incarcerate people from Baltimore isn’t the right choice for Maryland taxpayers,” said Marc Schindler, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute. “This costly investment in incarceration can decrease public safety, and undermine the ability to redirect funds to better long-term solutions that could prevent crime from happening in the first place, including education, housing, drug treatment and employment opportunities.”

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look up AA out of wedlock births and divorce rate. If Michelle Obama wanted to really fix the problem she would take up that cause. Instead she would rather keep the field workers on the voting plantation by talking about school lunches. The root cause of so many societal ills of all colors is lack of a succesful family unit.

Anonymous said...

If we can find a way to carve out Camden Yards and Raven Stadium, miles of razor wire would be a lot cheaper...and do when the General Assembly is out of session so we can catch all the bad actors!

Anonymous said...

Make them work while they are in prison. Why are they eating and housing for free????

If the article is insinuating that we "quit sending people to prison" ..I believe that is the WRONG MESSAGE.