Maryland Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council Convenes June 22

State Officials Announce Joint Effort to Improve Public Safety and Control Costs Through Criminal Justice Reform

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Governor Larry Hogan, in conjunction with President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr., Speaker Michael E. Busch, Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera and Attorney General Brian E. Frosh announced today that Maryland has launched a collaborative reform-driven process to improve public safety and control corrections costs.

The Maryland Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council (JRCC), established by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Hogan, will hold its first meeting June 22 in Annapolis. The JRCC will use a data-driven approach to develop a statewide framework of sentencing and corrections policies to safely reduce Maryland’s incarcerated population, control corrections spending and reinvest in more effective, less expensive strategies to increase public safety and reduce recidivism.

“We must ensure that every Maryland tax dollar spent on our criminal justice system delivers the highest public safety return on investment,” said Governor Hogan. “I look forward to working with the council members, members of the General Assembly and other criminal justice stakeholders to ensure Maryland is best positioned to hold offenders accountable, rein in corrections spending and protect our state’s hardworking taxpayers.”

“Our number one concern is to ensure the citizens of Maryland, our neighbors and families will never be at risk,” said Stephen T. Moyer, Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. “While there has been programming in the past to better prepare inmates for release, we cannot continue to follow outdated processes, simply because ‘that is the way it’s always been.’ Nonviolent criminals should be supervised in the least restrictive environment which is community supervision under outstanding case management.”

Maryland will receive technical assistance from the Pew Charitable Trusts and its partner, the Crime and Justice Institute at Community Resources for Justice. This assistance is provided as part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, a public-private partnership between Pew and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. Over the past several years, more than half of the states in the country have deployed justice reinvestment strategies to reduce the prison population, control corrections spending and protect public safety through policies that focus prison space on serious, repeat and violent offenders while reinvesting savings from averted prison costs into evidence-based incarceration alternatives and community supervision practices proven to reduce an offender’s likelihood of reoffending.

The JRCC consists of representatives from the state executive, legislative and judicial branches, local government and a wide array of criminal justice stakeholders. The Council will spend the next five months analyzing the state’s prison, parole and probation populations, considering evidence-based community supervision strategies and developing recommendations. They will also convene an advisory stakeholder group and conduct roundtable forums for public input from every region in Maryland. A final report will be submitted to the Governor and General Assembly by December 31, 2015.

“For too many individuals, incarceration becomes a way of life, in which they flounder in a cycle of recidivism. It is clear we need a new direction in how we supervise offenders,” said Christopher Shank, Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention, and Chair of the JRCC. “The current revolving door of the criminal justice system is a drain on our economy. We need these individuals to be contributing members of their communities. The justice reinvestment process will ensure prison beds are reserved for the most serious criminals and low-level offenders are supervised through community-based programs that are proven to be effective. Everyone wins when that happens.”

Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council Members

• Christopher B. Shank, Executive Director, Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention, Chairman
• Senator Bobby Zirkin
• Senator Michael Hough
• Senator Nathaniel McFadden
• Senator Douglas Peters
• Delegate Kathleen Dumais
• Delegate Erek Barron
• Delegate Michael Malone
• Delegate Geraldine Valentino-Smith
• Judy Sachwald, Director of Parole and Probation
• Sam J. Abed, Secretary of the Department of Juvenile Services
• David Eppler, Attorney General’s Office
• Paul DeWolfe, Office of the Public Defender
• Judge Diane O. Leasure, Howard County Circuit Court (Ret)
• Robert L. Green, Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation
• Sheriff Troy D. Berry, Charles County
• Scott Shellenberger, State’s Attorney, Baltimore County
• Judge Joseph Murphy, Maryland Court of Appeals (Ret)
• Caryn Aslan, Job Opportunities Task Force
• Tim Maloney, Attorney
• LaMonte E. Cooke, Queen Anne’s County Detention Center