Latest news with #ElizabethEmbry
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Is it really parole-eligible if inmates can't get a hearing? Time to modernize Maryland parole
(Illustration by Pict Rider/iStock Getty Images Plus) Maryland's parole system has fallen far behind national standards, refusing eligible individuals parole hearings and allowing department staff – rather than appointed parole commissioners – to conduct the majority of parole hearings. Two bills that passed the House this session, House Bill 1147, sponsored by Del. Elizabeth Embry (D-Baltimore City) and others, and House Bill 1156, sponsored by Del. N. Scott Phillips (D-Baltimore County), aim to correct these fundamental issues and ensure that parole operates as intended. In Maryland, state law does not explicitly state that a parole-eligible person ever has to get a parole hearing. It has been the practice of the Parole Commission (parole board) that incarcerated people are given at least one hearing and, if they are denied, must apply for all future hearings. Maryland Matters welcomes guest commentary submissions at editor@ We suggest a 750-word limit and reserve the right to edit or reject submissions. We do not accept columns that are endorsements of candidates, and no longer accept submissions from elected officials or political candidates. Opinion pieces must be signed by at least one individual using their real name. We do not accept columns signed by an organization. Commentary writers must include a short bio and a photo for their bylines. Views of writers are their own. Maryland is one of only four states that requires applications for subsequent hearings – alongside Delaware, Idaho, and Utah – and the Parole Commission routinely refuses these hearing applications. Over the past two years, the commission has refused hearings to more than 1,000 people each year (1,126 in 2023 and 1,159 in 2024), including hundreds of hearings for people in prison for nonviolent offenses. These aren't parole denials, these are denials of the request for a hearing. The Parole Commission is effectively refusing parole eligibility to thousands of people whom both the legislature and courts have already determined to be eligible. It's currently within the Parole Commission's authority to refuse people's request for a hearing each time they apply, effectively changing a parole-eligible sentence to one without parole. This practice was not the intent of the legislature. Is a sentence really parole-eligible if the law doesn't state that you actually get a parole hearing? HB1147 would establish a schedule for subsequent parole hearings, ensuring eligible people are considered at specific intervals and providing the commission with a predictable cadence for scheduling. Additional provisions in HB1147 would clean up some basic housekeeping: removing administrative delays for providing a person their records, making sure all victim-impact statements are considered by the commission, ensuring recordings of hearings are retained throughout a person's incarceration and ensuring a prompt official decision on parole, alongside justifications for each decision. Further, it's a common misconception that parole commissioners conduct all parole hearings in Maryland. By law, parole commissioners are only required to conduct hearings for people convicted of a homicide or serving a parole-eligible life sentence. The majority of incarcerated people (~60%) will have their parole hearing in front of a hearing examiner, a department staff member who conducts a hearing alone and decides whether to recommend release. These hearing examiners are selected by the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services – the governor and Senate never review or approve their names. It is a system without checks and balances rife for abuse. Parole is a crucial step toward successful re-entry and release is an important decision: Is the incarcerated person ready to transition to community supervision? HB1156 would swap out hearing examiners for an expanded Parole Commission, ensuring the people appointed to make release decisions meet with every person who is eligible for release. No department staff member should be conducting parole hearings alone. These bills do not change parole eligibility laws – they simply ensure that parole-eligible people get parole hearings, parole commissioners conduct their hearings, and adequate records and justifications are kept in their file. House Bills 1147 and 1156 would help modernize parole in Maryland, a move that is long overdue to ensure eligible people have the chance at parole that both the legislature and courts provided to them.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Advocates target gas company spending as Ferguson tamps down bill savings expectations
A bill from Del. Elizabeth Embry (D-Baltimore City) wouldl rein in the STRIDE program, which advocates say hase been abused by utilities to do unnecessary infrastructure work and bill it back to ratepayers. (File photo by Danielle E. Gaines/Maruland Matters) A day after he and other legislative leaders announced a package of bills to lower Marylanders' electricity costs, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) conceded Tuesday that the measures would provide very little short-term relief. 'There's no one thing that'll stop a $50-a-month increase … or a 40% decrease in prices,' Ferguson told reporters. 'That policy just doesn't exist.' But Ferguson expressed optimism, as he did during a news conference with fellow lawmakers the previous day, that the package of bills, if enacted, would eventually overhaul Maryland's energy landscape, increasing the amount of energy produced in Maryland, kick-starting the state's clean energy economy, and eventually lowering ratepayers' utility bills. Ferguson on Tuesday also said he could see the legislature tinkering with other utility policies this session to save consumers money. The possibilities, he said, include tinkering with the EMPOWER energy efficiency and climate program, which helps homeowners, renters, and businesses save energy and money, and upgrading the STRIDE program, which incentivizes gas utilities to repair and replace pipelines and other infrastructure. Adjusting the EMPOWER program, Ferguson said, 'will have marginal impacts, several dollars per month, which, you know, everything adds up. And then we're also looking through some potential changes to the STRIDE program, which has to do with transparency, for infrastructure, for the natural gas infrastructure, that we could potentially have some few dollars here and there monthly impacts.' 'So those are not incorporated in the bill as introduced, but we are looking to see if there are additional things that are immediate places,' Ferguson said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Around the same time Ferguson was sharing thse observations with reporters in Annapolis Tuesday morning, a group of elected officials, consumer advocates and environmentalists were gathered in front of Baltimore City Hall to argue for state legislation that would scale back the STRIDE program — and, they argued, lower utility bills in the process. The group included Attorney General Anthony Brown (D), Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen (D) and the House sponsor of the legislation, Del. Elizabeth Embry (D-Baltimore City), along with council members. The STRIDE law was enacted a dozen years ago to expedite natural gas infrastructure maintenance and repair work around the state. The idea was to give the state's natural gas utilities an incentive to repair and improve their infrastructure over a 30-year period — which in turn, proponents argued, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The utilities would be allowed to charge ratepayers a monthly surcharge on their gas bills to help defray the cost of the ambitious work schedule. But as utility bills have spiked in recent months, for a variety of reasons, critics of STRIDE have argued that gas companies are taking on work that may not be necessary, adding needless costs to consumers' bills — especially as the state looks to move away from fossil fuels. Embry's legislation, also sponsored by Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City), would restrict the type of infrastructure work STRIDE would pay for. 'It is a very commonsense, reasonable attempt to make the STRIDE Act accomplish what it was intended for, to create safety,' Embry said. David Lapp, who heads the Office of People's Counsel, a state agency that protects consumers' interests on utility matters, called reforming STRIDE 'single most important action Maryland can take to address the massive utility bills customers are facing today.' Lapp has frequently warned that as the 30-year program runs its course, poorer residents will bear the burden of paying for updated gas infrastructure, as wealthier property owners electrify their homes and commercial buildings. Embry's bill will be heard in the House Economic Matters Committee on Thursday afternoon, together with legislation to expand clean energy production in the state by Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery). A similar version of Embry's bill ran aground in the legislature last year, but as utility prices rise, the STRIDE program is getting more scrutiny. Meanwhile, the three energy bills that are part of the House and Senate leaders' legislative package, had yet to appear in full on the General Assembly's website as of Tuesday evening.
