Latest news with #MarylandParoleCommission
CBS News
23-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Nearly 150 bills signed into Maryland law, with some focusing on criminal justice reform
Maryland Gov. Moore signed nearly 150 bills into law Tuesday, including several that focus on criminal justice reform and improving public safety. The latest round of new state laws comes after the governor signed 94 bills after the end of the 2025 legislative session in early April. While the bills have been signed by the governor, many do not go into effect until later in the summer or fall of 2025. New bills on criminal justice reform, public safety Several of the bills signed into law this week focus on criminal justice and prison reform. The Second Look Act gives convicted criminals a chance to request a shorter prison sentence if the crime occurred while they were between 18 and 25 years old. The bill allows incarcerated individuals to request that their sentence be reduced if they meet certain criteria, like having served at least 20 years of their sentence. Gov. Moore also signed SB181, which requires the Maryland Parole Commission to consider the age of an incarcerated person when deciding if they should be granted parole. Another bill, HB775, requires the Commissioner of Corrections to notify certain representatives when an incarcerated person dies in a correctional facility. It also requires the Department of Public Safety and Correction Services to comply with certain federal regulations. The Organized Retail Theft Act of 2025 was also signed into law this week. The bill cracks down on people who commit thefts in multiple counties in an effort to stay below Maryland's $1,500 theft threshold. 142 bills signed into law Of the 142 bills that Gov. Moore signed Tuesday, some also focus on the rising use of Artificial Intelligence, like HB956, which creates a workgroup to monitor and make recommendations about the regulation of AI. Another bill, SB305, focuses on the rise of cryptocurrency. The bill establishes requirements for virtual currency kiosk operators and allows the Commissioner of Financial Regulation to investigate and enforce those requirements. Here are some of the other bills that were signed into law this week: Buddy's Law increases the amount of compensation from $10,000 to $25,000 for the owner of a pet that was injured or killed by another person or pet. The Maryland Secondary Market Stability Act establishes a workgroup to study and make recommendations about licensing requirements for those who provide financial services. SB186 establishes the Invasive Blue Catfish Pilot Program to slow the spread of the blue catfish in the Chesapeake Bay. SB550 authorizes Baltimore City leaders to impose a property tax on vacant and abandoned properties owned by certain organizations that would otherwise be exempt.
CBS News
10-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Maryland passes package of bills to reform criminal justice system
The Maryland General Assembly passed three bills that aim to reform the state's criminal justice system. Gov. Wes Moore signed more than 90 bills into law after the end of the 2025 legislative session Tuesday. Several of those bills addressed the state's economy and public safety, and more are still heading to his desk. Three bills passed by the General Assembly are being praised by Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and Public Defender Natasha Dartigue for addressing reform in the criminal legal system. The Geriatric and Medical Parole Reform bill allows some incarcerated people who are older or sick to apply for early release. The bill will change how the Maryland Parole Commission evaluates requests for medical parole, and add a meeting between the incarcerated person and the commission. Under the bill, the commission is required to consider the age of an incarcerated person when determining if they should be granted parole. The bill also takes away the governor's ability to deny a medical parole decision by the commission. The Commission is now required to conduct a risk assessment to determine if releasing an incarcerated person will impact public safety. "In just 18 months, we've made meaningful progress—offering relief to those who have been incarcerated far too long, particularly Black youth, and ensuring that individuals who are seriously ill or elderly have a chance to leave prison and live out their lives with dignity," Attorney General Brown said. Lawmakers also passed the Second Look Act, a bill that allows courts to review long prison sentences for people who were convicted of a crime that occurred when they were between the ages of 18 and 25. Attorney General Brown and Public Defender Dartigue praised the bill for creating pathways to redemption and acknowledging a person's transformation. Under the bill, incarcerated individuals will be able to request that their sentence be reduced. The bill lists several criteria, for example, the person cannot have been sentenced to life in prison. They have to serve at least 20 years of their sentence, and they will not be considered if they were convicted of a murder that involved a first responder in the line of duty. Similar bills were introduced during the 2025 legislative session, including the Maryland Clean Slate Act , which would have allowed some cannabis possession and misdemeanor charges to be expunged from criminal records. However, that bill did not pass. The Restorative Practices in Public Schools bill requires the Maryland Department of Education to create a guide to establish restorative practices in daily school activities. The restorative approach is proactive in setting behavioral expectations that contribute to the well-being of students. The practices focus on holding students accountable for harmful behavior. Under the bill, the restorative approaches include peer meditation, conflict resolution, social emotional learning and trauma-informed care. State education officials would help county school boards to implement the guidelines. Attorney General Brown and Public Defender Dartigue praised lawmakers for their efforts in criminal justice reforms. "The new laws are not simply policy—they are about real people, real families, and real communities finally seeing a path toward justice," Dartigue said. "Collectively, these laws will transform the lives of thousands of Marylanders, putting millions of dollars back into our state's coffers while striking at the heart of the racial injustices that have fueled our broken system of mass incarceration for far too long." In 2023, Brown and Dartigue created the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative (MEJC) to address racial disparities in mass incarceration. Ahead of the 2025 legislative session, they shared their recommendations and highlighted issues that they believe impact equality and fairness in the legal system. Among their recommendations, the Public Defender's Office (OPD) called for an end to the automatic charging of minors as adults, saying the practice disproportionately impacts Black and brown children. "While these reforms bring much-needed hope, our work is far from finished," Attorney General Brown said. "These changes are just the beginning, and we will continue to fight for broader reforms to ensure that all Marylanders have access to a truly equitable and just criminal legal system."
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Amid flurry of parole reform measures are two that tackle the parole process itself
Two aging inmates in a prison in San Luis Obispo, California. Maryland lawmakers are considering several parole reform bills this year, including two little-noticed bills that would reform the parole process itself. (Photo by) Amid high-profile proposals to make it easier for long-serving inmates to seek sentence reductions and to make work safer for parole agents are two largely overlooked efforts that supporters say are no less important: Reforming the parole process itself. 'Looking at the process of parole may seem, you know, not as big, but it is, especially for those incarcerated. Just trying to increase … a little bit more transparency and predictability,' said Del. Elizabeth Embry (D-Baltimore City). 'I'm just saying [there's] room for improvement, and we hope this bill will advance us toward that improvement.' Embry is the sponsor of House Bill 1147, which calls for an annual report by the Maryland Parole Commission breaking down the number of cases it has heard and approved in a year, broken down by race, and requiring that inmates who are rejected for parole get a report detailing the reasons why. Currently, they have to ask for that information. Del. N. Scott Phillips' (D-Baltimore County) House Bill 1156 would increase the number of Parole Commission members from the current 1o to at least 15 but no more than 20. More importantly, those members, currently nominated by the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, would be nominated instead by the governor, from a list of candidates drawn up by a new commission made up of law enforcement officials, public defenders, health and education officials and more. The Parole Commission nominees would still need to be confirmed by the Senate. Both Phillips' and Embry's bills are scheduled to be heard March 4 before the House Judiciary Committee. 'Parole [reform] will be something we will definitely take a look at,' Del. Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City), chair of the committee, said in an interview earlier this month. Clippinger said the two bills 'generally, but not specifically' resemble legislative priorities from Campaign Zero, a national social justice organization led by a Maryland native DeRay Mckesson. Mckesson, one of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, served on a Maryland task force in 2023 to evaluate data collection and policies within Maryland's state's attorneys' offices, and to assess whether prosecutors' practices are fair and equitable. Mckesson said attempts to reform of the Parole Commission are welcome. 'We need to modernize the structure of the Parole Commission. So few people understand the parole process. We just want fairness in the parole system,' he said in an interview earlier this month. The Parole Commission, a part of the department within correctional services, is a full-time body that holds parole hearings on a case-by-case basis to determine whether those serving six months or longer should be granted parole. The commission chair draws a $132,000 salary and commissioners are paid $117,000, according to the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The 10-member board is scheduled to meet every other Wednesday but currently it has three vacancies. The department declined comment on the two latest bills, except to say that it 'recognizes the critical role legislation plays in building a more just and effective correctional system in Maryland.' Embry's bill calls for additional data that is not currently required in the commission's annual report of its work to the governor, such as figures 'disaggregated by race of relevant incarcerated individuals.' Some of the other information must highlight the number of cases in which the commission granted or denied parole; the number of people granted administrative release; the number of parole hearings and purpose of each hearing; and the number of people eligible for parole but never granted it. Hearing examiners who review each incarcerated individual's case and make a recommendation to the commission for or against parole would have one week, instead of the current three, to deliver a report the to the inmate, the commission and the Department of Corrections, spelling out the reasons for the recommendation. In addition to including the 'reasoning and justifications for the recommendation,' an individual denied parole would have to get another hearing scheduled 'not later than two years' from the denial. Currently, there's no requirement to when a subsequent parole hearing must be scheduled. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The bill also specifies that, 'The Commission does not have the authority to permanently deny parole.' 'There's a need for [parole] improvement and we hope this bill will advance us toward that,' Embry said in a recent interview. Phillips' bill would take hearing examiners out of the process of recommending parole approval or denial. Under the current law, the commission can skip a hearing on a parole case if there are no objections from the inmate or the department, in which case the hearing examiner's recommendation become the final decision. Phillips' bill would also alter not only who serves on the Parole Commission, but how members are appointed for a six-year term. When there's a vacancy on the commission, a 12-member panel would submit at least three nominees to the governor. Those panel members would include the public defender, president of the Maryland State's Attorney's Association, the executive director of the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission and four appointees of the governor – three from the general public and a prisoners' rights advocate. Some advocates noted the Parole Commission should diversify its panel. DPSCS confirmed that three former department employees are now parole commissioners: Chair Ernest Eley, Robyn Lyles and Lisa Vronch. Second Look Act draws hours of testimony in House Judiciary Committee Maryland is currently one of just four states, along with Kansas, Michigan and Ohio, that do not allow the governor to directly choose person to serve on a parole commission. 'This is to start a conversation about really looking at how the Parole Commission operates, particularly who's on the Parole Commission and what workload do they have right now,' Phillips said in a recent interview. 'Really having people to be a little more accountable in the process.' Clippinger said he wants to see action this year on one parole measure that has been reviewed for several years — removing the governor from the medical parole process. That bill, sponsored since 2022 by Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel), vice chair of the Judiciary committee, will be heard Tuesday by Judiciary. A companion Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George's), was held Feb. 13. The measure passed the Senate last year, but did not get out of Judiciary. 'We want to get the medical piece done this year. We're going to try and make that happen,' Clippinger said, standing near Bartlett. 'We're going to get it done,' Bartlett said.
