Respondents to The Evening Sun's phone survey were almost evenly split on whether Maryland should provide a special facility for women prisoners and their newborn children for the first 18 months.

Of 721 callers, 337 (46 percent) said the state should provide such a facility, while 384 said the state should not.

"It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically, as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.