As a state senator who helped write Maryland's bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation this year, I felt compelled to respond to former Gov. Martin O'Malley's commentary, "Progress is a choice, Baltimore" (June 10). The multiple misconceptions presented in his op-ed reveal the backward thinking on criminal justice which, until recently, held our state back for so many years.
First, there is a bit of irony in Governor O'Malley doling out criminal justice advice. Under his leadership, Maryland lagged far behind as states across the rest of the nation enacted common sense criminal justice reform leading to improved outcomes. Beginning with Texas in 2007, over 30 states, both red and blue, initiated smart criminal justice reforms that held offenders accountable, gave low-level offenders a second chance and reduced recidivism. Here in Maryland, however, Mr. O'Malley clung to an outdated "tough on crime" mantra, posing an insurmountable hurdle to any meaningful reform. Remember this is the same governor who shamelessly failed to grant parole to anyone, even after they were approved by his parole board due to fear of having a "Willie Horton" incident. Only after Governor O'Malley departed from office was Maryland able to enact broad criminal justice reform that will protect our communities, control corrections spending and reduce the rate at which offenders return behind bars.
In his commentary, Mr. O'Malley criticizes our recently enacted, bipartisan reform because we jettisoned the Violence Prevention Initiative. This program called for intensive, zero tolerance community supervision for offenders who had committed violent crimes. While on paper this program sounds rational, in effect it meant officers were not able to supervise offenders based on their actual risk to the community but instead based on the crime they committed. This meant that an individual who posed a higher risk of re-offending could have a lower level of supervision. It also meant that parole officer caseloads were divided up and in some cases dramatically increased, which left some officers with over 200 offenders to supervise.
In addition, the zero tolerance portion of this program meant that for even a minor violation of supervision, such as a dirty drug test or missed appointment, the state would jail an offender for up to the remainder of their sentence at a cost of over $38,000 per year. This program contributed to Maryland's very expensive and failing corrections system where four in 10 offenders are returned to prison within three years of their release. Evidence from other states shows us there is a better way.
The Justice Reinvestment Act, as passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Larry Hogan, calls for every offender to be assigned a risk level and for the conditions of their supervision to match that risk level. Instead of zero tolerance, we created a system of sanctions that matches a swift and certain punishment to the infraction. No more five year sentences for one dirty drug test. As in other states, these reforms will improve the performance of our justice system and save taxpayer dollars.
Let us not forget, Mr. O'Malley was responsible for the mass arrest, zero tolerance policies of Baltimore while he was mayor. During his time as mayor, arrest rates nearly doubled to over 100,000 per year, which amounts to about one-sixth of the city's population, with the emphasis on arresting people for minor crimes. This clearly led to problems with relations between police and the community. While Mr. O'Malley writes that arrest rates had nothing to do with the recent riots, I would argue his policies made it harder for those with criminal records to find jobs for many years into the future, which leads to more poverty, desperation and the revolving door of our state's corrections system.
Many of the former governor's criminal justice ideas are from the past, and they should stay there. With Mr. O'Malley gone, Democrats and Republicans in Annapolis have been able to pass meaningful criminal justice reform that will improve Baltimore and the rest of the state.
Sen. Michael Hough, Annapolis
The writer is a Republican state senator representing District 4, Carroll and Frederick counties.