xxdr_zombiexx

Maryland State Senate Wants Non-Violent Drug Offenders Offered Rehabilitation Instead of Jail

Senate Sends Bill to House for Consideration
By Nia Davis|Staff Writer|The Sentinel

The Maryland Senate passed a bill last Wednesday to divert non-violent drug offenders into treatment programs instead of incarceration, a move intended to treat drug addiction as a health issue as opposed to a criminal issue.

"Maryland is part of a growing national trend to treat drug addiction as a health issue, rather than a criminal justice issue," Michael Blain said, the Drug Policy Alliance's Director of Public Policy," and Marylanders will be healthier and safer as a result."

The Drug Policy Alliance is an organization created in 1994 that works to broaden the public debate on drug policy.

Under the Senate bill (SB194), a judge has the option of sending a detainee to a drug treatment facility or a halfway home after sending him to a drug counselor and evaluating his condition as opposed to sentencing him straight to jail.

The bill also includes $3 million in additional funding for drug treatment.

The passing of the legislation coincides with a recent study by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), Treatment or Incarceration? National and State Findings on the Efficacy and Cost Savings of Drug Treatment Versus Imprisonment. It concluded that treatment is better than incarceration in both reducing drug use and crime.

"On the whole, providing drug offenders with treatment is a more cost-effective way of dealing with substance addicted drug and nonviolent offenders than prison," the report states.

A previous report published by the Justice Policy Institute focused on racially disparate use of incarceration and revealed that

a disproportionate number of African Americans are serving time for non-violent drug crimes throughout the state. Out of the 12, 579 offenders admitted to prison in 1999, 41.6 percent were drug offenders, up from 16 percent of all prison admissions in the mid 1980s. The report also stated that the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services reported that by the end of June 2001, 24 percent of inmates were serving time for brug abuse offenses.

Specific information regarding the number of non-violent drug offenders arrested in 2003 in the county could not be obtained from the Prince George's County Police Department, because information on drug-related charges is not separated into a separate category but lumped into the overall category of felonies. However, if this law is enforced, it may significantly cut down the number of people serving time for non-violent crimes and save jail space.

"If they get treatment they won't come back to Prince George's County," Barry Stanton said, director of Corrections at the Prince George's County Department of Corrections.

The state of Maryland has been working on changing its policy on jailing non-violent drug offenders for a while. It was a subject of debate in the 2003 session of the General Assembly and has continued into 2004. Governor Robert Ehrlich included the subject in his 2003 inaugural speech.

"We must work together to get non-violent drug offenders out of jail and into treatment programs, where they belong," Ehrlich said.

Maryland will be following in the footsteps of states like California that has already implemented a similar program treating tens of thousands of people and saved the state and taxpayers millions of dollars, according to Michael Blain.

The legislation was overwhelmingly supported by organizations including the Women's Legislative Caucus, the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus as well as the Hispanic and Asian Caucuses.

"We realized that perhaps we needed to look at other disparages in relation to African Americans," Delegate Obie Patterson (D-Oxon Hill, Ft. Washington, Hillcrest Heights) said, Chairman of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus. He added that the organization commissioned the Justice Policy Institute to look into the number of non-violent drug offenders incarcerated each year and the institute found that 90 percent of the offenders were African American.

"We needed to look at this seriously and carve out legislation to make a difference." The organization worked with legislators on lobbying for a change in the policy. However, they said they did not receive enough money.

"We are concerned we didn't get all of the money we needed for the program," Delegate Patterson said. "But it is a small step in the right direction."

In May 2003, Maryland took a giant step forward in drug policy reform by becoming the second east coast state to permit medical marijuana use. While not fully legalizing the drug for medical uses the Republican Governor, Robert Ehrlich, signed a law that allows individuals to use a valid medical defense in court to avoid prison time. Ehrlich, standing up against his own party and pressure from the Bush Administration, said: "This is a position I've had for many, many years. It is not without controversy across parties, across chambers, across states, across the country."

This is not the only drug reform that the state has adopted. The state began a four and a half year study of industrial hemp in 2000 and, in 2001, passed legislation requiring law enforcement to record data at traffic stops to correct race-based traffic stops. Other bills pertaining to increased treatment services and reduced reliance on incarceration were considered in the 2003 session, and those efforts will continue in 2004.

The largest city in Maryland, Baltimore, has been at the forefront of drug reform for quite some time. During the 1990s, the city saw a huge upsurge in heroin use, with 10% of the population said to be addicted to heroin. The city began efforts to stem this problem by providing extensive treatment programs, needle exchanges, and naloxone to addicts. In 2001, Mayor O'Malley said of his city: "It's not an accident that San Francisco and Baltimore are the only cities heading in the right direction. We are the only two places that are working toward providing treatment for every addicted person within our cities."

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Torture Good, Healthcare Bad, Marijuana Evil.

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

Johnyapplseed

One more step in the right direction!
Though the law isn't directed at marijuana users specifically, I don't really know any violent stoners

JohnyA

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Free A Mind Seed The Planet

Suetaz

I was wondering why these two cities are so progressive when the rest of the country is so far behind. I'm guessing it has to do with the attitudes of those with the power to do something about it.

Hopefully, with the good example they are setting, more governors will stand up to the Bush administration or whoever ends up in the White House, and take a position similar to Governor Ehrlich's. In time, more will see that this is the right thing to do.

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smoking_joe_lee

Since everyone knows tho only reason that the gov signed the med mj law was because he has cancer, or was it his mama, whatever...It stands to reason that he signed this latest law because he has relatives in prison for drugs. His mama maybe? No republican does this kind of thing without some evil motive.

"I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs, or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me." Hunter S Thompson

WNB

Good for hard drug users, bad for weed smokers. Rehab is an insulting, demeaning waste of time for people who don't have a drug problem, but are still forced into it because they got caught with a sack of weed.

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Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

smoking_joe_lee

You are correct. This should not apply to anyone caught with a little pot. It appears that the policy is aimed at heroin addicts. If 10% of the population of Baltimore is hooked, that sounds like a problem. In many cases not solved by locking these people up. They need a second chance and some help. In this case, Maryland deserves a thumbs up.

captainkona

LOL Exactly.

The last time I accepted probation for a drug bust they sent me to AA.
Yeah, Alcoholics Anon. I don't drink at all. Still had to produce a "chip" for that Jabba the Hut looking Probation Officer. I was busted with small amounts of coke and weed. No NA, just AA. Go figure.

I've found it often better to just do the time.