Rehabilitating criminals drives Ehrlich ‘vision’

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is revamping the Maryland correctional system to focus on rehabilitating criminals instead of giving them long-term prison sentences.

“It is my vision,” Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, told The Washington Times. “It is a vision I have always had and advocated.”

The major part of Mr. Ehrlich’s plan is allocating $2 million to hire 210 staffers to rehabilitate prisoners before their release.

“It is giving people who are coming back to the community a choice not to re-offend.” he said. “Basically, they [will] have a choice now.”

About 25 states in the past year have replaced mandatory sentencing with treatment, rehabilitation or early-release programs.

The shift away from “get tough” sentencing has been led mostly by Republican lawmakers who are faced with a state budget crisis and are unwilling to increase taxes to build more prisons.

Kansas legislators, for example, needed to build $15 million worth of prisons but instead passed a law that sends some nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of jail.

John Vratil, a Republican and chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, said the change could reduce Kansas’ prison population by about 15 percent.

Maryland faces a shortfall of more than $700 million.

Alabama, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Washington also have passed similar legislation for first-time or nonviolent criminals.

However, Mr. Ehrlich said he conceived the plan long before the recent trend, when he was serving in Congress several years ago.

“It is coming down from me because I think that it is the right thing to do,” he said. “I know that a lot of different governors have been associated with it, but this is something that my administration has supported since day one.”

Mr. Ehrlich pledged a “significant increase” in the amount of money spent on drug treatment during his 2002 gubernatorial campaign, according to the Associated Press.

He also said Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat, had failed to provide adequate drug treatment to prison inmates and juvenile offenders and, as a result, recidivism was “guaranteed.”

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