ANNAPOLIS — Maryland prisons are filled to overflowing with 25,000 inmates, a costly legacy of two decades of a “lock ’em up and throw away the keys” approach to fighting crime.
Now the state is prepared to embark on a new approach to crime control, stressing treatment over punishment for many of the men and women in the criminal justice system.
A bill passed by the General Assembly this month would create the framework for diverting nonviolent offenders who abuse drugs and alcohol into treatment programs instead of prisons and jails. It was approved with support from a broad coalition that included Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the Legislative Black Caucus and conservative Republican lawmakers.
“If you can do something to resolve those [abuse] problems, you are going to reduce incarceration, reduce recidivism,” said Peter Luongo, director of the state Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration.
With the bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Mr. Ehrlich, Maryland joins a national movement to stress treatment over incarceration for nonviolent offenders whose crimes are likely the result of addiction to drugs and alcohol, said Michael Blain, director of public policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, a Washington-based group opposed to the national war on drugs.
Treatment “just makes sense, fiscally and socially, and is a step in the right direction to reducing the harm done by the war on drugs,” he said.
One key element of the plan would allow state’s attorneys to offer treatment instead of prosecution to nonviolent offenders with addiction problems. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would assess the extent of the addiction problems and devise a treatment program.
The criminal violation would not become a part of the permanent record for offenders who successfully complete the drug treatment program.
The legislation also would allow judges to put offenders directly into treatment programs and create an Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council in each county to develop local plans for treatment and counseling.
Vincent Schiraldi, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute, which lobbied for the law, said the most important provision would allow early release of inmates who have committed nonviolent crimes and have a treatment program to attend.
“The 1990s were the most punishing decade on record in Maryland history,” Mr. Schiraldi said.
During that period, the number of inmates in Maryland prisons increased by almost 20 percent, from fewer than 20,000 to more than 23,000, according to the state Division of Correction.
The legislature, on a bipartisan basis, exhibited a willingness during the 2004 session to look beyond punishment and consider treatment as a better way to deal with crime, he said.
The legislation that was approved at the end of the legislative session was an amalgam of bills proposed by Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, and by members of the Legislative Black Caucus. It was the result of what participants in the process said were long and difficult negotiations.
“At several points we thought it was not going to fly,” said Delegate Obie Patterson, Prince George’s County Democrat and chairman of the Black Caucus, which made the bill its top priority for the legislative session.
The legislation is an important first step toward “providing individuals with counseling and treatment in lieu of stacking them up in prison,” Mr. Patterson said. “Hopefully, we can help these individuals to get back on the right track and become productive citizens and get jobs and pay taxes and help the state of Maryland.”
About 23,300 inmates are confined in state prisons at an average annual cost of $23,000 each, and about 3,000 sleep in areas such as gymnasiums because there are not enough cells, said Mary Ann Saar, secretary of public safety and correctional services. The total does not include an additional 3,000 held in the pretrial detention center while awaiting court dates.
Miss Saar said 75 percent to 80 percent of inmates abused drugs or alcohol or both before they were incarcerated.
The legislation will mesh with the Ehrlich administration’s plans to provide more addiction treatment while inmates are in prison and “makes such sense it should have been done immediately,” she said.
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