Montgomery lawmakers want to shorten the stay of inmates in county jails to save money.

For the third year in a row, the county council is supporting legislation that would prohibit judges from sentencing criminals to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility for more than 12 months, said Councilman Phil Andrews (D-Dist. 3). Report by Gazette.net.

Before fiscal 2010, the state reimbursed counties for all inmates held longer than 90 days. That year, the state cut its reimbursement rate to the county by roughly two-thirds, to $45 per day for each inmate held between 12 and 18 months. The state cut all reimbursement payments for those held less than a year.

Statewide, county jail systems have lost more than $25 million since the new reimbursement formula was implemented. Montgomery County lost $3.4 million in fiscal 2010 alone, said Arthur M. Wallenstein, director of the Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.

“The bottom line is, the state’s decision not to reimburse the county for holding prisoners who stay longer than 12 months in our jails, costs the county a little over $3 million a year and this is the third year of that,” Andrews said.

The state’s old reimbursement formula paid county facilities based on the actual operating costs of each jail. In Montgomery County, the daily rate had been $141.18 for every inmate, according to Wallenstein. Because the reduced reimbursement rate also applied to fewer individuals, the cut was more painful, Wallenstein said.

The Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds can hold as many as 1,208 inmates. Last week, there were 963 inmates, and at least 25 of them were expected to serve between 12 and 18 months, Wallenstein said.

State law gives Maryland judges the option of sending criminals with sentences between 12 and 18 months to either local or state facilities.

The county’s fiscal 2012 budget for corrections and rehabilitation is $64.26 million, with less than $500,000 projected to come from the state, said Craig Dowd, budget and procurement manager for the department.

Andrews said the cuts endanger the county’s jail rehabilitation programs, which include treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues, cognitive behavioral modification, basic education, life skills and workforce preparation.

“Without state funding, it creates considerable pressures on the system,” Andrews said. “It makes it harder for the jail to run any of their programs.”

Tammy Budgets, MD Montgomery County, Regional Jails, Sentencing

Syscon Justice Systems, the world’s leader in offender management solutions, announced today that it is progressing on schedule with the implementation of the company’s enhanced Elite Jail Management Systems (JMS) into the four facilities operated by the Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (DOCR) in Maryland.

The new CRIMS system, will replace the facility’s older mainframe system and associated programs that have been developed ad-hoc over the past twenty years. Syscon’s state-of-the-art application will fully integrate the major portions of jail functionality, including Pre-Trial Services, Jail Management, Pre-Release and Re-Entry Services (including Work Release), Inmate Trust Accounting, and Medical/Mental Health Services. The Elite JMS utilizes an enterprise-wide data model that will significantly improve efficiency within DOCR, advance the agency’s information tracking of offenders, and provide important tools to support the agency’s mission of public safety.

Montgomery County DOCR, which houses more than 1,200 inmates on a daily basis, and manages an additional 3,400 pre-trial defendants, chose Syscon’s Elite OMS through a competitive bid process, through reviews of Syscon’s successful implementations in other States and large County Jails, and after a full technical proof of concept was demonstrated to the County.

Syscon’s President Dan Crawford praised the management of Montgomery County DOCR, noting that “Syscon is always excited to be working closely with a progressive agency that takes advantage of the full benefits possible from their decision to move forward with Syscon.”

The Elite JMS, based on Syscon’s 29 years of exclusive dedication to the corrections industry, will look after all aspects of offender management in Montgomery County DOCR’s facilities.These functions include admission, sentence calculation and management, classification, assessment and security, inmate property, programs and services, inmate grievances and requests, incidents and offenses in custody, electronic health records, gangs and security threat management, visits management, inmate financial systems, and pre-trial management.

Implementation of the first phase of Elite is scheduled to be completed in November 2009.

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A monthly fee charged to Maryland parolees often grows to a burdensome debt that hinders their attempts to build a life after prison and runs counter to the mission of the parole program, according to a study that will be released this week.  The Baltimore Sun reports:

More than 80 percent of parolees do not pay the state parole supervision fee on time and some consider committing crimes to pay the fee, which amounts to an average of $750, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School. The report recommends that the state abandon the fee or streamline the process for financially strapped parolees to apply for an exemption.  “The population of people on parole is more or less indigent,” said Rebekah Diller, the study’s principal author. “They’re struggling at the most basic level to find housing and to find a job. The people we interviewed talked about the fact that this was yet another source of pressure. They felt like they were behind before they even started their lives after prison.”

Not everyone agrees.

“I would suggest that, rather than being abolished, this fee should be raised,” said Herb McMillan, president of the Maryland Taxpayers’ Association and a former state representative. “Fees save money for taxpayers. I think it’s fair that the individual should bear some of the cost of their parole.”

By the numbers:

Only 17 percent pay the fee before they complete parole. Many parolees are intimidated by letters that inform them that they could be found in violation of parole for not paying the fee, according to the report, which is based on records provided by the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation and interviews with parole officers and parolees.  Offenders are not charged with violating parole solely for not paying the supervision fee, although it is one of the factors considered if the person had committed other offenses …

The supervision fee is one of many that parolees might be required to pay, McGee said. Many owe restitution, court costs and charges for drug testing. Parole officers are responsible for drawing up payment plans and collecting those fees, in addition to helping parolees seek work and readjust to life outside prison.  “We collect millions of dollars each year; that’s a huge impact on our workload,” McGee said. “If we didn’t have to collect the money and it was done by someone else, we’d have more time to work with offenders in other things like finding jobs.”

There is more information and background at the Baltimore Sun.

vericatrajkova Community Corrections, Maryland, Probation and Parole

From The Examiner:

A 35-year veteran of the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation has been confirmed as the agency’s new director. Patrick McGee was confirmed Monday by the state Senate. He will oversee 1,200 employees, 44 field offices and a budget of roughly $100 million.   McGee began working as an agent in 1974. He also has been the agency’s substance abuse coordinator, deputy director for program services, and executive deputy director.

vericatrajkova Community Corrections, Maryland, Probation and Parole

In this time of economic turmoil some legislators in Kansas and elsewhere say the price of justice is too high. They have introduced legislation to take the death penalty off the books over financial concerns. CNN reports.

“Because of the downturn in the national economy, we are facing one of the largest budget deficits in our history,” state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Republican, said in an opinion piece posted on TheKansan.com Friday. “What is certain is we are all going to have to look at new and creative ways to fund state and community programs and services.”   The state would save more than $500,000 per case by not seeking the death penalty, McGinn wrote, money that could be used for “prevention programs, community corrections and other programs to decrease future crimes against society” …

A 2008 study by the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research group based in Maryland, found that an average capital murder trial in the state resulting in a death sentence costs about $3 million, or $1.9 million more than a case where the death penalty is not sought.  A similar 2008 study by the ACLU in Northern California found that a death- penalty trial costs about $1.1 million more than a non-death-penalty trial in California …

New Mexico, which also has a bill before the Legislature to abolish the death penalty, has already seen a case where costs dictated the outcome. Last year, the New Mexico attorney general’s office agreed to drop the death penalty for two inmates involved in the stabbing death of a guard, Ralph Garcia, during a 1999 riot at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility.   The change came after the state Legislature failed to provide additional funding for defense attorneys contracted to handle the case by the public defender’s office.  In court documents filed at the time, Attorney General Gary King said his office could not “in good faith under these circumstances” pursue the death penalty against Robert Young and Reis Lopez …

In Colorado, House Bill 1274 proposes to put the anticipated savings from abolishing the death penalty toward the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s cold case homicide team.

Other States with bills for an economic end to the death penalty include Washington, Montana, Nebraska, Texas and New Hampshire.

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The Maryland Division of Parole and Probation for the first time will be using the juvenile records of violent adult offenders in order to allow parole officers to better monitor those with violent tendencies, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Times.

The memo detailed several changes in the process for screening those who are placed in the division’s Violence-Prevention Unit, an outgrowth of a 2007 initiative from [Gov. Martin] O’Malley. The unit was created to reduce violent crimes by identifying those with violent histories or who show tendencies to continue down a violent path. The unit then monitors and supervises them more closely than normal parolees.  Division Director Phil Pie said that the new screening process includes the ability to look at an offender’s juvenile record, according to the memo …

The changes follow legislative proposals by Mr. O’Malley this year to allow the sharing of juvenile court records with other states and the District, as well as with other state and federal agencies that serve juvenile offenders.  “It’s a response to the technology used to swap data, and the fact that there is now greater sharing of intelligence between the [parole division] and local agencies. In short, the division has become much more proactive in preventing violent crime by offenders,” said Rick Benetti, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services …

State officials said that shooting victims are put into the program because they are more likely to try to take vengeance on the person who shot them.  “The idea is, if you’re an offender, and you’re involved in a shooting, whether a victim or not, chances are you’re doing something wrong,” Mr. Benetti said.  Maryland Delegate Jill Carter, Baltimore Democrat, questioned the program’s effectiveness, saying that it was part of Mr. O’Malley’s tendency to favor “stat-based symbolism over actual substance.”  “I disagree with any policy that would brand a victim of crime as a future criminal,” she said.

A great deal more detail is available in the full article at The Washington Times.

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Maryland’s corrections and public safety department is under financial strain because of cost-saving measures aimed at addressing the state’s budget deficit, and lawmakers are questioning how well it will be able to operate under the constraints.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections is underfunded in Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget by about $55.8 million based on current operations.  It’s underfunded by about $77 million for optimal staffing conditions. The budget proposal requires the agency to cut 400 vacant positions out of 837 in the department, which will have about 11,250 regular positions, the lowest number since 2005 …

Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary Maynard said the budget was put together with new 12-hour shifts for correctional officers in mind, but union opposition has put the longer shifts aimed at increasing efficiency in doubt.  “Initially, our budget was planned upon getting a 12-hour shift consideration by the union, but it looks like that may not be possible, so the amount that we put in there we’ve got to make that up somewhere else,” Maynard said …

G. Lawrence Franklin, a deputy secretary for the department … told a subcommittee Thursday that about half of the 837 vacant jobs in the department are correctional officers, a fact that will require careful consideration when deciding on the 400 vacant posts that will be eliminated. The Division of Corrections is the largest agency in the department.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, Maryland, Officer Contract Issues, Personnel Issues

Two years ago, Maryland Corrections Secretary Gary D. Maynard gave prison and local police officials a simple task: draw up lists of the most violent gang members being held in state custody. With the House of Correction set to be shuttered, the worst of the worst would be transported to out-of-state facilities.

The agencies submitted a total of 220 names, but to Maynard’s surprise, only eight appeared on more than one list. The prisons didn’t know who the police thought were most dangerous, and the police departments weren’t sharing the information with each other, either.   “I told them that we have a gang problem in our prison, and I think it reaches into the street. It was a problem we shared,” Maynard said.  During the next few months, dozens of top state law enforcement leaders began meeting to discuss broader ways to share intelligence. Now they’re pushing for legislation in the General Assembly to define gangs, correctional training facilities have adopted uniform curricula to help track gangs, and beginning this month the prison system began using a formal system to notify a jurisdiction when an inmate with known gang connections is heading to their area.  Police will also share more information with the prison system, helping corrections officials get a leg up by receiving information that would take far longer to develop through observation. Keeping members of rival gangs apart can prevent violence …

Before the collaborative effort, prison officials had scant information about who was heading into their facilities.  “When people came into prison, we got a rap sheet that showed their conviction, but it didn’t really speak to violence, and says nothing about gang involvement,” Maynard said. “We had to learn by trial and error who the bad actors were” …

Public safety officials have said the state’s prisons house more than 2,200 “validated” gang members – inmates whose identity as gang members has been firmly established. That’s nearly 10 percent of the 23,000 inmates in Maryland. Kristen Mahoney, executive director of the Governor’s Office on Crime Control and Prevention, said gangs are “created in prison and leave prison and work out in the streets.”

The full article in the Baltimore Sun has more detailed information.

vericatrajkova Gangs (STGs), Maryland

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has announced the expansion of a juvenile justice services program into Prince George’s County and said he would ask the legislature to allow increased information sharing about at-risk youths among government agencies and bordering jurisdictions.

O’Malley said Operation Safe Kids, which provides more intensive services for at-risk youths, will move into Prince George’s. Money to expand the the program, which is already operating in Baltimore, was approved last year by the General Assembly. About 75 children a year in Prince George’s are expected to be served by the program. O’Malley also urged lawmakers not to cut $1.3 million set aside for the program in an austere budget for next fiscal year that he proposed [earlier this week].

vericatrajkova Juvenile Justice, MD Baltimore, MD Prince George's County, Maryland

Officials are considering longer work days for Maryland correctional officers, a decision some say would put the workers at risk.

Unions representing those officers and some members of Washington County’s delegation in Annapolis say the 12-hour shifts would make prisons, including the three south of Hagerstown, less safe. Correctional employees currently work eight-hour shifts …

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed budget, which was released Wednesday, includes a move to 12-hour shifts for all corrections employees, including correctional officers and support staff. That change is expected to save the state $8 million in overtime costs.  Similar proposals have been made in the past, but received little support in Maryland’s General Assembly or from labor unions.The proposed budget also includes about $1.7 million in cuts for Roxbury Correctional Institution and an additional $1.3 million in cuts for Maryland Correctional Training Center …

Del. Christopher B. Shank, R-Washington, is against 12-hour work days for correctional officers, and said that the employees he has spoken to also oppose them. He said officers are concerned about the effect of longer shifts on their safety. Morale and family concerns also have been mentioned.  “I don’t see how this could conceivably be worth any consideration,” Shank said.   Sen. Alex X. Mooney, R-Frederick/ Washington, disagreed, saying he did not understand why longer shifts would harm safety or families.   “It appears to be family friendly,” Mooney said. “You can work a longer shift, have more time at home, less time commuting.”  Mooney said 12-hour shifts for correctional employees are a “win-win,” and he said he supports the decision.

There are a great many more details in the full article from the Herald-Mail.

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