Maryland’s Senate president said Monday that he is asking lawmakers to find more savings in a measure aimed at cutting spending on the state’s corrections system by reducing recidivism, after an analysis said changes made last week slashed previously projected savings.
Meanwhile, the Senate approved a modest tax-relief measure that will be phased in over five years. Also, the House passed a bill to increase police accountability. Lawmakers had studied the issue following last year’s unrest in Baltimore after the death of a black man who suffered injuries in the back of a police transport van.
The trouble with the corrections reform bill, known as the Justice Reinvestment Act, surfaced Monday morning after an analysis by the Pew Charitable Trust indicated that the estimated savings over 10 years have been reduced from about $247 million to less than $40 million.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, D-Calvert, said one of the major changes affecting the savings relates to caps on probation violations. For example, judges would have been directed to impose sentences of 15, 30 and 45 days for first, second and third probation violations — instead of potentially longer terms. The original bill had the caps, but the amended one doesn’t.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Brian Witte over at WTOP