Pretrial Justice – Talking Points
It is crucial that we contact our delegates and senators and urge them to approve action this year in the State legislature. In particular we need to address Delegate Joseph F. Vallario, Jr., the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and Senator Bobby A. Zirkin, the Chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Those committees must first approve the legislation before it is heard by the full body.
So, in turn, we urge you to email Senator Zirkin and Delegate Valerio using the links below. It is best if you add a message in your own words to the email, but just in case we have provided a few talking points which you could cut-and-paste into your email as you wish.
Talking Points
Maryland’s 2017 Pretrial – Justice Reinvestment Act offers a half-dozen tools to reduce costly pretrial detention with long-term taxpayer savings. These include:
1) Use of a low-cost pilot program in three or four willing counties to show effectiveness and savings
2) State coordination to assure program effectiveness and to help counties economize on training and computer programming for pretrial supervision.
3) Expanded use of citations for misdemeanor arrests.
4) Streamlined handling of technical violations of probation
5) Require timely pretrial screening by prosecutors,
6)Pretrial diversion when available and appropriate.
Email Links
