Racial & Geographic Disparities
What’s the problem?
Throughout Maryland’s criminal justice system, African-Americans and other minorities are impacted at more than twice the rate of White Marylanders, although whites are reported to violate the laws at roughly the same rates. This phenomenon repeats from traffic stops, to searches, arrests, charges, pretrial incarceration, prison sentences, and parole or probation.
Some Maryland counties and Baltimore City experience this problem at rates higher than others.
The Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy (MSCCSP) also is charged by statute with the responsibility to “reduce unwarranted disparity, including any racial disparity, in sentences for criminals who have committed similar crimes and have similar criminal histories.” Md.Code, Crim.Proc.Art.,sec.6-202. MSCCSP, in recent years, considered the question and concluded that a more comprehensive study reaching far beyond sentencing is needed:
MSCCSP, in its (December 2023-revised) “Assessment of Racial Differences in Maryland Guidelines-Eligible Sentencing Events” report, confirmed that the problem is not limited to our sentencing process: “Black and Hispanic individuals generally received more stringent criminal sentences in Maryland, including higher incarceration rates and longer sentences, on average, in comparison to White sentenced individuals”; and, further, that “Blacks’ mean offender scores are only 22% higher than Whites’ offender scores, [but] Black Marylanders’ pretrial detention is substantially higher than Whites’ and their median overall non-suspended sentences is double that of Whites.”
Overall, the disproportionate rate of incarceration of African-Americans in Maryland prisons is the highest in all 50 U.S. states – even higher than that in #2 Mississippi. Why?
A solution
We can’t fix a problem that we don’t understand. MSCCSP, as Maryland’s sentencing commission, has recommended a solution which calls for action by the Maryland General Assembly: “[t]he State should consider funding a study such as the one conducted
by the Criminal Justice Policy Program at the Harvard Law School (Bishop et al., 2020) to complete a comprehensive analysis regarding the impact of race at multiple points of the criminal justice system to understand potential sources of disparity more fully. Specifically, a study should be commissioned to collect data to address potential differences in arrest, pretrial detention, and prosecution charging decisions” with particular attention to the drivers of these differences including 1) disparate pre-trial detention of African-Americans, 2) the impact of mandatory minimum sentencing, 3) the disparate sentencing of Hispanic – Marylanders despite their lesser prior records, and 4) the jurisdictional differences of sentencing alternative programs.
What other jurisdictions have done
Other U.S. states have initiated studies of similar problems, as MSCCSP notes. Their answers aren’t identical – reflecting the need for a data-based study in Maryland.
For example, For example, a September 2020 Harvard University study of Massachusetts racial disparities found that initial charges were heavier against black and minority defendants; this, in turn, weakened their bargaining position in plea agreements.
A July 2020 Wisconsin report found blacks’ rate of incarceration on violations of probation especially disproportionate; a prior local Wisconsin study found 74% more likelihood for white defendants than black defendants to receive a plea agreement without incarceration.
Maryland, from its own study, could identify our trouble points and devise policies to eliminate the racial discrimination which is occurring in various Maryland jurisdictions.
Read More:
Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System in Wisconsin (July 2020), https://www.badgerinstitute.org/BI-Files/Reports/RacialDisparitiesBrief.pdf
Major Disparity in Massachusetts Criminal Justice (September 2020) –https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2020/09/harvard-law-school-report-on-racial-disparities-in-the-massachusetts-criminal-system
South Carolina studies
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/29/racial-bias-criminal-sentencing-south-carolina
Racial bias evident in South Carolina criminal sentences, study reveals
https://www.sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2021/01/uofsc_law_alum_seeks_to_eliminate_racial_disparities_in_justice_system.php#.Ya9qQy-cZPM
Disparities in the Criminal Justice System
https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/criminology_and_criminal_justice/beyond_the_classroom/reu/index.php
Transparency In Plea Bargaining
http://ndlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/NDL302-Turner_crop.pdf
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