Legum’s New Line

Substance abuse is a serious drain on Maryland’s financial resources, crowding the courts and filling up jails. A new report by the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute finds that there are insufficient resources for treatment and prevention. The Capital has the details:

There were about 70,000 Marylanders admitted to treatment in 2007, but thousands more remained untreated, according to the institute’s report…

Maryland spends an average of $117 million – 0.64 percent of the state’s budget – on substance-abuse prevention, treatment and research, which ranks it third in the nation for per capita spending.

Yet out of every $100 spent on substance abuse in Maryland, only about $4.53 goes toward prevention and treatment efforts.

That results in “a substance-abuse system which struggles to stretch its resources to meet the need for treatment of current abusers, with little left to make effective strides in prevention,” the report stated.

To address our long-term budget problems, we need to not only cut spending but also figure out how to use the money we do spend more efficiently.

You can read the full report here.

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The Maryland State Senate spent the day debating and amending the Governor’s proposal to repeal the death penalty. Sen. Richard Madaleno (D-Montgomery County), a strong proponent of repeal, writes the New Line with a good summary of the day’s events:

It is often hard to understand how quickly a bill’s fortunes can change in the course of one day. Earlier today, I wrote about the success we had in moving the death penalty repeal to the Senate floor for debate. This afternoon, we took up the measure again for possible amendments. Unfortunately, on a vote of 24 to 23, the Senate adopted an amendment offered by Sen. Jim Brochin (D-Towson) that deleted the repeal and instead only prohibited the death penalty in cases where the evidence is limited to eyewitness testimony. I voted against the amendment as it essentially gutted the bill.

Recognizing that we now had a greatly watered down bill, Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Bethesda), the floor leader on the bill, accepted a second amendment offered by Sen. Bobby Zirkin (D-Pikesville) to add a series of evidentiary requirements that a prosecutor must satisfy in order to seek the death penalty. It is believed that these new standards would eliminate 85% of the cases where the death penalty is currently sought. While there were many more amendments drafted and ready to be offered, the chamber decided to break for the evening so that these concepts could be drafted to the bill in its new form. We will reconvene tomorrow morning at 9am to start again.

Right now, we are working on strategies to revive the repeal, but it looks like this is what may pass the Senate at this point. However, the cause is not lost as the bill could be strengthened by the House of Delegates.

Long story short: it’s looking increasingly unlikely that Maryland will repeal it’s death penalty this year. Stay tuned to the New Line for details.

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The Pew Center on the States has a new report about the number of Americans in the correctional system – either behind bars, in parole or on probation. In Maryland, one out of every 27 citizens is in the system. Here’s the breakdown:

Probation: 98,470

Parole: 13,856

Jail: 13,632

Prison: 23,382

Total Correctional Population: 156,776

Maryland’s incarceration rate has increased 86% since 1982, while the rate of people in parole or on probation has increased 42% over the same period of time. Maryland spends 8.2% of the total state budget –- over $1 billion — on the corrections system.

The proportion of Marylanders in the correctional system exceeds the national average.

The Pew Study suggests that new techniques, including “[g]lobal positioning systems, rapid-result drug tests and other technology,” can “produce double-digit reductions in recidivism and save states money along the way.”

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