Facts and Policy Reforms for Maryland
Like most states, Maryland’s prison population has exploded in recent decades.
Since 1980, the state’s prison population has nearly tripled. In 2016, 20,374 people were imprisoned in Maryland — that’s 339 out of every 100,000 Maryland residents.
While admissions to Maryland’s prisons for drug offenses has declined by 74 percent since 2005, nearly one out of every five people admitted for new offenses in 2016 had a drug charge. Common offenses for new prison admissions also include robbery, assault, theft, and burglary. While prison admissions have decreased in recent years -- particularly admissions of people from Baltimore City -- nearly half of admissions in 2016 still came from Baltimore. Maryland’s prison population is also rapidly aging: In 2016, one out of every six people imprisoned in the state was over the age of 50.
Unsurprisingly, Maryland’s mass incarceration crisis has had an enormous impact on people of color, especially Black people. As of 2014, Maryland had the highest proportion of Black people in prison in the country. The percentage of Black people in prison in the state (70 percent) was more than double the percentage of Black people in the state population (30 percent), as of 2016. Ending mass incarceration is a critical — although insufficient — step toward addressing racial disparities in Maryland’s criminal justice system. Women are also being sent to prison in Maryland at alarming rates. The number of women in Maryland prisons increased almost twice as fast as the general population between 1980 and 2015.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Maryland can dramatically reduce its prison population by implementing just a few sensible reforms:
- Decriminalizing drug possession and possession with the intent to distribute for people who are not high-volume drug traffickers.
- Mandating pre-arrest and pre-charging diversion from the criminal justice system for those who would be better served by the public health system.
- Amending the state’s criminal code to reduce sentencing ranges for offenses such as misdemeanor and felony theft, and second-degree assault involving physical assault.
- Limiting the imposition of consecutive sentences for multiple offenses.
- Increasing job training and educational opportunities available to incarcerated people.
- Improving parole and release policies, and re-establishing work release programs for individuals serving life sentences.
If Maryland were to follow these and other reforms outlined in this Smart Justice 50-State Blueprint, by 2025 it could have 9,802 fewer people in its prison system, saving the state over $1.4 billion that could be spent on schools, roads, and other resources that would strengthen communities.
For more information, along with detailed breakdowns of Maryland’s prison population and the reforms needed to reduce it, click here.