State Roundup, April 18, 2016
JUSTICE REFORM AND VICTIMS: Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday told about 200 advocates for crime victims’ rights that a bipartisan criminal justice bill he intends to sign does not ignore victims’ needs, Ovetta Wiggins of the Post reports.
- Tamela Baker of the Hagerstown Herald Mail writes about one woman’s journey to make the crime of child abuse resulting in death punishable with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The effort was in memory of her grandson, Justice. This year, it was tucked inside the Justice Reinvestment Act, and it passed.
- Political observer Barry Rascovar writes in MarylandReporter.com that no bill holds more promise than the criminal justice reform act, which has the goal of unclogging prisons by placing minor drug offenders in alternative treatment, counseling and training programs instead of sitting unproductively in a jail cell. That’s just one of at least four areas that Maryland lawmakers have taken major steps that should prove enormously beneficial