Maryland AG, public defender join up to tackle mass incarceration of Black people in state

Attorneys from the Office of Maryland Public Defender and from the Office of the Attorney General can find themselves on opposite sides in the courtroom. On Wednesday, the leaders of both organizations came together to announce a partnership toward a common goal: ending the system of mass incarceration of Black men and women in Maryland.

“This is a crisis,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, the state’s first Black chief legal officer. “What many do not know is how severe and deep this crisis runs in Maryland.”

He stated that about 30% of Maryland’s population is African American, but the same demographic he said makes up about 71% of the prison population, calling that percentage “the worst in the country.”

Maryland Attorney General Brown, at lectern, speaks during an Oct. 25, 2023 press conference announcing the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative while Bowe State University President Aminta Breaux, stands at left, and Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue, stands at right, with collaborative members on stage behind. “We will end the seemingly nonstop, unrelenting mass incarceration of Black men and women in Maryland,” said Brown, in an auditorium on the campus of Bowie State University, the state’s oldest Historically Black College or University, established in 1865 before the end of either the Civil War or the institution of slavery.

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Public Defender Natasha Dartigue, also the first Black person to hold that position in the state, noted that it is the first time a person of color is leading both organizations, calling the moment a “crucial point in history.”

The two attorneys announced the creation of the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative, a collection of about 40 members ranging from nonprofit leaders to academics and state cabinet secretaries during a news conference and subsequent meeting at Bowie State University.

Cabinet secretaries, nonprofit leaders on hand at collaborative’s start

Maryland Department of Juvenile Services Secretary Vincent Schiraldi and the state’s labor secretary, Portia Wu, were on hand for the start of the multi-year effort, which Brown said would be tasked with making recommendations — legislative, policy, budgetary — in the years ahead.

“This is a problem that has been around for decades, if not over a century, and we’re not going to fix this in the next two months in the 2024 legislative session,” Brown said.

Bill Gaertner, founder and executive director of Gatekeepers, a Hagerstown-based organization involved with helping individuals transition back to society after incarceration, and Amber Green, founder and executive director of the Fenix Youth Project, a Salisbury-based organization involved with youth uplift, were also among the collaborative members at the table with Brown and Dartigue, following the news conference.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, at far right near door, speaks to members of the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative, an initiative of the Office of the Maryland Public Defender and Office of the Attorney General, during their first meeting at Bowie State University on October 25, 2023.

“If you commit crime or violence, you will be held accountable no matter the color of your skin,” said Brown, announcing the collaborative. “But, and I’ve said this so often, we are not going to investigate and prosecute our way to safer neighborhoods.”

There are about 17,000 individuals incarcerated in Maryland across more than a dozen correctional facilities. The total annual budget for the department, which oversees the facilities, is about $1.6 billion.

Notably absent from the rollout event was that agency tasked with running the state’s prisons, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, as well as the department of Parole and Probation. Brown said specifically of the latter entity, that they are invited and very much going to be a part.

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The collaborative’s next steps are a Nov. 6 public forum held at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore and meetings of committees comprised of the collaborative members.

Eight such committees were outlined Wednesday, including: Education, Workforce Development, and Economic Opportunities; Prison, Jail, Detention Facility Reform; Promoting Successful Re-entry; Juvenile Justice Reform; Criminal Law and Sentencing Reform; Behavioral Health & Human Services; Law Enforcement Policies & Practices; and an Executive Committee comprised of the co-chairs of the other committees.

Each group is set to be led by an individual from both the Office of Maryland Public Defender and from the Office of the Attorney General as well as an external representative.

A preliminary report of legislative recommendations is scheduled for January 2024, and a final report is scheduled for January 2025.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.