How Organizing with Returning Citizens in Maryland led to Statewide Change

May 2024

On May 16, 2024, after almost a year of organizing, more than 40 leaders from Turnaround Tuesday and BUILD (Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development) boarded a bus to Annapolis. They were going to see a bill signed into law that they had helped conceive of and draft. Because of their work, parole fees – $50 per month in fees charged to people returning home from state prison, amounting to $1.5 million in debt issued annually – as well as fees charged by the state for alcohol and drug testing ($100 each time) will be eliminated once and for all.  

BACKGROUND

In May 2024, BUILD and Turnaround Tuesday embarked on a campaign to listen to hundreds of returning citizens and their families who the criminal justice system has directly impacted. Over a period of 2-3 months, the team listened to more than 300 people. They heard repeated stories about lack of access to housing and mental health care, as well as the impact of parole fees as individuals were returning home from incarceration.

Leaders and staff worked together to research the issue and quickly found a report from the Brennan Center for Justice released in 2009. The report, entitled “Maryland’s Parole Supervision Fee: A Barrier to Reentry:”

  • Recommended that parole fees in Maryland be eliminated;
  • Found that the system of applying exemptions was broken;
  • Found that the State of Maryland pursues people who do not pay for debt, adding a 17% surcharge;
  • Found that most people on parole qualified for exemptions under the law, but very few people apply or know how to
    apply.

These findings paralleled the stories that BUILD and Turnaround Tuesday leaders had heard during their house meetings with returning citizens. They also heard stories about the fear that these individuals experience because of threats from parole officers and because of worries that they may be sent back to prison for failure to pay.

INITIAL ENGAGEMENT WITH LEGISLATORS

After ratifying an initial focus on parole fees, BUILD and Turnaround Tuesday invited the chairman of Maryland’s House Judiciary Committee to an initial meeting to hear stories directly from returning citizens. Delegate Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City) attended a meeting of 60 leaders at Memorial Baptist Church. During the action, he committed to work with BUILD and invited BUILD leaders to attend a hearing in a few weeks focused on fines and fees in the criminal justice system in Annapolis.

As the hearing approached, Del. Clippinger invited BUILD leaders to testify. BUILD leaders would be the only returning citizens to testify at the hearing. The other testimonies were provided by judges and attorneys.

Following the hearing, a number of legislators approached BUILD and Turnaround Tuesday leaders to offer to help. Delegate Elizabeth Embry (D-Baltimore City) offered to draft a simple bill to repeal the ability for the State Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to charge fees to people on parole. BUILD leaders then engaged Senator Jill Carter (D-Baltimore City) to crossfile a bill in the Maryland State Senate.

2024 STATE LEGISLATIVE SESSION

During the 2024 legislative session, BUILD and Turnaround Tuesday leaders were in Annapolis every week working on issues related to vacant and abandoned housing (another top BUILD priority), as well as on the issue of parole fees. This included direct engagement with members of the House Judiciary Committee and with the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, as well as testimony at the bill hearings, supported by 30-40 BUILD and Turnaround Tuesday leaders during each hearing.

BUILD and Turnaround Tuesday focused its energy primarily in the senate because of the work they had already done with the House Judiciary Committee prior to the beginning of the legislative session. In particular, returning citizen leaders met with Senate Judicial Proceedings Chairman Senator Will Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery County) prior to the hearing to secure his support, as well as other potential allies on the committee.

In addition, BUILD approached national advocacy organizations like the Fines and Fees Justice Center and Rebekah Diller, the author of the Brennan Center for Justice report, to testify in support of the bills. The Fines and Fees Justice Center also reached out to other national partners across ideological divides to support this work. Similarly, at the local level, the bills received support from the Office of Public Defender and the University of Baltimore Law Center for Criminal Justice Reform.

Despite this work, the bill stalled in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. BUILD leaders and staff repeatedly engaged Sen. Will Smith as the session approached its close, with the house bill moving out of committee in the final few days.

The house version of the bill (HB 531) finally passed both houses of the Maryland State Legislature at 11:22pm on the final day of the legislative session. It was signed by the governor on May 16, 2024.