Senate Judicial Proceeding Committee, SB 0691 Juvenile Justice Reform — My name is Marc Schindler. I serve as the Executive Director of the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a national research and policy organization with expertise on criminal and juvenile justice issues. Over the last decade, JPI has released over a dozen policy and research reports on the Maryland justice system…

Testimony before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee — January 27, 2022 Good afternoon, I’m Mai Fernandez a Senior Fellow at the Justice Policy Institute. I want to thank the Judicial Proceedings Committee for allowing me to brief you this afternoon. Over the past 30 years, and prior to my work at JPI I had the privilege of serving…

Stories that need to be told — One of the things that we at JPI believe is most important is to support people who have been directly impacted by the justice system in elevating their own voices, knowledge and experiences. One of our partners, Rob Barton and Pam Bailey, co-founders of More Than Our Crimes are in…

From our archives, March 2017 — By Marcy Mistrett and Marc Schindler Campaign for Youth Justice CEO and JPI Executive Director This piece originally appeared on Open Society Foundations’ blog. Over the past decade, advocates have successfully challenged the boundaries of how states define childhood in the context of criminal law. According to the Campaign for…

by Keith Wallington and Lila Meadows This past summer, the Maryland Court of Appeals deliberated a rule amendment that would have created another avenue for release for long sentenced individuals. Unfortunately, the court decided not to adopt the changes. Rule 4–345 governs the revisory power of the court regarding sentences…

Executive Summary [read full report] — by Eliza Kravitz By backing calls for public health approaches to addressing gun violence, criminal justice advocates have begun to expand their focus in recent years to include not only crimes labeled “non-violent” but also those deemed “violent.” They have dedicated far less attention, by contrast, to another important dimension…

The Young Men Emerging Unit meets participatory democracy — Take a couple minutes out of your day to watch this incredible profile https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/wednesday-october-13-2021/616742d0a5964c37fa1fb3c1?jwsource=cl Joel Castón: “I discovered that not only can we vote, we can run for office.” Alzo Slade/VICE News: “Meet Joel Castón, the first person in DC to win public office while still locked up.”

by Maria Sofia Peña Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, jails and prisons across the country have been virus hotspots, with case rates in prisons four to five times higher than those in the general population.[1] With the emergence of the Delta variant, the urgency of protecting incarcerated people…

Madeline Titus To say we are living in unprecedented times is an understatement — forms of government, institutions, norms and ways of everyday life are being challenged and disassembled, all in the midst of a pandemic. One of the most notable institutions being called into question is the police. …