Maryland AG, Public Defender announce initiative to address mass incarceration

BALTIMORE — Attorney General Anthony Brown and Public Defender Natasha Dartigue have announced a grand initiative to reduce mass incarceration of African Americans and other marginalized groups in Maryland prisons and jails.

The Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative will work to address mass incarceration through a series of committees that will address specific issues that contribute to incarceration rates.  A representative from the Attorney General’s Office, the Office of the Public Defender, and a community partner will lead each committee. 

“The disproportionate mass incarceration of Marylanders, felt most starkly in the African American community, is a devastating trauma in our State that demands our immediate and abiding attention and resolve,” Attorney General Brown said.  “It is a sad reality that the vast majority of people who have been removed from communities across the country and put behind bars are Black.”

The MEJC will host a public forum on November 6, at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore.

The Public Defender’s office said a website for the MEJC is currently under development.