Summary of Comments at the Second Stakeholders Meeting
Sponsored by the Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council
October 8, 2015 Cambridge, Maryland
Christopher Shank, Executive Director of the Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council (JRCC), convened the second of three stakeholder meetings intended to inform Council’s recommendations. About 40 people attended, not counting staff and Council members. Following a presentation by Pew Foundation staff that highlighted key findings from their review of Maryland data on the state’s justice system, stakeholders who had signed up to make statements to the Council did so in a series of frank and informative panels. Council members engaged with speakers, asking questions and frequently inviting speakers to provide additional information to assist JRCC committees, which are now meeting to develop recommendations.
The messages delivered at this meeting often reinforced those of the first stakeholder meeting, held in September. MAJR’s summary of that meeting is on our website. Here is some of what we heard in October.
- Counties’ ability to fund re-entry initiatives vary greatly
- Faith-based groups can help returning citizens
- Returning citizens face formidable obstacles to employment
- The war on drugs is a failure – but treatment works
- With adequate funding, more people could leave prison with a college education
- High case loads for probation officers put public safety at risk “every day”
- Mediation can help mend frayed relationships
- People sentenced to life with the possibility of parole should be considered for parole
- People in sex offender registries need the opportunity to rejoin communities
See the text of the full report on the October stakeholders meeting
