When you lead the world in incarceration rates, no one should take solace in where we rank in righting a wrong. Bragging about reducing an over-incarcerated prison system is akin to Flint, Michigan, bragging about providing clean bottled water. Yet Sen. Hough, in his recent piece “Jealous’ plan not right for Maryland,” is using where Maryland ranks nationally in prison reduction as cover for not recognizing that we can and should do much more.

Sen. Hough touts Maryland’s Justice Reinvestment Act (JRA) as the catalyst behind a reduction in the crowded Maryland prison system. What Sen. Hough fails to mention is that the JRA that actually passed was significantly weaker than the original comprehensive recommendations and bipartisan data-driven bill, which would have resulted in meaningful reductions in the prison population and justice system dollars better spent on those communities most impacted by the justice system.

(2) comments

DickD

Hough is a right wing nut! He goes to Church regularly, but the message that the Catholic Church gives on helping the poor never gets through to him!

Mickey7

Mike Hough go back to the 1950s where you and your ideas belong.

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