Judging Maryland: Baltimore Judges on Effective Solutions to Working with Substance Abusers in the Criminal Justice System

Scott Ehlers and Kevin Pranis
Published: March 4, 2008

In the past five years, elected officials in a majority of states have responded to fiscal pressures and public support for a public health response to drug addiction by enacting sentencing and correctional reforms designed to reduce costs and improve outcomes. In 2004, Maryland lawmakers enacted a set of reforms designed to expand options available to judges, prosecutors, and the state’s parole commission for placing addicted defendants in community-based treatment rather than prison.