Maryland AG, Public Defender announce initiative to address mass incarceration

BALTIMORE -- Attorney General Anthony Brown and Public Defender Natasha Dartigue 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."

According to the Attorney General's Office, African Americans constitute approximately 30 percent of Maryland's population but make up a staggering 72 percent of the prison population – the highest percentage of imprisoned African Americans in the country.

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.