Md. Commission To Recommend Ending Pre-Trial Bonds
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- A Maryland commission is recommending the state stop requiring people accused of crimes to post bond as a condition of release before trial.
The Governor's Commission to Reform Maryland's Pretrial System approved the recommendation Tuesday. The commission will present the recommendation to the General Assembly in the next few weeks.
The commission found that the state's bail system is inherently unfair: Low-income defendants are often held behind bars pending trial because they can't afford to pay their bonds, while wealthier defendants are released because they can.
The recommendation will be part of a commission report due Dec. 1 to the governor and General Assembly. The report focuses on ways the state can improve the treatment of defendants between arrest and trial.
The exact language of the recommendation has not yet been finalized, according to the committee's chairman Richard Karceski, an attorney. But the committee agreed that commercial bonds should be eliminated, and replaced with a set of pre-trial conditions based on the nature of the defendant's alleged crime and his or her criminal history.
"The suggestion is that a commissioner or judge not set a dollar amount bail, but set conditions of release that would incorporate a person released from confinement but with several or many, or sometimes no conditions based on someone's record and the nature of the crime," Karceski said. "It'd either be a release with conditions or no release. There wouldn't be a release on a money bail."
Gov. Martin O'Malley called for the creation of the commission by executive order in May. The commission is tasked with examining the existing pretrial system in Maryland and analyzing approaches of other states in order to make recommendations for improvement in the areas of detainment times, risk assessment programs and legislation.
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Information from: The Daily Record of Baltimore, http://www.mddailyrecord.com
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