ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Maryland Justice Project and its partners are urging the General Assembly to override Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of a bill to provide what they say is a desperately needed pre-release program to help women transition out of prison.
Monica Cooper, the project's executive director, said despite having more than 800 women in prison, the state has nine pre-release units for men, but none for women.
The state faces a budget shortfall because of COVID-19, but Cooper contended lawmakers recognize the urgency in helping women get jobs and housing after their release.
She is confident the override will pass, and noted the original bill was approved with a 104-to-27 vote.
"We already won this fight," Cooper asserted. "We don't have to redo this battle. The only thing we have to do is get those people to say 'yes' again. They said 'yes' before and we need them to say 'yes' again, and that's it."
Cooper noted her group spearheaded the Gender Responsive Pre-release Act in 2016.
Gov. Hogan cited COVID-19 budget constraints when he vetoed the bill in May. The General Assembly is expected to vote on an override this week.
The only women's community pre-release center in Maryland closed about 10 years ago, to save money.
Since then, many women returning from prison with no family or friends to lean on face enormous barriers to finding work and a place to live.
Carlita Brown of Baltimore turned to a homeless shelter and said she needs the life skills a pre-release program would offer.
"If you have never cashed a check, if you have never paid a bill, you don't have that kind of experience," Brown explained. "So for, someone like myself, who has been incarcerated for 22 years from the age of 18, and you're released, you're ignorant, and you have to find your way."
Malaika Cooks of Baltimore, who served an eight-year term in a Maryland state prison, agreed. She's been unemployed since her release last year, which she attributes to the lack of pre-release job training.
"The men have all kinds of pre-release programs and things that help them for when they transition," Cooks observed. "And the women, we have nothing, and I think that it's really discriminatory. We don't have anything, you know. It's not fair."
According to research, about 42% of moms in Maryland prisons are single-parent breadwinners, and more than 220 children in the state are in foster care because their mothers are incarcerated.
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Three attorneys are joining forces to seek justice for a North Carolina family.
At a news conference, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump - along with attorneys Dawn Blagrove with Emancipate NC and Joe Fouche - announced the filing of a $25 million lawsuit on behalf of the family of Darryl Tyree Williams.
The suit is against the City of Raleigh, Raleigh's police chief, and five officers involved in the death of Williams.
Ben Crump said this was a case of excessive force stemming from a controversial practice of "proactive policing."
"They used this excuse where we're going to call them high-crime areas," said Crump. "And because of that, those people who live there don't have any constitutional rights."
He said this lawsuit calls on the city and police department to be accountable in upholding the 4th Amendment rights of Black people.
Williams died on January 17, 2023, approximately one hour after being repeatedly tased.
It was originally reported that Williams was only stunned three times, however the lawsuit alleges that number was actually six - after he was already in custody and handcuffed.
Williams' mom, Sonya Williams, stood beside her attorneys during the announcement at Mount Peace Baptist Church in Raleigh. She said for her this is about getting justice for her son.
"He was tased so many times as if he was some kind of vicious animal, and that was not right," said Williams. "He even told them about his heart problems, and they still tased him. I want justice."
Blagrove - also the executive director of Emancipate NC - said this case is not only about accountability, but it also aims to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else in the future.
It aims to make a change in the way tasers are handled.
"To ensure that this lawsuit is litigated in a way that is fair and just for this family," said Blagrove, "but more importantly, in a way that results in getting a change in policies, a change in practices, a change in procedures. "
Last year, the Wake County District Attorney declined to pursue charges against the involved officers.
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People wrongfully convicted of crimes in the United States have received around $2.2 billion in compensation claims since 2019.
A new report by the National Registry of Exonerations said the amount nearly doubled in just five years.
Barbara O'Brien, editor of the registry, explained even if states saw fewer or no exonerations, it does not necessarily mean there are fewer wrongfully convicted people behind bars. She noted people in prison may not have access to the resources needed to prove their innocence.
"Since 1989, West Virginia's had 14 exonerations," O'Brien reported. "I always caution people not to read too much into the number of exonerations as some sort of indicator of how the systems are working."
Official misconduct is the reason for wrongful convictions in at least 77% of exoneration cases. West Virginia has a two-year time limit for filing compensation claims.
According to The Innocence Project, in 2020, the state changed the law to remove a clause requiring another person to be convicted of the same crime in order for the exonerated person to qualify for compensation.
Other factors leading to exonerations include perjury or false accusations, false or misleading forensic evidence, false confessions and mistaken witness identification. O'Brien pointed out it is not just taxpayers who end up footing the bill for bloated prisons and exoneration payments.
"Incarcerating people costs a lot of money," O'Brien outlined. "If we're incarcerating the wrong people, that's costing the taxpayers. And if it's a case where there is a real perpetrator out there who they didn't catch, they're committing more crimes."
She added cost cannot make up for lost time innocent people have spent behind bars. The report said exonerated individuals in 2023 lost more than 2,000 years collectively for crimes they did not commit, an average of around 15 years per person wrongfully imprisoned. Nearly 84% of exonerees last year were persons of color, and 61% were Black.
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South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month.
The U.S. Constitution gives all people accused of a crime the right to a lawyer. South Dakota is one of only two states where counties, not the state, have been responsible for providing public defenders for those who cannot afford to pay.
Neil Fulton, dean of the Knudson School of Law at the University of South Dakota and co-chair of the Indigent Legal Services Task Force, said costs added up for counties, and noted there are added challenges for people in rural counties seeking attorneys.
"The biggest challenge is just availability," Fulton observed. "And the geographic reach from where the lawyer is to where the client is."
Fulton predicted the bill will improve the quality of public defense. He hopes to see the new state office taking cases by the end of this year, following the creation of a Commission on Indigent Legal Services and hiring and training attorneys.
It is still undecided how the program will be funded long-term. Indigent defendants are expected to pay back the costs of their legal services.
Samantha Chapman, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, urged changes to the practice.
"We hope that there'll be future policy reform bills changing the way that the state is recouping the costs from those indigent defendants, many of which will never be able to pay off their debt," Chapman stressed.
The changes to the system are projected to cost the state $1.4 million annually, and save counties more than $1.5 million.
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