Reducing pretrial detention in Maryland

Editor’s note: In conjunction with OSI-Baltimore’s forum series, The Burden of Bail, Audacious Ideas is pleased to feature a month-long blog series about pre-trial detention and bail reform. This is the last post in the series.

It can be fairly said, the events of the past four months have advanced in a positive way, the right to counsel in Maryland. The plaintiffs, public defenders and advocacy groups in the Richmond litigation and before the legislature have shed light like never before on the unfairness and injustices in the pretrial detention of poor people in the State of Maryland.

Fighting for the right to counsel in every courtroom

Editor’s note: In conjunction with OSI-Baltimore’s forum series, The Burden of Bail, Audacious Ideas is pleased to feature a month-long blog series about pre-trial detention and bail reform. Over the next month, four experts will talk about what can be done to make our pre-trial justice system fair and efficient.

The Supreme Court has held that a person cannot be sentenced to even a single day in jail if they are convicted of a crime unless they are afforded representation at trial. Yet in far too many places in the country, and throughout all of Maryland, people are arrested and remanded into custody in a proceeding without the benefit of counsel.

Keeping pretrial justice fair

Editor’s note: In conjunction with OSI-Baltimore’s upcoming forum series, The Burden of Bail, Audacious Ideas is pleased to feature a month-long blog series about pre-trial detention and bail reform. Over the next month, four experts will talk about what can be done to make our pre-trial justice system fair and efficient.

I remember when my elementary school teacher explained the US system of justice to us during Civics class. “Justice is blind,” she said, “everyone gets treated the same, regardless of whether they are rich or poor.” Yet as you read this, more people are held in jail in America simply because they cannot afford to pay their bond set by the court than for any other reason!

Legal representation at an accused’s first appearance following arrest

Editor’s note: In conjunction with OSI-Baltimore’s upcoming forum series, The Burden of Bail, Audacious Ideas is pleased to feature a month-long blog series about pre-trial detention and bail reform. Over the next month, four experts will talk about what can be done to make our pre-trial justice system fair and efficient.

You probably thought that in 2012, Maryland indigent defendants would be guaranteed counsel when their liberty is first at stake. Not so.