A group of Maryland Law School students is meeting resistance as it attempts to free people too poor to post small bails for minor charges, the group?s professor said.
“Currently, too many people accused of less serious crimes remain incarcerated for 30 days and longer because they lack the necessary financial resources … ” University of Maryland Law School professor Douglas Colbert wrote in a letter to the Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
With the council?s blessing, Colbert said he and his students asked prosecutors in December to review the bails of 3,500 nonviolent suspects awaiting trial to see if any bail was set too high for a minor offense.
But prosecutors reviewed only about 350 cases ? or 10 percent ? and forwarded only 20 cases to the students, who helped free five detainees, Colbert said.
Colbert alleges that prosecutors misrepresented the scope of their review to the council, causing the professor to fire off a Feb. 11 letter to council members, including Baltimore City State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy.
“I recall Ms. Jessamy adding and repeating more than once that ?no one should leave this meeting with the impression, as some have suggested, that there are people in jail who are not there for a good reason.?I took immediate exception to the prosecutors? comments …” Colbert wrote.
Baltimore City Clerk of the Circuit Court Frank Conaway, a council member, said prosecutors are “sloughing off” Colbert?s concerns.
“They know they are going to let those people go eventually,” Conaway said Tuesday. “So why make them suffer by keeping them in jail? It has been a problem. It will continue to be a problem. It?s always poor people that get the brunt of it. If a person can?t make a $100 bail, that tells you something?s not right there.”
Margaret Burns, spokeswoman for the Baltimore City State?s Attorney?s Office, called Colbert?s letter “inaccurate and outdated.”
“There is in fact great consensus NOT to hold non-violent offenders in jail for small bails, if there is no criminal history of violence …” she wrote in a Tuesday e-mail to The Examiner.
Burns said jail officials reviewed more than 3,000 nonviolent suspects? bails and found only 20 cases worth additional hearings.
But Colbert said the issue deserves more attention, especially in light of Martin Luther King Jr.?s upcoming birthday.
“Dr. King was quite familiar with how bail may be used to punish an accused poor or low-income person before trial,” Colbert wrote.
