House Bill 581: The Financial Impact

What will be the financial impact of Maryland House Bill 581 if it becomes law? Longer prison sentences have a price tag, those in opposition to the bill have argued. Del. Curtis S. (Curt) Anderson seemed unconvinced by Montgomery County Police Capt. Mitch Cunningham's testimony that Maryland could emulate the cost savings that Virginia made after becoming a "truth-in-sentencing" state, and that the fiscal impact of reducing violent offenders' diminution credits would cost the state somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.6 million by 2012.

Here's what Capt. Cunningham had to say about crime in Maryland:

In 2006 and 2007, Maryland had the third-highest robbery rate in the US
Maryland is the 6th most violent state in the US (according to the Census Bureau)
Maryland had the second-highest murder rate in the US in 2006 and 2007

Compared with Virginia, Maryland has:

almost three times the violent crime
nearly double the murder rate
2.5 times the robbery rate

And despite the price tag, i.e. the fiscal note, associated with prolonging violent offenders' prison sentences, Capt. Cunningham pointed out that those costs will be balanced out with less need for police, reduction in prosecution, and drops in medical and mental health costs. In my own testimony before the HJC yesterday, I asked the committee members whether the cost of dealing with repeat offenders -- arresting them again, indicting them, trying them, and incarcerating them for even longer periods of time would really be any less than simply extending their original sentences in the first place.

"In the end," Capt. Cunningham said, "you see subject matter experts continually come to your committee year after year for stiffer sentencing. Something must be done to make Maryland less violent. Most states with truth in sentencing have less crime than Maryland. Some states that have it have as much if not more. But...we do know that states that went to truth in sentencing saw their crime rates drop.

"I think we all know we need to institute change in Maryland," Capt. Cunningham continued. "What is being done now is not getting the results we all want."