2011: Now What?

Note: This is the first entry in what I hope will be a weekly column on the Justice For Safety Movement for the Justice For Safety blog. I will continue to post updates and links as I find them on the Justice For Safety Facebook page and on this blog, the latter on which I have not published anything recently. I am looking to get back to making this a regular thing so that the issue of violent crime in Maryland remains fresh.

Hello, and Happy New Year, everyone.

It's been a while since I've written or posted anything related to the Justice For Safety movement. But, if for no other reason than it's a new year and the new legislative session in Annapolis is beginning this week, I have decided to get the ball rolling again. Only now, for the first time, I am going to try and use this blog at least once a week to issue a no-holds-barred and (to steal a phrase from a good friend of mine) "balls-out" commentary on violent crime policy in Maryland and the politics behind it, as well as post any news and/or information that comes my way.

Of course, to start, I would love to be able to tell you something new here. Even better would be the ability to tell you that exciting things are happening with the Justice For Safety cause. Unfortunately, I cannot say that this is the case. As of this writing, I do not know whether any legislation that seeks to keep violent offenders in prison longer is forthcoming in the 2011 legislative session. And even if legislation is introduced, I'm not exactly optimistic that it will go anywhere.

Just to review: On April 13, 2008, Lindsay Marie Harvey, a 25-year-old Gaithersburg resident who worked with my wife at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville, was murdered in the parking lot of her apartment complex by Shawn Henderson, a convicted felon who served just six years in prison for slashing people's throats, even though he had originally been sentenced to a total of 60 years. It was through a series of mechanisms in the criminal justice system (a consolidation of his sentence, a suspension of the sentence, reconsideration, and good behavior credits) that Henderson served a fraction of his prison sentence. And it was upon learning all this information that I got involved in a grass-roots movement to try and change the laws in Maryland that led to Henderson's early release.

To date, the efforts of this movement have not gone very far. True, I was able to get Sen. Nancy King (D-Montgomery Village), my state senator, to introduce legislation that would have reduced good behavior credits after writing to her about Lindsay Harvey (she's done this for two legislative sessions in a row now), and we were able to bring some media attention to this issue in the form of a two-part series in the Gazette in December 2008, an editorial and then an article in the Washington Post, and a column I had published in the Post. But the two gentlemen who chair the House and Senate Judicial Proceedings Committees in Maryland, Del. Joseph Vallario (D-Upper Marlbaro) and Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Bethesda), have refused to move the legislation out of committee. And with these two men having been re-elected to the General Assembly by landslide margins last November, there is no reason to expect that they will have a change of heart and move it to a vote this year either.

Given the recent election results, which firmly established the Democratic Party's dominance in Maryland, it looks like it is going to be business as usual in Annapolis. Frosh himself basically acknowledged as much after winning 70 percent of the vote in the general election over his Republican opponent Jerry Cave. The issue of keeping violent offenders in prison is just not a politically expedient one at the moment, and it's certainly not at the top of Brian Frosh's or Joseph Vallario's to-do list. And with the state facing major budget issues right now, the possibility of any legislation getting through that is perceived to cost the state prison system more money becomes even more remote.

The reality here is that nothing is likely to change unless something dramatic happens. I can't imagine right now what that might be, and I'm not sure I want to.

Vallario has taken a beating in the press over the past year over his reputation for squelching common-sense legislation that could save lives, not to mention his perceived rude treatment of victims' advocates during House Judiciary Committee hearings. Inexplicably, Frosh seems to be immune to such criticism despite being equally callous towards those who testify in support of legislation he is not interested in passing. During the 2010 election campaign, Frosh was actually lauded by both the Post and Gazette for serving his constituents well, being an ardent environmentalist, and being, of all things, honest -- really. Some blogs and this Facebook page tried to make the case (correctly, I might add) that Frosh is nothing like his supporters say he is, but to no avail.

In the end, it doesn’t matter all that much. Frosh and Vallario remain in power because they basically have no competition for their jobs; they are part of a system that is far more favorable to power brokers in Annapolis than it is to average Maryland citizens. They set the tone for judiciary policy in Maryland. Therefore, they can get away with rejecting even the most sensible legislation, because no one else really has the resources to challenge them for their jobs.

I know this probably all sounds very cynical on my part. But I've spent almost three years fighting now, all the while researching as much as I can and educating myself about Maryland politics. In theory, in a representative democracy, the government is supposed to be responsive to the will of the people. Every so often, in practice, it can work that way. But more often than not it doesn’t, especially in a state like Maryland where the top lawmakers are more beholden to special interests than they are to the general population.

Not that I'm giving up. I will continue this fight because I made a commitment to the friends and family of Lindsay Harvey, and I know in my heart that this is the right thing to do. As such, I will continue to educate all of you. But it's going to take a lot more than me merely informing you to get real change done in Annapolis. To quote Thomas Jefferson, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

So find out who your representatives are in Annapolis. And then write to them or call them and tell them about this issue and any other issues in the state of Maryland that you care about. And who knows? If enough of you do this, they may actually listen and try and do something for you, just like Nancy King has done for me. But if you don’t do anything, they won't either.

Once again, Happy New Year, and stay tuned.