Removing barriers to opportunity for formerly incarcerated people benefits all Marylanders
Every Marylander should have the chance to achieve their full potential. However, Marylanders with a criminal record often face significant barriers to accessing education, employment, housing, and other resources that are essential for them to thrive, even after they have completed their sentences.
Formerly incarcerated individuals face a multitude of laws, practices, and policies that create major barriers to finding employment once they return to their communities. Limited access to education and job training in prison and time out of the job market and rapidly changing technologies also erodes job skills. According to one study, hourly wages decreased by 11 percent, annual employment by nine weeks, and annual earnings by 40 percent as a result of time spent in jail or prison.
Maryland has taken steps to reform its criminal justice system within the past few years, but we must continue to work to reduce racial and ethnic disparities and ensure that people can return to work once they complete their sentences. The 2015 Second Chance Act and 2016 Justice Reinvestment Act expanded provisions that removed certain criminal convictions from public records. These measures have reduced, but not erased the impact a criminal record has on a Marylander’s future economic security.
Partly due to the difficulties they face trying to earn a living, about 40 percent of Marylanders who are released from prison will end up back behind bars. Maryland spends nearly $40,000 per year on average for each person who is incarcerated in the state. Investing in correctional education, substance abuse treatment, mental health care, workforce training, and other effective strategies proven to keep people from returning to prison is highly cost effective for Maryland. Businesses and communities all benefit from these programs that help to reduce unemployment, lessen the likelihood that formerly incarcerated individuals will commit new crimes, and free up state funds to invest in the things that keep our communities thriving.
Improving our correctional education programs would better set returning citizens up for success. These programs have been shown to reduce recidivism by as much as 40 percent, with greater gains corresponding with the level of degree an individual obtains. Maryland currently offers inmates who have a high school degree or equivalent with the option of participating in 23 pre-apprenticeship vocational training programs, as well as a limited selection of post-secondary courses where students can earn college credit at a community college or four-year liberal arts college. As the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act allows for increasing funding for correctional education, Maryland should increase funding for correctional education and expand correctional education programming.
Policymakers took an important step this legislative session by expanding “Ban the Box” provisions for hiring practices at larger businesses. Due to the stigma associated with having a criminal history, there is often employer discrimination against individuals with criminal convictions. The new “Ban the Box” provision will prohibit employers from conducting a criminal background check or asking an individual if they have a criminal history before they at least get a first interview. Governor Hogan should sign this bill into law and support greater opportunity for Marylanders.
Our state’s long history of disparate sentencing guidelines, over-policing in communities of color, segregation, combined with other factors like unsafe neighborhoods and lack of access to good jobs, results in Marylanders of color being more likely to have a criminal record. These systemic factors mean that Black Marylanders are incarcerated at more than double the rate of other residents. In Baltimore, for example, 90 percent of juveniles who are arrested are Black, and few are given the opportunity to participate in pretrial diversion programs, like anger management or drug treatment, in lieu of being prosecuted. Committing to policies that remove barriers to opportunity for formerly incarcerated individuals can help Maryland to reduce some of the damage from the the pervasive legacy of racism that has shaped our criminal justice system.
