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Maryland’s courts on Monday will resume covering the cost of private home detention for people charged with crimes in the state who can’t afford the service — reviving a program just weeks after shutting it down when money ran out.
A federal coronavirus pandemic grant helped pay the roughly $450 per month cost of GPS monitors. The grant was expected to last through the end of the year, but the courts abruptly ended the program last month.
Now the Maryland Judiciary has agreed to use money from elsewhere in its budget to keep the program going for about 650 people who are enrolled while awaiting trial, spokesperson Bradley Tanner confirmed in an email. The program also will begin accepting new participants.
Tanner said the program is expected to last through June 30, 2025.
Read previous coverage about private home detention monitoring services in Maryland
In a statement, Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue said people who were on home detention and their families had been in a panic about how to pay for the service to remain in good standing.
People who could not have afforded to pay risked having a judge send them to jail to await trial.
“It is critical that funding was secured to continue the home detention program, which reduces prison overcrowding, provides a cost effective alternative to incarceration, and allows individuals to continue pursuing education and maintaining work,” Dartigue said. “While the identified funds solve the current crisis, there are remaining issues surrounding home detention to be worked out, including long-term sustainability of the program and addressing racial disparities in detention.”
Dartigue said her office will “continue to work with our criminal system partners to ensure that alternatives to traditional incarceration remain available to all eligible individuals regardless of income, race, or county of residence.”
Lawmakers approved spending $5 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, in 2021 to pay for the program. It was supposed to last until that money had been used up or the end of 2024.
Last week, John P. Morrissey, chief judge of the District Court of Maryland, testified before a Senate budget subcommittee that the judiciary unexpectedly received an influx of invoices, which included about $600,000 at one time. The money for the program ran out shortly after that happened on Feb. 16.
Morrissey said it would cost $2 million to cover the cost of home detention for those already in the program.
The abrupt end of the program grabbed the attention of state lawmakers, who expressed concern about the judiciary’s management of the program and the fate of participants.
Sen. William C. Smith Jr., chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, is co-sponsoring a bill that would create an oversight task force for the program. He said the goal is to continue with those already in the program as well as opening it to new participants.
“I’m confident that we will find a permanent fix,” he said.
Baltimore Banner reporters Pamela Wood and Brenda Wintrode contributed to this article.
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Dylan Segelbaum is the courts reporter at The Baltimore Banner.
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