Capital Budget: According to the Commissioner, the Division has built 10,000 beds in the last seven years of the Schaefer governorship including Supermax in Baltimore City and ECI on the Eastern Shore.

All six 384-bed units of the maximum security MHC Annex are now "on-line" -- the Division is now attempting to cope with how to serve meals, what to do about day rooms and how to address other needs (like visiting, religious or self-help programs) with an architectural plan that ignored all considerations except federally-mandated minimum cell space and features to prevent escape. According to the Commissioner, it is extremely difficult to recruit officers to work there. He says MHC Annex was built "backwards" and designed and planned before his administration.

The building of the 1250-bed Allegany County prison on the extreme Western fringe of the State, which had been cut down from 2500 beds during the 1992 legislative session, is proceeding. The new prison should be open in 1995 or 1996. DOC has yet to attempt to staff the institution envisioned. For example, it is known there is a chronic shortage of classification counselors in the Hagerstown region despite the $65 million spent on salaries, wages and fringe benefits for that region alone. It is also known that Allegany County is not particularly famous for a well-trained work force. It is feared Allegany will become another sociologic aberration and fiasco that the State will have to live with for generations to come.

DOC's operating budget (not for building prisons but for running them) was $364 million last year and is expected to top $396 million this year. The following chart is a guide to how much a typical inmate in a given region might have cost the Division and the taxpayer during 1992:

The "cheapest" inmates were at MCTC Hagerstown, coming in at an annual rate of $15,069.76. The most "expensive" were at Supermax, at an annual cost of $37,504.35 each. If you want to calculate your "total" cost to the State, multiply the number by the number of years you have been in the system and realize the result does not include costs for judges, prosecutors, public defenders, police, etc.

The only cuts in education announced during 1993 came not from the Maryland Department of Education but the federal government. Certain inmates with certain unusually long sentences (i.e., death and life without parole) are no longer able to attend college programs after loss of Pell grant support.

1993 legislative session: In broad retrospect, perhaps the most significant outcome of the 1993 legislative session was the reorganization of the committee dealing with Public Safety and Corrections. This means that Corrections is now overseen by the same committee that oversees welfare and other social services agencies (known generally as "Human Resources"). It is hoped that Corrections will not be similarly seen as a big, wasteful, hopeless bureaucracy but an area that can be addressed with imagination and vigor. The new chairman of the committee is Delegate Norman Conway from the Eastern Shore. You can and should write to him at Room 416 House Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401 with your comments, observations and suggestions about the Division.

Also during the 1993 session, Delegates Elijah Cummings and Clarence Davis introduced, together, a total of eight bills addressing prisoner needs in a variety of topic areas. One of the bills actually passed the House but was killed in the Senate. The remainder of the bills did not get through the committee process. You can also write these and other delegates at: House Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401. Delegates Cummings and Davis are very interested in what you have to say and show a genuine concern for your outcome. If you wanted to write a senator, the address is Senate Office Building, Annapolis, Maryland 21401. Both House and Senate mail systems are less complicated than the ones you find in correctional institutions so your mail will surely get there.

1994 Legislative Session: The upcoming session could decide the course of corrections until the end of the decade. It is the last session before a major election and legislators will be very conscious of the publicity their votes and their actions might garner. It is expected that there will be major "crime" "initiatives" on the part of individuals seeking reelection and/or higher office. Lifers, the parole system, post conviction and other issues impacting corrections may be at risk due to pre-election grandstanding or well- intentioned but misguided attempts to address "crime" or "justice" or "victims' rights" or "recidivism", etc., etc. without having any particular grounding in the facts.

The budget, an extremely pressing matter during the previous two sessions, is not in the forefront as it had been last year. That means it is possible for other issues to take precedence or for legislators to be able to advocate increased spending for pet projects without as much fear of retaliation from voters. There are even candidates for Governor who are advocating building more and more prisons and abolishing the parole system altogether. This is guaranteed to get them a lot of air time, even if their ideas are financially untenable, counterproductive and/or evidence an extreme ignorance of the criminal justice system. I note here that similar theories were shot down without comment by legislative subcommittees early in the previous session just for those reasons.

It is expected that there will be a number of bills impacting lifers or prisoners in general because they are a convenient target in the absence of any other ideas to approach the criminal justice system. The issue of the death penalty, the perennial favorite of legislators who want to avoid real issues, is expected to fritter the majority of the time and effort of at least two major committees on the way to glossing over realities more deserving of legislative attention. I will be following whatever bills are introduced over the course of the session and let you know outcome as it becomes known.

Early in December, a Commission appointed by the Governor apparently urged that execution of felons should be the main objective of the courts, the criminal justice system and even take priority over the civil justice system. The Commission recommended, for example, that the second post conviction be taken away from everybody just to shave a few months off the timetable for execution of a very few. As mentioned earlier, it is anticipated that the Death Penalty will again monopolize at least two committees of the legislature in 1994 at a time when about 750 people having nothing to do with the death penalty are being released from DOC every month, the 3-year recidivism rate hovers around 47%, and the system of parole and probation is in a shambles.

I note here that I participated in a Symposium at the University of Maryland Law School where a Public Defender mentioned that one law firm claimed to have spent $680,000 in donated time for one resentencing for one death penalty candidate. In contrast, the Governor's Commission estimated a "fully litigated" case to cost $300,000 to $400,000. It is clear that the Commission's primary motivation was to advocate a pro-death stance and not to shed light on this issue of public importance.

Maryland Lifers' Fund: One of the most momentous policy changes of 1993 occurred on June 4th when DOC decided to remove 134 lifers from minimum to medium security. One of the results of this decision was that 1993 saw the first coordinated effort across institutional boundaries to organize a class of inmates to achieve administrative and legislative objectives. At this writing, MLF has been able to raise more than $4,000 out of a target $10,000 for the purpose of hiring outside attorney Frank Dunbaugh of Annapolis to represent the Lifers before the General Assembly for the 1994 legislative session. A committee of outside supporters and a number of inmate coordinators has made MLF possible. Contributors to the Fund are eligible to vote on the best way to spend the money collected. The address to send contributions or correspondence is MLF, P.O. Box 645, Jessup, Maryland 20794.

The Budget Reconciliation Act of 1992 was an ill considered attempt by the legislature to raise money from inmates by garnishing commissary accounts to pay for court costs that had been waived by State judges. The Legal Aid Bureau Prisoner Assistance Project early in the year was successful in getting a federal court injunction on this taking of money. You can write them at 500 East Lexington Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 or have someone call them direct (410) 539-5390 if you have legal problems involving your institution or conditions of confinement that you can't resolve on your own.

LASI (Legal Assistance to State Institutions), which provides access to legal materials, is now located at the Occupational Skills Center in Baltimore City and is still being operated by the Department of Education. Check with the librarian at your facility for more information and request forms.

An informal "show of hands" at the Penitentiary several months ago indicated that less than half of the criminal defendants at that facility for five years had not been afforded the right of post conviction of the charges against them. The most frequent reason cited was fear that the Public Defender would "throw" their cases and their last chance at judicial review of their cases. These interesting facts will be brought to the attention of the legislature if necessary in the next session.

Also, some of you have brought to my attention that data diskettes used in ordinary word processors are considered a "security risk" at at least one medium security facility while they are considered not a security risk at at least one maximum security facility. Data diskettes are no more a security risk than a pad of paper and they are less a security risk than a sharpened pencil or ballpoint pen. Therefore, there must be some other reason (denial of access to the courts? fear of inmate grievances?) if there is a ban of data diskettes anywhere in the Division by any individual administrator.

Other Organizations

The Committee for Responsible Corrections Policy (CRCP), P.O. Box 1885, Annapolis, Maryland 21404 consists of members from a variety of backgrounds with an interest in the criminal justice system. CRCP publishes a newsletter called the Just Line carrying articles supportive of prisoners and rational public policy. You can subscribe for yourself at $2.50 per year or have someone on the outside sponsor you. You can also submit articles or other information of interest on an unpaid basis. The Just Line is probably the most effective advocate of prisoner issues available in the State of Maryland.

Those of you who know me know that I would never leave an Update incomplete without a list of those books that I have found most pertinent and influential in promoting prisoner issues. This year is no exception but this year there is an exceptional list. Below I name the authors and the discipline(s) represented. You should be able to get them through your librarian; they are all from prominent publishers and are well known in their field. As of this writing, they are all, except for the last one, available in paperback:

DiIulio, John J., Jr., Courts, Corrections and the Constitution (public administration, public law). Frenkl, Viktor E., Man's Search for Meaning (psychiatry). Hall, Edward T., Beyond Culture (anthropology). Prejean, Helen, Dead Man Walking (sociology, theology, death penalty).

Contest Announcement

According to Maryland's 1994 Budget Book from the Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning (DBFP), DOC's official actual operating budget for 1992 was $363,631,309. For 1993, the number of $396,200,670 was projected, however, the final actual number for 1993 will not be disclosed until the 1995 Budget Book comes out (in the middle of January, 1994). This is your chance to participate in this important process.

You've seen The Price is Right! on TV. The contest here is to guess DOC's "actual" operating budget for 1993 as published by the Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning in the official Budget Book for Fiscal Year 1995. The Department of Fiscal Services (not related to DBFP) calculates the 1992 number as $360,003,171 and the 1993 number as $346,092,553 so you can see you won't be the only one in the "guessing" process. The person coming closest to the actual DBFP figure will win the cash equivalent of two books of stamps ($11.60) deposited in his or her commissary account. The winner will be announced in February, 1994 or whenever the final number is known for sure. All entries must be accompanied by a short paragraph explaining why DOC's budget is the way it is. There will also be a prize for the best paragraph and runner-ups will depend on the number of entries.

The contest is not limited to DOC inmates, but only DOC inmates may receive a prize. All entries become the property of the Prisoner Aid Association of Maryland, Inc. and may be used later to influence the 1995 or 1996 operating budgets. Entries must be postmarked by December 31, 1993.

Closing Message

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Don't forget to let me know what is going on at your facility. I will get back to you at the end of the 1994 legislative session, hopefully with some promising results.