LA PLATA — Defendants charged with second-degree rape, with any carjacking, or with a history of breaking pretrial release terms in any jurisdiction would be barred from Charles County’s planned pretrial release program under changes the Board of County Commissioners asked for Tuesday.
The county has no pretrial services program now. The proposed law would create one: county case managers who screen people held in jail, check what they tell the court about their jobs, homes and treatment, and report to the judge before a release decision. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office would enforce the conditions once someone is released.
Officials at the Oct. 20 work session described the missing program as the largest hole in the county’s criminal justice system. Circuit Court Administrative Judge H. Jay West, who chairs the county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, said a 2024 sequential intercept mapping study, paid for with state crime-prevention money, identified the lack of pretrial services as the biggest local gap. County Attorney Wes Adams said he will bring a revised draft to the commissioners Oct. 27.
What the program would do
The program would not decide who goes free. Judges keep that power. What it would add is checking. Today, when a defendant tells a judge he can live with his brother or that he is in mental health treatment, no one confirms it before the hearing, West and State’s Attorney Anthony Covington said.
Covington, who joined online, said the verification would help prosecutors, judges and even defendants whose claims turn out to be true. “Thank goodness that we’re going to get it,” he said.
West pushed back on a common belief that judges walk into bond reviews holding a full criminal history file. In circuit court, he said, he has never received one. Judges rely on what the prosecutor and defense attorney tell them, and they cannot pull national crime records themselves. Sheriff Troy D. Berry said FBI rules bar his office from copying those records and handing them to a judge.
Under the draft, the county would run the administrative side and the Sheriff’s Office the enforcement side. Adams said a memorandum of understanding between the two must be signed before the program is funded or staffed. Officials said the plan calls for four pretrial case managers.
The commissioners have had the power to start such a program since 2021, when the General Assembly passed House Bill 1072 and its Senate companion, Senate Bill 750. The state’s fiscal analysis at the time put the county’s cost for a pretrial program and a community service program at about $480,000 a year.
The changes
Jerome Spencer, general counsel for the Sheriff’s Office, walked the board through a list of edits, and commissioners added their own. The changes Adams agreed to write into the redraft:
- Two steps instead of one. A quick screening would first rule out anyone charged with an excluded crime. Only eligible people would get the full assessment and verification, which takes more staff time.
- Robbery. The exclusion would cover robbery with a dangerous weapon, not just a firearm.
- Carjacking. All carjacking would be excluded, armed or not. The draft listed only armed carjacking.
- Sex crimes. Commissioner Amanda M. Stewart asked to widen the rape exclusion beyond first degree to cover second-degree rape and third-degree sexual offenses, which include crimes against children ages 14 and 15. Colleagues agreed.
- Violations anywhere. Stewart also asked that anyone who has violated pretrial release in any jurisdiction, not only Charles County, be ineligible. Assessors would be responsible for checking.
- Ankle monitors. Participants ordered onto electronic monitoring would contract with and pay the vendor themselves. The draft had allowed the county to hold those contracts.
The draft already bars most people charged with crimes of violence, use of a firearm in a felony or drug trafficking crime, sexual abuse of a minor and escape, along with anyone already on pretrial release, Spencer said. Nearly all handgun charges are excluded, except misdemeanor wearing, carrying or transporting cases.
Domestic violence and the commissioner gap
Commissioner Gilbert O. “B.J.” Bowling III, who said he spent 25 years in law enforcement, pressed hardest. He wanted domestic violence added to the exclusions and said a victim found bloodied at a scene should not see the attacker back home under the program.
Spencer and Adams said domestic violence is not a single crime under Maryland law and covers everything from property damage to aggravated assault. The more serious cases, including strangulation, which the General Assembly made first-degree assault a few years ago, are already excluded, Spencer said. Adams floated barring crimes of violence between spouses or partners. West said he would review that language but did not take a position. Covington said domestic cases make up 20% to 25% of all criminal cases.
Bowling also pointed to a gap the bill cannot close. District court commissioners, who see people within hours of arrest, can still release some defendants on their own recognizance. Those people never reach a judge and never enter the county program. Adams said changing that would take state legislation.
Who pays
Money drew the sharpest exchange. Stewart and Bowling said participants should pay their own monitoring costs. West cautioned that tying release to a person’s ability to pay has drawn years of litigation, and Maryland courts have largely moved away from cash bail. Spencer noted that when the state stopped providing monitoring in 2020, the Sheriff’s Office began its push for a local program.
A state fund pays pretrial monitoring for defendants who qualify for the public defender, West said, though officials said that money has run out partway through past years. Adams suggested a small county fund for people who cannot pay. Stewart said she would rather collect data first and decide later.
Bowling said he would support the bill but worried the cost would fall on the next board. The bill sets up a program, he said, and “somebody’s going to have to own this.”
Adams said he will circulate the revised draft to Covington, West and Berry along with the commissioners before the Oct. 27 meeting.
