Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services - Study on Location of Individuals Prior to and Following Incarceration
Summary
SB84 requires the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to conduct an annual study, beginning October 1, 2026, on where people lived before incarceration and where they are released after serving time in a State correctional facility. The department must report the results each year to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, House Judiciary Committee, and House Appropriations Committee.
The study must include county-level data on each person’s county of residence at intake, county of release after incarceration, and, for people transferred between State facilities before release, how many days before release the transfer occurred. It must also compare how often people are released to the same county where they lived before incarceration, the same county where conviction occurred, and the county where they were incarcerated at release.
Impact
The bill adds a new section, § 9-618, to the Correctional Services Article and imposes an ongoing reporting duty on DPSCS. It does not change sentencing, release eligibility, or correctional placement rules directly, but it creates a recurring data-collection and reporting requirement that may inform future policy on reentry, facility location, transportation, and county-level impacts of incarceration and release.
Sentiment
The available voting history shows strong bipartisan support and no recorded opposition: the Senate passed the bill 45-0 and the House passed it 129-0. With no committee transcript available, the overall sentiment appears favorable and noncontroversial, likely reflecting the bill’s study-and-reporting purpose rather than a substantive policy change.
Contention
No specific points of contention are reflected in the provided materials. Because the bill only requires a study and annual reporting, any potential concerns would likely center on administrative burden, data collection accuracy, or the usefulness of the requested county-level comparisons, but none of those issues are documented in the available discussion or votes.