400 Baltimore County Inmates Released Amid Coronavirus: Officials

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — Baltimore County has released hundreds from detention facilities since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the state's attorney reported Thursday. He also added a Saturday docket to expedite processing.

"My jail population has dropped by somewhere in the area of 400," State's Attorney for Baltimore County Scott Shellenberger said in a virtual briefing Thursday before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

For 20 years, the Baltimore County Detention Center has had about 1,100 to 1,500 people, he told Patch. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he said: "We were in the 1,200s."

As of Thursday, the detention center was "down to 800 people currently there," Shellenberger told Patch.

"These are low-level offenders. These are not carjackers, these are not rapists, these are not robbers," he said. "These are low-level offenders that we do not believe pose any risk to public safety."

One person who was released had been in the detention center for three weeks due to a noise complaint, he said, because he couldn't post $500 to get out on bail. "We had a couple others [who] by the time they came to our attention had been in longer than the maximum sentence" for what they had been charged with, he added.

Facilities across the state are releasing detainees to minimize the spread of the new coronavirus.

Gov. Larry Hogan authorized Maryland corrections officials in mid-April to reduce state prison populations by prioritizing certain inmates for release.

Last week Shellenberger said he got a list of more than 100 people state corrections officials were considering; and after review, he said his office approved releasing 75 of them, many who were over 60 or had health conditions.

Since the pandemic began, state prisons have released 1,000 inmates, according to Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Robert Green. For comparison, he told lawmakers that in this two-month period last year, 94 inmates were released.

Baltimore County is also "getting people out of the jail on Saturdays," Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said, noting Baltimore County has technology that his county does not and has begun a Saturday docket.

"They include not only pleas but also bail reviews," Shellenberger said, "so that we can speed up the process of getting people a bail review and out of jail."

The Saturday docket started because inmates had filed writs of habeas corpus asking for an additional bail review, Shellenberger told Patch by phone Thursday afternoon.

"They all wanted to get out because of the virus," Shellenberger said, and a couple of hundred of these reviews were pending. "We expanded to Saturday because we were really having trouble catching up on that."

Baltimore County is the largest jurisdiction in the state using the Maryland Electronic Courts and E-Filing (MDEC) system, according to Shellenberger. Piloted in 2014, the program is now in all jurisdictions except Baltimore City and Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

Because of MDEC, Shellenberger said: "We are actually not very far behind in the work that we are doing." While using MDEC was "a little painful" at the outset, now with 130 employees working remotely due to the stay-at-home order, he said: "It is almost as if they are sitting in their offices."

So far, a number of people in Baltimore County have been released to home detention, were given some supervision stipulations or are being monitored by bracelets.

Baltimore County has "a lot of bracelets out there," Shellenberger said. "We have a very robust pretrial unit up here in Baltimore County."

To legislators, he suggested implementing a statewide pretrial system, since programs vary by jurisdiction and it could help counties that do not have all these options.

Based on a mid-April order issued by Maryland Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera, all juveniles in custody in Baltimore County, whether charged as an adult or as a juvenile, are also having their cases reviewed, he said. Barbera ordered hearings to evaluate whether detention of each juvenile created health risks to the juvenile, staff or the community; whether any condition of release could mitigate the risk of harm to self or others; and if there were any circumstances relative to the individual that needed to be considered.

"Every juvenile who is in custody, whether charged as adult or juvenile," is having his or her case reviewed and is receiving another hearing with a juvenile judge, Shellenberger said.

Coronavirus Cases In Baltimore County Facilities

At Parkville's Charles H. Hickey School for juvenile offenders, officials say two staff members have the virus.

The Baltimore County Detention Center in Towson has two staff cases of the coronavirus and six inmates who have tested positive as well, according to state health data.

At Spring Grove Hospital Center in Catonsville, the Maryland Department of Health reported one patient death, 30 patient cases and 10 staff cases of the virus.

See Also:

• MD Prisons Free More Than 2,000 Inmates To Slow Coronavirus Spread
• Governor Allows Early Prison Release Due To Coronavirus Crisis
• MD Judge Orders Release Of At-Risk Inmates During Pandemic