WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor

Martha Roach, Acting Insurance Commissioner, Department of
Licensing and Regulation, 501 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD
21202.

Signed May 27, 1988.

No. 2

(Senate Joint Resolution No. 8)

A Senate Joint Resolution concerning

Maryland Parole Commission - Powers

FOR the purpose of requesting the Legislative Policy Committee to
establish a committee to study the efficiency and
effectiveness of, and the advisability of maintaining the
feasibility of abolishing the power of the Maryland Parole
Commission to grant parole release to person sentenced
under the laws of the State to penal and correctional
institutions, including local jails and detention centers;
providing for the composition and chairman of the committee;
requiring a certain report by a certain date; and providing
for the staffing of the committee.

WHEREAS, Parole release of inmates, having begun as a
criminal reform measure, is currently a major component of the
criminal justice system and during the past decade has been used
primarily to alleviate prison overcrowding; and

WHEREAS, The effectiveness of supervised parole has been
questioned in light of the fact that during 1984 a statewide
total of 481 parole agents supervised 2,835 parolees and 46,845
probationers; and

WHEREAS, The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics has
found that 96 percent of all inmates in State prisons have been
previously incarcerated for serious or violent crimes, and that
40 percent of the inmates in State prisons during 1984 committed
their crimes while on parole or probation; and

WHEREAS, The average Maryland prisoner currently serves 46
percent of his sentence; and

WHEREAS, In 1984 the United States Congress abolished parole
for federal prisoners, and over the past 10 years 9 states have
abolished the authority of their parole boards to release
prisoners prematurely; and

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