Maryland courts run out of money to pay for poor defendants’ pretrial home detention

Maryland courts have run out of money to pay for indigent people charged with crimes to be released on home detention pending trial, putting hundreds of such defendants at risk of reincarceration, according to documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

In 2021, the state sent $5 million to its Administrative Office of the Courts for a program that would pay private home detention companies to monitor defendants pending trial, so long as judges determined they qualified for release and couldn’t afford the service on their own, the documents show. The money came from the state’s allocation from the Congress’ Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

The move came as courts across the country looked for ways to reduce the number of people incarcerated pending trial to limit the spread of COVID-19, while seeking not to preclude poor people from remaining behind bars because they couldn’t afford home monitoring.

It also represented continued reform to a bail system with a history of incarcerating poor people.

On Friday, court officials told home detention companies in Maryland that those funds had dried up, according to a letter sent by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Terri Charles, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Judiciary, confirmed Wednesday that the $5 million in federal funds appropriated in 2021 ran out as of last Friday.

The office said in the letter to private home monitoring agencies that they are required to notify defendants that the courts would no longer pay for home monitoring fees.

“Any case in which an indigent individual has not reached agreement with the agency to continue monitoring based on payment by or on behalf of the indigent individual from a source other than the appropriated funds will be set for a hearing,” court officials wrote.

Baltimore-based defense attorney Natalie Finegar told The Sun that she is concerned about the repercussions for defendants who can’t afford home monitoring.

“There are people who are now going to be locked up. It’s horrible,” Finegar said. “They haven’t violated the home detention. They’re abiding by the rules. They’re being monitored effectively. … And now they’re going to have a hearing where their liberty is in jeopardy, when they’ve been doing everything they promised they would.”

In the same letter from the Administrative Office of the Courts, officials said they were in contact with the legislature to secure funding to continue the program.

A lobbying firm representing the two “largest private home detention monitoring firms in Maryland” followed up Friday with a letter to Gov. Wes Moore, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, urging the Democrats to come up with $4 million during the current legislative session to pay for the program going forward.

In a statement, Jones said she was working with Democratic Delegates Luke Clippinger, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Benjamin Barnes, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, “on a deficiency funding to ensure that those who are already part of the monitoring program don’t go to jail because they can’t afford to pay for their home monitoring device.”

A spokesperson for Ferguson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lobbyists for the private monitoring companies said in the letter that the courts had been paying for about 700 defendants to receive home monitoring when the funds ran out Friday. In their pitch to lawmakers, they estimated the state would save somewhere between $17 million and $35 million dollars by continuing to pay for people to be released on home monitoring rather than sending them back to jail.

It costs up to $15 a day on average per defendant for private home monitoring, the lobbyists wrote, compared to about $83 to $153 daily to incarcerate someone pretrial, according to estimates by Maryland Office of the Attorney General.

“Beyond the clear fiscal savings to the state in continuing the [Administrative Office of the Courts’] Indigency Program, there is a human element that needs to be factored into the calculus,” wrote the lobbyists, adding that allowing the program to end would “undoubtedly lead” to more people being locked up pending trial.

The Office of the Public Defender did not respond immediately Wednesday to a request for comment but said in a statement of support for the 2021 funding allocation that “no one awaiting trial, presumed innocent, should be incarcerated based on their financial circumstances. Period.”

“Simply put, if you can’t afford the home detention fees, especially in the jurisdictions using private companies, you cannot be released on home detention,” the office said. “Worse, if you’re released, and struggle to make home detention payments, you can be rearrested for violating the conditions of your release.”

This article may be updated.