Fourteen community, advocacy, and academic groups will come together tomorrow to announce the formation of the Coalition for a Safe and Just Maryland, which will focus on reforming the state’s bail system. The Open Society Policy Center, a non-partisan and non-profit advocacy group that is part of Open Society Foundations, is among the coalition members and Tara Huffman, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program, helped organize the effort.
The announcement will happen at a press conference at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon at the House of Delegates in Annapolis, where the coalition will announce its support for the Maryland Pretrial Reform Act of 2017 (SB880/HB1390). The Senate version of the bill will be introduced tomorrow.
The Coalition for a Safe and Just Maryland includes the following members:
Power Inside, Leaders of A Beautiful Struggle, Office of the Public Defender, Public Justice Center, Progressive Maryland, American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, University of Baltimore Law School’s Pretrial Justice Clinic, Justice Policy Institute, Open Society Policy Center, Pretrial Justice Institute, Job Opportunities Task Force, Baltimore Action Legal Team, Out for Justice, University of Maryland School of Law Access to Justice Clinic
