OSI-Baltimore stands ready, with resources and expertise, to make certain changes are made to the underlying root causes that have troubled our city for decades. For 17 years, we have worked with hundreds of grantees, Community Fellows and other partners throughout the city to bring about just policies and practices that respect the rights and advances the potential of each resident.
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Will America Ever Change?
Monday, December 15, 2014The tragic murders of unarmed Black men at the hands of police officers is a glaring example of law enforcement viewing Black men and boys as a problem within society that needs to be dealt with and controlled.
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The Right to a Fair Trial: Unger v. State
Wednesday, June 04, 2014We must correct errors and maintain a criminal justice system we can be proud of—one where the people involved receive justice and second chances.
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Maryland is ready for reform
Monday, January 06, 2014Time and again, the ACLU receives calls from Marylanders, usually poor and of color, who have fallen victim to the failed war on drugs. Many describe the illegal searches and verbal intimidation they experienced at the hands of law enforcement officers in the misguided, racially biased, and endless hunt for marijuana.
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The Truth About our Youth: Maryland’s Youth in the Criminal Justice System
Tuesday, November 12, 2013We are members of the Core Alliance of Youth Leaders of Community Law in Action. Many of us have been charged as adults and held at the Baltimore City Detention Center, an adult jail.
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Taking a hard look at child support enforcement
Monday, May 20, 2013Child support plays an invaluable role in the quality of a child’s life and their trajectory toward a healthy and positive future. However, non-custodial parents with criminal records often find themselves unable to meet child support obligations due to an inability to secure stable employment.
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Real representation for all
Monday, March 18, 2013What would happen if every single person accused of a crime in this country got a lawyer who his knew his name? Why he had been arrested? His version of events? His witnesses? His evidence? His case? What? That doesn’t happen?
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The Perry Hall case and the danger of prosecuting youth as adults
Tuesday, March 05, 2013An unthinking “lock ’em up” approach does not adequately serve either the youth involved in criminal cases or the larger society. Maryland decision makers should rethink the practice of prosecuting and sentencing youth as adults and appropriately deal with all criminal cases involving youth in the system created especially for them—the juvenile justice system.
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Murdered in Maximum Security
Sunday, February 17, 2013Let us speak on behalf of the dead—because we are implicated in these particular homicides. But let’s first be clear on who these murder victims were. Ricky Bailey and Michael Armstead were convicted rapists. Charles David Richardson IV was convicted of murdering two people. They were not innocents. They were violent criminals. Yet all three […]
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DNA, Race and Public Safety
Saturday, February 09, 2013On February 26 the Supreme Court will hear arguments to determine the constitutionality of Maryland’s DNA collection law. The DNA Collection Act (2009) allows law enforcement to obtain and analyze genetic information from individuals without a search warrant who have not been convicted of any crime and have merely been arrested. Strongly supported by the […]
