Maryland has canceled the more than $13 million in debt that residents on parole owed for unpaid supervision or drug-testing fees. Announced by Governor Wes Moore (D) on October 4, the action complements legislation he signed three days earlier, which removes the requirement that those fees be collected going forward.
While 6,715 people will benefit from the relief, it leaves other parole-related debts in place. It does not apply to debts related to probation.
Parole refers to early release from prison and the remainder of the sentence being served out in the community under strict supervision. In Maryland, this means someone who was in the custody of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is now being supervised by the Division of Parole and Probation, which prior to October charged them $40 or $50 in supervision fees every month and $100 for each random test for alcohol or other drugs.
“Even the most motivated people coming home from prison have trouble getting a job, whether because of the scarlet letter of their criminal record, struggles with substance abuse or just managing that difficult transition to life back in the real world,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (D) stated in an October 4 press release. “By waiving supervision fees, which disproportionately impact low-income communities and people of color, Governor Moore and the General Assembly are easing financial burdens on Marylanders trying to get their lives back on track.”
“These changes will also lower the risk of recidivism and help advance our shared goal of eliminating mass incarceration,” he added.
The debt forgiveness only applies to people currently on parole, and excludes people whose debts are already being investigated by the Department of Budget and Management’s Central Collection Unit.
These fees serve no public safety or rehabilitative function, but exist simply to extort people who are unlikely to be able to pay.
Less than $1 million of the supervision and testing fees issued had been paid, compared to the $13,360,087.56 still owed prior to Gov. Moore’s announcement. For people who’ve been granted early release from prison, violating the conditions of their parole by not paying the fees will, in most states, result in the community supervision department handing them back to the corrections department to resume serving their sentence in prison.
On October 1, Moore signed House Bill 531, which allows the Maryland Parole Commission to exempt people, either in full or in part, from the monthly supervision fees and random testing fees they were previously required to pay to the Division of Parole and Probation. The Commission is not required to exempt anyone, however, and can still revoke parole and send someone back to prison over unpaid fees at its discretion.
Parole differs from probation, which refers to being sentenced to community supervision as an alternative to prison rather than being granted early release. Though someone whose probation is revoked over unpaid fees wasn’t serving a prison sentence to go back to, they can in some cases be remanded to the county jail. Often, probation is simply extended indefinitely until they can clear their debt, which of course simply piles on more of it.
An estimated 2 million people are currently incarcerated in the United States. But nearly twice that many are under state custody via parole, probation or some form of community supervision. Parole violations are estimated to account for over 40 percent of state corrections department admissions—meaning nearly half the people currently in prison were sent there as punishment not for any new violation of the law, but for violation of parole requirements like supervision fees.
Supervision fees and drug-testing fees are just two of many different fines and fees levied against people on parole, probation or other forms of community supervision across the country. For many, additional fees like mandatory electronic monitoring, polygraph tests and group counseling add up to hundreds of dollars per month. These fees serve no public safety or rehabilitative function.
Image via Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services