OP-ED: Community Support Increases Community Safety, Not Incarceration

Over ten years ago, I launched the Maryland Justice Project to ensure that women leaving prison had the tools they needed to succeed as they reentered their communities. MJP is just one of many nonprofit organizations in Maryland that are the backbone of safety in our community — organizations working every day to interrupt cycles of harm, support successful reentry, and meet people where they are. But instead of expanding access to proven safety strategies including mental health care, housing, job support, and evidence-based safety solutions, the Trump administration is threatening to gut critical reentry resources in favor of more punishment, incarceration, and criminalization.

This would take us backward, just as Maryland is beginning to confront how mass incarceration has torn apart families and disproportionately harmed women and communities of color.

According to The Sentencing Project, Maryland has the highest racial disparity in life sentences in the country: 76% of people serving life sentences here are Black. For those sentenced before the age of 25, that number climbs to 82%. Women are being swept into this crisis, too. The Prison Policy Initiative reports that Maryland incarcerates women at a rate of 76 per 100,000 residents — far higher than almost any other democratic country.

Behind every number is a person. One woman we worked with had done everything right after coming home — searching for work and caring for her children — but she still couldn’t secure safe housing and struggled to make ends meet. With nowhere else for her to turn, MJP stepped in with emergency assistance so she could get back on her feet and provide for her and her children. Sadly, we hear stories like hers all the time. And it reminds us that the everyday struggles of reentry too often go unseen and unsupported.

Despite the barriers, we’ve made progress. In 2013 and 2014, MJP led the successful campaign for Ban the Box legislation in Baltimore, removing questions about criminal history from private employment applications. That law removed an enormous barrier to employment for the city’s returning population and meant a fairer shot at jobs for a large portion of Baltimore’s unemployed workforce.

Still, we have more work ahead. Maryland operates multiple prerelease centers for men, but few exist for women — even though we know these centers are essential to helping people find jobs, treatment services, and housing. Without them, women are set up to fail. Having access to resources and funds as soon as they come home often means the difference between going hungry and putting food on the table for themselves and their children.

When reentry services are defunded, the consequences ripple outward: mental health clinics close, homeless shelters lose funding, and job training programs disappear. Women in crisis wind up in emergency rooms, in overcrowded jails, and in rising desperation instead of getting help. But when we invest in housing, job training, addiction recovery, and trauma-informed care, they stabilize — and so do their families and communities.

Most people understand that family stability creates community safety. Research shows that Americans across the political spectrum support increasing access to mental health and addiction care, and they understand that addressing poverty and lack of opportunities would help improve safety in their communities. It’s time for our elected leaders to catch up to that consensus.

We’re calling on Congress, and Maryland’s state and federal policymakers to fund the services that keep people out of the system, not trapped inside it. State leaders in the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy and the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services must prioritize funding for commonsense programs that create safety and stability. Create a centralized reentry support directory. Expand access to pre-release programs for women. The current plan to build a women’s pre-release center is ill-considered and does not meet the requirement outlined in the statute. Invest in communities, not cages. Doing so will transform our state’s approach to safety for the better — preventing crime in the first place, advancing justice, and helping our communities thrive.

Monica Cooper is the founder of the Maryland Justice Project and a distinguished member of the Maryland Democratic State Central Committee for Baltimore’s 40th Legislative District.