February 12th, 2019 by WCBC Radio
Maryland State Delegates Paul Corderman (Washington Co.) and Jason Buckel (Allegany Co.) announced on Tuesday that they are introducing long-overdue legislation to address how inmates are released from Maryland's twenty-four prisons. HB 928 is titled the 'Suzanne Jones Act,' after a Hagerstown woman who was murdered in 2017 by an inmate who was released in Hagerstown even though he wasn't previously living in or convicted for crimes committed in Washington County. If passed, it would require that inmates in state correctional facilities be released in the jurisdictions in which they resided at the time of their convictions.
Corderman, who represents Hagerstown, said that he was appalled by statistics he received from Maryland's Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services which show that, since 2015, approximately 70% of the more than 1,700 inmates released in Washington County were serving sentences for convictions in jurisdictions other than Washington County.
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February 13, 2019 at 1:01 am, Robert Sanders said:
I don’t see how this can survive a legal challenge. Forcing all released to be released in the county of conviction is wrong. If we had enforced the parole system where the person is in a different county other then the county the person was agreeing to serve parole in then stupid bills like Suzanne Jones Act would not be needed. Pass it and see the lawsuits show up very fast.
February 14, 2019 at 10:11 am, Robert McMinn said:
Lawsuits are coming if this passes. It will be based on the right of a released inmate. Would been easier if failure to register in the county has been enforced.