Now that we have made it to 2023, BALT is taking the opportunity to take a step back and honor our many accomplishments of 2022. In many ways, BALT's accomplishments this year are accomplishments of our community at large. The milestones we have reached this year are wins for everyone who has read and shared our reports, attended our workshops to deepen their understanding of the mission, donated anything they could to support loved ones who are not yet free and those who placed their trust in us in a time of vulnerability. Let’s together take a moment to look back on the growth we have made, the lessons we have learned, and the mountains we have moved in 2022.
2022 Accomplishments:
Relaunched Lawyer Up! education series with sessions covering attorney ethics, pretrial system, parole and probation system, and parenthood in the courts.
This year, thanks to the work of our Community Lawyer, we have expanded our direct services to providing expungement and warrant recall services. Since February BALT has served over 75 community members providing 58 expungements and 32 warrant recall services to community members.
Launched our Right2Access website to spread education around MPIA and Anton’s Law and update the public in our fight for access to public information.
Released our first ever billboard demanding State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby follow court ruling and give the public the full list of police with integrity issues.
Published the 2019 Pretrial Data report
Published our MPIA Guide
Translated our website to Spanish along with our MPIA Guide and 2019 Pre-Trial Report with the help of Jamii linguistics.
We were honored to receive the following grants: NAACP, OSI, Kaiser, Borealis, Annie E. Casey
Won the full list of police officers with integrity issues and published it to our Right2Access website, because officer accountability is undeniably within the public interest.
Published our first zine. Read Cannabis Legalization in Maryland: A Handbook here!
Hosted the Movement Lawyering Workshop to develop tools and knowledge to resist and dismantle systemic racism and oppression in the legal field.
Published the data dashboard to our Right2Access website to provide more information around the officers on the SAO’s list.
Became a 501c3 and established a founding board.
Reached our Giving Tuesday goal of $5,000 by the end of November.
Developed our strategic plan and theory of change during our retread facilitated by The Word Woman LLC.
Sent our staff and interns to the Law For Black Lives conference in St. Louis.
Provided 6 pretrial bails and 1 immigration bond to members of our community.
We are honored to have been a part of a number of historic legislative wins:
Implementation of Anton’s Law- Increased transparency on police misconduct records
Passed Child Interrogation Protection Act (SB53)- Kids are now guaranteed council before police questioning.
Passed Juvenile Justice Reform omnibus bill (HB459)- Expands the ability of the Department of Juvenile Services to offer intervention/services to kids and divert from detention.
Litigation Action of 2022:
Wins
We had a successful case in the Appellate Court of Maryland forcing the District Court of Maryland to disclose the identity of District Court Commissioners.
We won our case in Circuit Court seeking active employees of BPD with integrity issues. The court held that BPD knowingly and willfully violated the Maryland Public Information Act.
Our Circuit Court case with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection filed against BPD settled, forcing them to disclose the history of Public Information Act (PIA) treatment towards a broad spectrum of PIA requesters and to change recording practices moving forward.
In the Appellate Court of Maryland, we won a years worth of BPD misconduct investigations and are currently fighting to keep this win before the Supreme Court of Maryland.
Filings:
We filed a follow up action against the Office of the State’s Attorney after our appellate win against them last year forcing broader disclosures. This was then settled in a favorable MOU that will disclose investigations into police misconduct whether those officers are or are not charged.
Filed a jury trial against BPD for attempts to infringe upon Anton's Law through new practice of denying fee waivers.
We filed a case against BPD in the Federal Court arguing First Amendment violations discriminating against the release of records of accountability based on who is requesting and what the records contain.
Filed as counsel in a Montgomery County Case with Vanderbilt Law Clinic.
Readied filings to advocate to obtain new initiatives for 2023.
The end of the year brings with it a time of reflection. While we take time to slow down after a busy holiday season, it’s important to reflect upon what has worked and what hasn’t and the lessons we can take with us from the past year.
Reflections:
People’s Commission closing:
After four years of operation, The People’s Commission to Decriminalize Maryland will be closing out their work. We are proud of the work that the commission has accomplished and are excited to see what will come next for decriminalization efforts in Maryland.
Over the past four years, The People’s Commission has contributed to educating partners on the importance of decriminalizing the status of our most marginalized populations, as well as introducing the concept to the Maryland State legislature through educational briefings, legislator meetings, and testimony. The People’s Commission completed a comprehensive survey of Maryland’s Criminal Code. Through the support of our partners, we submitted over 20 pieces of testimony over the 2021 and 2022 legislative session in support of decriminalization efforts surrounding youth justice, drugs and paraphernalia, bodily autonomy and the unhoused population.
It has been a rewarding experience to work with such a large and diverse group of partners and we are so pleased to be able to pass the mantle to this next generation of coalitions that will continue the work.
In April, we announced the closing of our Cells to Safety Campaign. This was not an easy decision. We began our Cells to Safety Campaign in early 2020 due to an increased use of electronic monitoring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Community residents were faced with the decision of going to jail or paying private home detention companies $300-$400 a month to be placed on home monitoring.
We are proud to have spent $300,000 to those in need of financial assistance for electronic monitoring fees, allowing us to cover folks until February of 2022.
We remain legislatively active in this issue. Last year SB704 Conditions of Pretrial release passed
extending coverage to June 2023. This important bill ensures that loved ones who cannot afford electronic monitoring fees awaiting trial are not paying $300-$500 a month for private home detention.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you:
Clients, for placing your trust in us in times of vulnerability. Thank you.
Donors, for your generosity and unwavering commitment to justice.
Partner organizations, for being steadfast team mates in the fight for a better Baltimore:
Out for Justice
Citizens’ Policing Project
Helping Oppressed People Excel
Penn North Recovery Center
Movement Lawyering Workshop facilitators, for bringing your expertise and passion to our workshop and contributing to a successful workshop:
Alexis Ojeda-Brown
Lynn McCann
Elizabeth Ling
Rafa Kidvai
Em Lawler
Nicole Hanson-Mundell
Ray Kelly
Nikki Thanos
Rachel Foran
Colin Starger
James Kilgore
Emmett Sanders
Thank you for being a part of our 2022. We are honored to do the work we do and are looking forward to a successful 2023. If you would like to support the work we do, we encourage you to donate. We cannot continue to provide the direct services and actions we do without support from our network.