A year ago, when the coronavirus began to spread to Maryland, Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby stopped prosecuting drug possession, prostitution, minor traffic violations and other low-crime offenses, a measure that aims to curb the Covid-19 spread behind bars.
This change – repeated by prosecutors in many other cities – has not only reduced prison populations. In Baltimore, almost all categories of crime have since declined, confirming to Mosby what she and criminal justice experts have argued for years: crackdowns on quality of life crimes are not necessary to prevent more serious crimes.
On Friday, Mosby announced that he was making his pandemic experiment permanent, saying that Baltimore – for decades famous for uncontrolled violence and rude policing – has become a case study in criminal justice reform.
In the 12 months since she ordered the reduction of enforcement, violent crimes have dropped 20% and crimes against property have decreased by 36%, she said. Homicides have declined, although Baltimore is still has one of the highest homicide rates between cities across the country. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found sharp reductions in calls to the police complaining about drugs and prostitution, she said.
“Clearly, the data suggests that there is no public safety value in prosecuting low-level crimes,” Mosby said at a news conference.
But whether Baltimore is indeed an experiment that can be replicated elsewhere is yet to be seen. Enforcement of low-crime crimes declined in many parts of the country last year, as police limited operations to prevent contamination and spread of the virus, and prosecutors and judges sought to contain the spread of the virus in prisons. But Baltimore is one of the few big cities where violence has not increased. In dozens of cities, homicides and shootings increased in 2020.
While many prosecutors have maintained their pandemic suspensions in lawsuits for minor offenses, few have said that these changes will remain in place forever. Some newly elected prosecutors, however, have pledged to abandon low-level cases permanently.
At Friday’s press conference, Mosby also faced questions about a federal investigation into her campaign finances, as well as the finances of her husband, an alderman. His lawyer classified the investigation as “politically motivated”. Mosby rejected a reporter’s questions about the investigation, saying she wanted to focus on her new policy.
She said the Baltimore Police Department will be a partner in this move away from low-level prosecutions, in which police and prosecutors will focus on violent crimes and drug trafficking as courts resume criminal trials.
“Our understanding is that the police will follow what they have done in the past year, which is not to arrest people based on the crimes I have mentioned,” said Mosby.
At the same time, law enforcement will work with a local nonprofit organization, Baltimore Crisis Response Inc., to provide services to people suffering from mental illness, homelessness and drug addiction.
The Baltimore Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Police commissioner Michael Harrison told The Washington Post that the policy was difficult for law enforcement officers to accept when it was implemented last year, and that he expected crime to escalate. He told the Post that he now believes the pullback may have worked.
A spokeswoman for the local police union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kobi Little, head of the Baltimore section of the NAACP, said at the news conference that Mosby’s action was an acknowledgment that decades of harsh application in Baltimore did more harm than good.
“We want more elected officials to stand up on these issues,” he said.
Kim Foxx, the state attorney in Cook County, Illinois, said Mosby’s announcement was the culmination of years of discussion among reformers looking for ways to reduce the focus on low-profile crimes. “Covid provided a real opportunity to test it, to move from theory to practice,” she said.
“What Marilyn was able to do is demonstrate that these changes did not lead to an increase in violent crime, nor did they lead to chaos on the streets. Theory in practice has given good results. “
Foxx, like Mosby, dropped the charge of minor crimes in the early days of the pandemic. But it is still exploring the possibility of making these changes permanent. Cook County – which includes Chicago – has seen an increase in homicides and shootings. This means that Foxx will have to do a deeper analysis of what caused the spike before deciding what to do.
Michael Kahn, director of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Institute for Processing Innovation, said he believed Mosby was the first prosecutor to stay away from minor crimes permanently. They are more likely to come if they see that their policies have not caused spikes in crime, he said.
“I would expect now that the dam has been breached that in the coming months we will start to see people following us, once they have their arms around the data,” said Kahn.
