Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s State Attorney has ordered her staff to drop all imminent criminal charges against anyone apprehended for drug possession, attempted distribution, prostitution, trespassing, minor traffic offenses, open container, and urinating in public. She wrote a letter to the Governor of Baltimore, Larry Hogan to further enforce some guidelines to ensure safety for workers and inmates alike.
Mosby’s letter urged the Governor to “to take Emergency action to close Courthouses throughout the State, and to develop decarceral guidelines for the state’s prisons and jails,” WMAR reports.
She also offers her full support to the Governor and added that, “with so many lives on the line, there are steps the Governor’s office can take to mitigate the spread of the virus behind prison walls.”
In addition, the State Attorney has announced new decarceral policies that need to be enforced by her office as well in tandem with her office’s pledge to preventing the spread of coronavirus.
“As prosecutors, we are committed to protecting the safety and wellbeing of everyone in our community, and that includes people who are currently in prison or jail.
“I firmly believe that we can promote public health and public safety at the same time, and that’s what these new policies will achieve.”
The Central Booking prosecutors have been instructed by Mosby during this moment of chaos that has engulfed the world to dismiss right away any charges and release individuals arrested for the above-mentioned offenses.
Their charges are deemed as nonviolent and they pose no danger to public safety and most likely might get a pre-trial release.
Currently, Maryland has at least 85 positive coronavirus cases and Mosby is doing her quota to reduce the numbers.
