Pretrial Fees Continue Despite Goals of General Assembly

COVID-19 delayed trials and motivated judges to order home monitoring. The trade off? The fees charged to defendants for private electronic supervision as they await trial mounted up.A new law to waive fees for low income people went into effect July 1--but fees are still being charged, until early October. We discuss the obstacles to getting started. Guests: Chief Judge John P. Morrissey of the District Court of Maryland Todd Oppenheim, supervising attorney in the Baltimore City Public Defenders’ Office Iman Freeman, executive director of the Baltimore Legal Action Team Delegate Luke Clippinger Delegate Stephanie Smith Correction: HB316 passed without Governor Hogan's signature. In the introduction, we incorrectly described the bill as "signed into law."Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472