Desmond Haneef-Perry poses at his desk on Nov. 25 at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in Harford County. Photo by William J. Ford.
Part of Desmond Haneef-Perry’s job is to explain to judges why an incarcerated individual who appears for a pretrial hearing not only needs services to overcome possible substance abuse or mental health issues, but also a second chance at life when eventually released from jail.
He speaks from experience.
Charged with first-degree murder at age 18 and sent to prison a year later, Haneef-Perry spent 20 years behind bars before being released in May 2022. Since getting out, he’s landed a job as a certified forensic peer recovery specialist for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in Harford County, where he lives with his wife and 9-month-old daughter.
“When I talk about second chances, there are hundreds more individuals just like myself who would come out and serve the community the same way,” he has, Haneef-Perry, said in an interview Monday. “They just need to be given an opportunity.”
Haneef-Perry, 41, who serves on various statewide organizations to help reform the state’s criminal justice system, is just one of the criminal justice reform advocates hoping for a better outcome next year for the bill informally called the Second Look Act, which stalled in the House in the last legislative session.
The bill that did pass the Senate would let inmates who are 60 years old or who have served more than 20 years behind bars file a petition with the court seeking to have their sentence reduced. If that petition is denied, the inmate could file again, but only if he was both 60 or older and had served for at least 20 years.
When I talk about second chances, there are hundreds more individuals just like myself who would come out and serve the community the same way. They just need to be given an opportunity.
– Desmond Haneef-Perry
“It’s in society’s best interest to allow a truly rehabilitated person to contribute to society rather than remain warehoused, soaking up our tax dollars, unable to make any positive contribution at all,” said Sen. Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore City). She sponsored the bill in the last session, along with Del. Cheryl Pasteur (D-Baltimore County), who sponsored the House version. Both women plan to reintroduce the proposal in 2025.
“I believe it will pass,” in the next session, Carter said in a Nov. 15 text message.
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger (D) hopes it doesn’t. Shellenberger, who wrote a letter earlier this year opposing the proposal, said his position hasn’t changed.
Under the bill, a victim or a victim’s representative would be notified of any hearing scheduled on an inmate’s sentence reduction petition. Among his other problems with the bill, Shellenberger said earlier this month that the victim notification provision is just another post-conviction complication for victims or their loved ones, forcing them to return to court to relive events of serious crimes such as rape or murder that happened years ago.
“When can I ever look at a victim and say the case is over? That’s the main thing,” he said.
But Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy (D) supports the measure.
Braveboy said the courts are currently able to evaluate a sentence, but state law limits that review to the five years after a sentence is handed down. “Very few” judges will reconsider a sentence for a serious crime within the window, she said.
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“The justice system is a continuum. Justice requires us to look at and review cases at every stage, including conviction and sentencing,” she said in an interview earlier this month. “The law has to reflect the fact that people can be redeemed and should be given an opportunity to prove that they deserve a second chance.”
“It is not opening the flood gates,” she said of the proposed Second Look Act. “It’s really being very strategic about how we evaluate individuals and whether or not they are ready to come back to society.”
Haneef-Perry, who speaks only for himself and not for the public defender’s office, and other members of the Maryland Second Look Coalition said they plan to lobby on the bill’s behalf in the next session. Coalition members, who include those with loved ones currently incarcerated, said they will either provide written testimony or travel to Annapolis next year to urge lawmakers in both chambers to approve the measure.
One of those potential witnesses is Magdalena Tsiongas, the Second Look Coalition convener, who has a 36-year-old partner who remains incarcerated after being sentenced for first-degree murder at age 19.
“If people rehabilitate, they should have the opportunity to show that to the judge,” Tsiongas said. “We need to do better as a society recognizing if and when people have rehabilitated that healing doesn’t always look like just keeping people in prison as long as possible, but making avenues for them to come back into the community and give back to the communities that they might have harmed.”