Del. Cheryl Pasteur (D-Baltimore County), at her Annapolis office Tuesday on the eve of the 2025 legislative session, discusses legislation to provide a second chance to those incarcerated. Photo by William J. Ford.
The General Assembly lost one of the main advocates for legislation that would allow for the modification or reduction of a prison sentence, when former Sen. Jill P. Carter stepped down after her appointment last month to the Maryland Board of Contract Appeals,.
But Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County) plans to step in to that spot and sponsor the measure in the 2025 legislative session that begins Wednesday. Sydnor served as a co-sponsor on legislation that Carter sponsored last year, which passed the Senate but did not advance in the House of Delegates.
Sydnor said advocates “aren’t wrong” when they praise Carter, a Baltimore City Democrat, especially with her work as a criminal justice attorney.
“She has been a tremendous colleague of mine,” Sydnor said about Carter in an interview Tuesday. “When it comes to these issues, she knows her stuff. If you say something wrong, you had to be ready for her to challenge you.
“Her voice is definitely going to be missed on the General Assembly floor and that hearing room,” he said.
Sydnor’s Baltimore County colleague, Del. Cheryl Pasteur, a Democrat, will once again serve as the House sponsor of the bill informally known as the Second Look Act.
“I’m petrified. [Carter’s] an attorney. I’m a little old lady from Pikesville,” said Pasteur, a retired educator who also worked as an FBI agent for five years. “I do what I do out of passion and firsthand observations and engagement.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, the measures had not been filed online.
The bill Carter sponsored in the 2024 session would have let those incarcerated who have served more than 20 years or are at least 60 years old file a petition with the court seeking to have their sentence reduced. If that petition is denied, the individual could file again, but only if he was both 60 or older and had served for at least 20 years.
A written decision by the court on whether to reduce a prison sentence would have to have included the individual’s age at time of offense, whether the person participated in any education, vocational or other programs and “any report of a physical, mental, or behavioral examination of the individual conducted by a health professional.”
Another part of the bill would have allowed a victim or a victim’s representative to be notified of any hearing scheduled on a sentence reduction petition.
At least one opponent, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger (D), has said he opposes the measure because 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.
But Sydnor said not everyone incarcerated would be allowed this opportunity.
“This is not a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Sydnor, adding that procedure would likely only be used sporadically. You’re going to have to be able to prove to that judge that you’ve changed.”
Magdalena Tsiongas, the convener for the Maryland Second Look Coalition, said the state remains weak when it comes to criminal justice reform. Data from the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative shows that Black residents accounted for 32% of the state’s population in 2023, but make up 71% of those who are incarcerated in the state’s correctional facilities.
“It really is a racial justice issue to address the mass incarceration here,” said Tsiongas, whose partner has been incarcerated for more than 17 years since the age of 19. “When there’s an opportunity, commitment to dedicate to work on second chances, it’s really an investment in the potential of people who have spent decades inside [prison].”