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In April, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced that her office would stop prosecuting drug possession, prostitution, trespassing, and other low-level offenses.

Baltimore temporarily stopped prosecuting low level crimes last year to slow the spread of Covid-19 in jails and prisons. After enacting those changes they experienced a 20% drop in violent crime and a 36% drop in property crime. There were also 13 fewer homicides than during the same time period the previous year.

After squashing 1,423 pending cases and 1,415 warrants for low-level offenses, only five of those former suspects were re-arrested for another crime during that period.

The data shows “there’s no public safety value in prosecuting these low-level offenses,” Ms. Mosby said in an interview.

We would like to thank the Equal Justice Initiative for the content. Click HERE to view the original comprehensive article.