Posted on 09/17/25
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Sept. 17, 2025 - A growing debate in Maryland centers on who should be held responsible when a criminal receives a light sentence and then commits another crime. Some politicians argue judges should face consequences.
Maryland Del. Ryan Nawrocki, R – Baltimore County, believes judges should be held to the highest standard. He said judges are public officials, elected and appointed to their roles, and their decisions have direct consequences on public safety. “Judges are one of the key elements to making sure that we're not putting bad people back on the street over and over again,” Nawrocki said.
Some legal experts say they support more transparency for judicial decisions but caution against punishment, fearing it would lead to fewer people choosing the profession.
Mark A. Graber, a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, supported the idea of increased transparency — but drew a line at punishment. “Right now, you have to be a diligent researcher to discover what a judge could do,” Graber said. “It would not be a sin, liberal, conservative or otherwise, to create a database where it would be a lot easier to research what this judge is doing.”
Graber warned that penalizing judges could have unintended consequences. Either people would not become judges or judges would always give the maximum penalty. “Among the features of judicial independence under the constitution of the United Statesyou cannot sue a judge for a decision you do not like that was not corruptly made.”
The debate on repeat offenders has intensified after U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, R-Florida, introduced the JAIL Act recently. It would hold judges accountable for releasing violent repeat offenders on bail, who then go on to commit further crimes.
Fine introduced the legislation in response to the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, North Carolina. The suspect in that case had been arrested 14 times before the incident.
“These kinds of crimes are absolutely preventable,” Nawrocki said. “They are preventable through good legislation and tough judges.”
Maryland has considered efforts to increase transparency and accountability in its judicial system. One notable attempt was the Judicial Transparency Act of 2020, introduced by then-Gov. Larry Hogan. The proposal would have made judges and the sentences they impose publicly available.
According to a recent Maryland recidivism report, 244 repeat offenders were recorded in state prisons from July 2023 to June 2024. The data, provided by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS), shows a downward trend compared to previous years: 509 repeat offenders recorded in state prisons from July 2022 to June 2023 and 599 from July 2021 to June 2022.
DPSCS’ recidivism report states 4,081 people were released from state prisons in fiscal year 2021, the most up-to-date data published. Of those, 1,312 were back behind bars – a recidivism rate of 32.15%. Baltimore City had the highest rate of repeat offenders at 904, followed by Baltimore County at 464, Harford County at 108 and Anne Arundel County at 90.
Holding criminals accountable has been a big focus for Ivan Bates, Baltimore City State's Attorney. During a January 2025 interview with FOX45 News, Bates said, “When you're holding individuals accountable and you're sending them to prison, then that's really changing the face of public safety.”
Homicide rates dropped to 202 total in 2024 under Bates, compared to 338 in 2021 under former State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. Bates said targeting repeat violent offenders is driving down those numbers. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, meanwhile, has credited his violence intervention efforts for the drop.
As the public safety debate continues, Baltimore attorney Steven Silverman said holding judges responsible for future actions of defendants they once sentenced is both impractical and unfair. “You cannot just go after judges because somebody that once appeared in front of them has now committed a heinous crime,” Silverman said. “Every single judge in
America has probably had that happen to them dozens, if not hundreds, of times over the course of their career. You would be out of judges.”
Silverman, a self-described conservative whose firm represented President Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, said he strongly opposes the idea of penalizing judges for their sentencing decisions.
“It’s completely misplaced because you cannot handicap a judge in what kind of sentence that judge gives,” he said.