Md. Judiciary seeks at least $2M for home detention program after hitting funding limit

ANNAPOLIS — Since terminating a pretrial private home detention monitoring program last Friday, the Maryland Judiciary has asked the legislature for $2 million to maintain the service for those currently using it.

Unless lawmakers enact emergency legislation to free up the funding, which could still take a few weeks, the judiciary will have to wait at least two months — until Gov. Wes Moore signs a budget into law — to receive assistance to pay for the roughly 650 people who were in the program when it ended.

“I understand that you didn’t ask for this program,” state Sen. Sarah Elfreth said to Maryland Judiciary members, including Supreme Court of Maryland Chief Justice Matthew Fader and District Court of Maryland Chief Judge John Morrissey, during a legislative hearing Thursday.

“You were ‘volun-told’ to handle this program,” she said. “But at the same time, a little bit of this heartburn is self-created because it sounds like we don’t have the regulations to make sure we’re being billed in a timely manner.”

The judiciary terminated the program after determining that invoices it had received from licensed home detention agencies had surpassed the $5 million the legislature allocated for it in 2021 using federal COVID relief funding.

As of December, the judiciary had spent $4 million of its $5 million allocation, and it was spending between roughly $100,000 and $140,000 per month, Morrissey said.

The licensed agencies, though, haven’t complied with a requirement to submit invoices twice per month, and the judiciary lacked a way to enforce the rule — Morrissey said denying an invoice for someone on home detention could have resulted in them being kicked from the program and put in jail.

On Feb. 13, the Administrative Office of the Courts sent letters to home detention companies stating that money for the program was expected to run out “during the first quarter of 2024” because of a sudden influx of invoices, which Morrissey said Thursday totaled $600,000.

The judiciary subsequently received another chunk of invoices and three days later, on Feb. 16, the Administrative Office of the Courts sent another letter stating that the judiciary wouldn’t grant payments for individuals ordered to private home detention monitoring after the close of business that day.

The judiciary was expected to honor payments in the order received, up to the $5 million total, for those who were already in the program.

The letter also stated that the judiciary had contacted the legislature about a deficiency appropriation to cover invoices received before the close of business on Feb. 16 that were beyond the $5 million allocation.

Morrissey said the invoices likely total $300,000 to $400,000 beyond the $5 million allocation, though the exact amount the judiciary owes won’t be clear until after it audits the invoices, which aren’t always paid dollar-for-dollar.

Elfreth said the state must ensure the program isn’t only available to those who can afford it.

Lawmakers in the state Senate and House of Delegates may consider funding the program through the end of the fiscal year, as those who’ve been arrested after last Friday have been left with uncertainty about home detention as an option, though it’s unclear exactly how much that would cost.

House Speaker Adrienne Jones said in a statement that she’s been working with top lawmakers in her chamber to come up with deficiency funding “to ensure that those who are already part of the monitoring program don’t go to jail because they can’t afford to pay for their home monitoring device.”

Elfreth said lawmakers intend to work with the Judiciary to avoid another fiscal cliff for a program she said has been “a bit of a political hot potato” for the judiciary and the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, but that she believed the judiciary had flexibility in its budget to bridge fund the program for the next two months.

Judiciary members, though, said a fiscal year 2024 budget cut left them without money available to use for the program.

Morrissey also said that, under state statute, the judiciary is no longer authorized to pay for the program because it was set to end after reaching $5 million or the end of 2024.

The five home detention agencies licensed through the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services are expected to attempt to work out a payment plan, but if those awaiting trial cannot afford to pay, they’d have to return to court for a hearing.