ACLU of Maryland Announces New Interim Policy Director, 2022 Legislative Priorities

With a new public policy director at the helm, the ACLU of Maryland unveiled its top priorities for the 2022 legislative session Friday, including support for equitable cannabis decriminalization and legal protections for children under investigation.

“Community and racial justice will continue to be at the center of our legislative advocacy during the 2022 legislative session,” Yanet Amanuel, the interim public policy director for the ACLU of Maryland, said in a statement.

Amanuel is stepping in for Caylin Young, the organization’s former policy director who left to serve as the deputy director for the Baltimore City Office of Equity and Civil Rights. Amanuel has been with the ACLU of Maryland since 2019.

Amanuel co-led the Maryland Coalition for Justice and Police Accountability, which lobbied in favor of sweeping police reform legislation during the 2021 regular legislative session, and drove the ACLU’s fight to remove the governor from the parole process for people serving life sentences.

She has also worked with the Job Opportunities Task Force, the Prince George’s County chapter of the NAACP and served as the chief of staff for former Del. Angela M. Angel (D-Prince George’s).

Legislative Priorities

Cannabis

During the 2022 session, the ACLU of Maryland would like to see a cannabis decriminalization bill that legalizes recreational use for adults, reallocates more than half of the tax revenue generated from sales to communities most impacted by the war on drugs and provides economic opportunity for Black business owners.

The organization would also prioritize record expungement and sentence reconsideration for people serving sentences for cannabis-related offenses.

As of Friday afternoon, no 2022 decriminalization bill had been made public on the General Assembly website.

Decriminalization policy is poised to be top-of-mind for legislators during the 2022 legislative session.

Earlier this year, House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) created the House Cannabis Referendum and Legalization Workgroup to explore criminal justice and economic policy with the intention of passing legislation to allow voters to determine whether cannabis should be legalized through a ballot referendum.

According to a March 2021 Goucher Poll, two-thirds of Marylanders supported the legalization of recreational-use cannabis.

Civilian Oversight

Seeking to expand on police reform efforts from this year’s regular legislative session, the ACLU of Maryland would like to support a bill to allow the Baltimore Civilian Review Board to assume the responsibility of police accountability boards mandated by the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021.

Established in 1999, the Baltimore Civilian Review Board maintains the jurisdiction to accept and investigate police misconduct complaints in the city.

Under the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021, all 23 counties and Baltimore City are required to create police accountability boards to review misconduct complaints from the public and appoint members to other disciplinary bodies created under the legislation, including trial boards and administrative charging committees.

Jurisdictions have been scrambling to implement legislation at the local level to establish police accountability boards by the July 1, 2022, deadline imposed by the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021, causing friction between county lawmakers and advocates.

School Reform

The ACLU of Maryland said it will also advocate for legislation to require the Maryland State Department of Education to release discipline data for every school across the state broken down by race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, socioeconomic status, and English language proficiency.

Additionally, the organization plans to support the reintroduction of the Counselors Not Cops Act, which aims to reinvest money allocated for school resource officers into restorative justice and mental health services.

The Counselors Not Cops Act was initially introduced during the 2021 regular session by Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery County) in tandem with legislation sponsored by Del. Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery) to ban school districts from contracting with local law enforcement agencies to station police officers on public school campuses. Both bills died following their hearings in the House Ways and Means Committee.

Due Process Rights for Kids

Amanuel represented the ACLU of Maryland at a news conference during the 2021 special session where Sen. Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore City) and Del. J. Sandra Bartlett announced their intention to reintroduce the Juvenile Interrogation Protection Act, which would require law enforcement to notify a child’s legal guardian and allow them to consult with an attorney before they are questioned in custody.

Carter and Bartlett co-sponsored the legislation during the 2021 regular session. It passed out of the House chamber with a veto-proof majority but died in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

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