Justice Reform Not An O'malley Priority

Mr. O'Malley sings from the same hymnal, and this no-parole attitude appears to have carried over to requests for pardons - even from nonviolent offenders. Mr. O'Malley says this isn't one of his priorities.

As I said, opposition to the death penalty does not a corrections reformer make. Nor does support of it make you a corrections troglodyte.

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the death-penalty-supporting Republican who served one term as governor between Mr. Glendening and Mr. O'Malley, sang a different tune - "tough but fair" - and in four years he pardoned or commuted the sentences of 249 convicts, including five serving life sentences for murder. Among them were a 55-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman, both of them convicted of brutal slayings as teenagers; and a 66-year-old man who served 44 years, the last 24 of them as an exemplary inmate. Mr. Ehrlich also pardoned numerous men and women serving long sentences for theft, drug dealing, forgery and assault.

Mr. Ehrlich understood that, without the hope of one day getting out of prison, the worst offenders might never behave sufficiently for the reward, posing a danger for years while incarcerated. He also understood that people make mistakes in life.

It was also Mr. Ehrlich who, with his public safety secretary, sought to reform the corrections system, reduce prison stays and achieve better outcomes for the thousands of nonviolent offenders - many of them with addictions, mental health problems and no marketable skills - who take up cells across the state. Mr. Ehrlich criticized the war on drugs and called for "treatment behind the walls" while addicted inmates were serving time.

His proposals were ridiculed and rejected by the Democratic leadership in Annapolis.

Dan Rodricks' column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. He is host of the Midday talk show on WYPR-FM.