The League supports a criminal justice system that is just, effective, equitable, transparent, and that fosters public trust at all stages, including policing practices, pre-trial procedures, sentencing, incarceration, and re-entry as well as the elimination of systemic bias, including the disproportionate policing and incarceration of marginalized communities. Moreover, with respect to the enforcement of current immigration law, the League supports due process for all persons, including the right to a fair hearing, right to counsel, right of appeal, and right to humane treatment.

During the 2026 Maryland General Assembly (MGA) session, LWVMD’s Administration of Justice Team will concentrate its efforts on juvenile justice reform and the defense of immigrant and refugee civil and human rights in accordance with its public policy positions.  Specific areas of concern will include criteria used to charge and sentence juvenile offenders as well as demonstrable lack of due process for immigrant and refugee populations in the state.  

LWVMD is a member of the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition and will be informed by the coalition's deliberations.  The League’s support for proposed legislation also will be informed by a report from the Processes and System Coordination Workgroup of the Maryland Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging and Best Practices issued on October 23, 2025  The report in part has recommended that Maryland replace automatic charging of juveniles as adults for certain alleged infractions with a system in which all cases begin in juvenile court where judges have the discretion to waive youth from adult court if warranted. The newly constituted Maryland Justice Partnership is poised to implement those recommendations with the input of those who are most impacted by Maryland’s system of justice.

The League also will support efforts to reintroduce and enact provisions in  Senate Bill 422. The bill was unsuccessfully sponsored by Senator William C. Smith, Jr. (D-Montgomery) who chaired the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee during the 2025 MGA session.  The bill would have raised the age at which a juvenile would be tried as an adult from 14 to16 and would have made those 16 and younger eligible for juvenile court if charged with certain crimes, including first-degree assault, third-degree sex offense and certain offenses involving firearms.

LWVMD has joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland (ACLU-MD) and CASA of Maryland at the 2026 Maryland Immigrant Justice Table where strategies to ensure the safety as well as the civil and human rights of immigrant and refugee populations in the state are discussed.  Key goals include prohibiting state and local law enforcement agencies from entering into new or maintaining existing contractual agreements with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under section 287g of the Immigration and Nationality Act as detailed in a section deleted from the 2025 Values Act (HB1222). A clean  bill sponsored by Senator Will Smith and Delegate Nicole Williams will be reintroduced in the 2026 MGA session.  Although the sponsors have yet to be identified, efforts will also be made to end cooperation with ICE detainers and administrative warrants that seek to supersede established law.  A related proposal sponsored by Senator Clarence Lam and Delegate Lorig Charkoudian to protect individual data from unwarranted access by government agencies as outlined in the 2025 Data Privacy Act (SB977) will be reintroduced.