Sample Solution

To dig more deeply in the nature of the difference in intake diversion rates, CCLP examined rates of formal petitioning by offense category at intake (i.e., crimes of violence, felonies, and misdemeanors) for Baltimore City as compared to the rest of the state. Unsurprisingly, as noted in Figure 2, crimes of violence referrals at intake were formaled at high rates: 99% in Baltimore City as compared to 91% in the rest of Maryland. Similarly, 93% of felony referrals at DJS intake in Baltimore were formaled, while 87% of felony referrals in the rest of Maryland were formaled. Thus, the percentages of formaled referrals for Crimes of Violence and Felonies in Baltimore City are higher than the percent formaled in the rest of Maryland by 8% and 6%, respectively.

During this assessment, stakeholders hypothesized that the difference in authorized formal referrals for felony referrals might be driven by differences in the handling of felony drug cases between Baltimore and the rest of the state. While this may not fully account for the difference for felony referrals overall, data confirm that 16% of felony drug referrals in the rest of Maryland were resolved or informaled at intake, while only 5% of felony drug referrals in Baltimore City were diverted. It is important to note that Maryland state law requires that SAO must authorize any informal handling of felony cases at DJS intake, so it is possible that this difference is a result of differences in SAO decisionmaking rather than decisions made by DJS intake officers regarding informal handling of this case type.