by Glynis Kazanjian
Baltimore Sun
June 18, 2025

For years, auditors have found Maryland’s two biggest home detention monitoring companies noncompliant with standards required for licensure, but state officials let them slide without any real consequences, according to documents reviewed by The Baltimore Sun.

… Jeffrey Butts, a public safety research professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said “constant contact” with monitored individuals and their families is a key component of successful home monitoring. “The fact that the state ignored audits with detected flaws or incompetence is really bad behavior by state government,” Butts said.

… For home monitoring to work, Butts said, companies must hand out consequences swiftly and with certainty. “If you ignore violations, you’re basically telling them this is just a game. It’s just performative,” Butts said. “It’s the theater of public safety, but we’re not really trying to ensure public safety.”

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