Editorial Advisory Board: State’s Attorney Bates should keep these 2 units

Early last week Ivan Bates was sworn in as the new state’s attorney in Baltimore City. His first announced change to the office once headed by Marilyn Mosby was to do away with his predecessor’s policy of not prosecuting low-level criminal offenses, such as marijuana possession and prostitution. Bates has made clear that prosecuting these types of cases will be discretionary rather than having a total ban on prosecution. We agree with this rational approach to prosecuting even what may appear to be minor crimes in the city. While we applaud Bates for this change to his office, we do encourage him to keep two units created by Mosby that are truly critical: the Sentencing Review Unit and the Conviction Integrity Unit.