Lawmakers: Md. private home detention program to reopen within a week

Maryland will pay for private pretrial electronic monitoring of poor defendants through at least the end of the year, state lawmakers said Wednesday, confirming plans to salvage the program after it abruptly ran out of federal funds this month. The initiative — launched in the pandemic and open to qualifying defendants deemed not a flight risk or threat to the community — will reopen within a week, Maryland state Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) said in an interview.