8505 Drug program in Maryland - Information needed

[JebsGirl83]

Ladies!
My man has been told he should put in a request to get a hearing for the 8505 drug program. Is there anything in particular the judge looks for in an inmate in order to be excepted? What was your experience? Can I do anything as his victim/"material witness?" Or someone related to him like his mother? How do we affectively go about this? As of right now, we don't have money for a private lawyer but his celly who's actually pretty intellegent about the system says he's pretty sure he'd be excepted. Thanks for reading!

[Mrs. Harper]

I'm not quite sure how to help you with this one but I was wondering if you could tell me what the 8505 drug program is?

[JebsGirl83]

Im not quite sure myself! I know that my man is eligible to request a hearing because he was intoxicated at the time of his crime, and that hes going to request treatment as a way to finish up his time with some benefit. I think all inmates are eligible, but since this was his first offense hes more eligible to be considered for it. Not to mention hes had good behavior and working etc. I know its a 6 month program. Im sorry Im not that big of a help, I was hoping someone knows ALOT more than me!!

[NDJsGirl]

Here's Maryland Title 8. Scroll down to Subtitle 5, about drug & alcohol defendants. It should answer some of your questions about the procedures.

http://michie.lexisnexis.com/Marylan...tm&2.0#JD_hgt8

[JebsGirl83]

thanks! Im gonna send it to him.

[ChickfromMD]

Hey Jebs,

I think NicksGurl had a similar post about this in the past, so you may want to search around.

An 8-505 is an evaluation that's done to determine if someone has a drug/alcohol problem. Someone (a lawyer, I guess - a public defender could do it) would submit a motion/request for the evaluation. The judge would deny/grant the motion/request for one of these evaluations. Typically, if the evaluation is granted, an evaluator would come and evaluate the inmate and then report their findings back to the judge. I think there are other treatment things that happen inside the jail, but I don't know the details for DOC. The judge could also end up committing someone to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene under and 8-507, which I think is a pretty rare occurance, but then the person may be sent to an inpatient drug treatment program.

Someone I know went through something like this...he didn't have anyone stand up for him or any "witnesses". His public defender filed for it. He was at a county jail, and they had a special section for people who were in a drug program (I think it was the R-Sat Program). He almost graduated from the 6 month until some kind of BS happened and he was kicked out like 1 day before graduation. He contacted his lawyer about everything, had to wait a few months for things to get straightened out and he ended up getting sent to a halfway house. He hated the halfway house and said he would rather be in jail - he regrets going to the program because things would've been over sooner if he would've just finished out his sentence. He spent hours every day attending meetings and filling out paperwork describing his feelings and stuff.

I don't know if that's the best answer for you, but that's all I know about it. I'm sure other people have better experiences. If someone really does have a drug/alcohol problem, I imagine one of these programs may be helpful.

If Jeb is interested and possibly considering it, he may want to go through a public defenders office...or you can find the forms online, but I'm not sure if a "normal person" can fill them out and submit them. Maybe he can talk about it with his case manager - I'm sure they can help figure out the best way to handle it.

Good luck!

[DOCSux1]

You file a motion for reconsideration/ modification of the sentence and request an evaluation under MD rule 8-505.