The Maryland General Assembly created the Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy (MSCCSP) in 1999 as an independent agency to support fair and proportional sentencing policy and to monitor the State’s voluntary sentencing guidelines for criminal cases sentenced in the circuit courts. The MSCCSP is responsible for collecting and automating the sentencing guidelines worksheets, maintaining the sentencing guidelines database, monitoring circuit court sentencing practice, adopting changes to the guidelines consistent with the sentencing practices of Maryland circuit court judges, and providing training and orientation to criminal justice practitioners who apply the sentencing guidelines.
News
September 8, 2023
Proposed amendments to the sentencing guidelines were published in the September 8, 2023, issue of the Maryland Register (Volume 50, Issue 18). The proposed amendments modify the table of seriousness categories (guidelines offense table) to include (1) the addition of new and revised offenses from the 2023 Legislative Session, (2) the addition of previously unclassified offenses, (3) revised seriousness categories for select subsequent drug offenses, (4) replacing all instances of “inmate” with “incarcerated individual,” and (5) other minor edits to the table. Public comments on the proposed amendments will be accepted through October 10, 2023.
