There are two Assistant State's Attorneys (ASA) assigned to work with Pupil Personnel Workers (PPW) from the Howard County Board of Education in truancy cases. Weekly meetings are set up as needed wherein the prosecutor meets with the PPW, the parent and the child as a result of a severe truancy problem. The prosecutor explains to the parent and the child the criminal ramifications if the truancy continues. If the problem is not corrected, the ASA prepares, files and prosecutes the criminal charges against the parent.

An Assistant State’s Attorney is assigned to meet with representatives of the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center to screen all criminal cases occurring in that institution. Occasionally, this mental facility has incidents of a patient assaulting another patient or assaulting an employee of the hospital.

The Drug and Alcohol Diversion Program of the State's Attorney's Office was created to reduce the amount of time and effort spent in trying comparatively minor drug and alcohol cases, thus saving limited resources for more severe criminal cases.

This Program handles only first time offenders 18 years of age and older who are charged with simple possession of marijuana or minor alcohol offenses. It is designed to give offenders the opportunity to avoid a criminal conviction or a jail sentence. Driving While Intoxicated or Under the Influence cases are not included in the Program.

After an eligibility screening, the accused are offered the chance to accept drug or alcohol education or treatment. If they do, then cases are removed from an active criminal status and made "inactive." Upon successful completion of the Program, the case is dismissed, thereby allowing the accused to clear his or her police and court records. If the accused does not successfully complete the program, the case is made active and scheduled for trial.

By the diversion of appropriate cases into treatment, the Program improves the operational effectiveness of the court process by providing early diagnosis of drug and alcohol related problems, providing education or treatment for those problems and offering an alternative to incarceration for the accused who pose no danger to the community.

To guarantee a high quality of service to Diversion Program participants, the State's Attorney's Office holds periodic meetings with treatment providers and other agencies that provide services to participants.

In 1995, the Howard County Police Department began targeting underage drinking in an effort to reduce this growing problem. In addition to increased enforcement, the police wished to increase communication between State and County agencies and to provide education to parents, teens and the community. The State's Attorney's Office, working with the Howard County Police, the Department of Corrections, the Sheriff's Department and the Health Department, created the Alcohol Citation Diversion Program. This program expanded the scope of the Diversion Program by not only providing drug and alcohol education but adding a community service component in order to have offenders "give back" to the community.

Millions of dollars are lost every year by merchants as a result of this ongoing problem. Bad checks affect everyone in terms of higher consumer costs that must be passed to offset losses, and increased taxes to cover additional costs for law enforcement and prosecution.

In an effort to combat this serious problem, the State's Attorney's Office has organized the Bad Check Restitution Program to assist local merchants with bad check losses. The primary goal of the program is to obtain full restitution for the victim without adding to the financial burden of the criminal justice system.

The Bad Check Restitution Program operates in conjunction with American Corrective Counseling Services as a unique, cooperative effort between the private and public sectors. Merchants in Howard County benefit because they receive restitution without paying any collection fees. First time bad check offenders are given the opportunity to avoid criminal prosecution by attending a mandatory, eight hour intervention class, in addition to paying restitution. All of this is accomplished without any cost to the taxpayers.

Usually a person is charged with a crime as a result of police observations or a police investigation. In Maryland, a citizen may charge another citizen with a crime without any police involvement. This is accomplished by going to see a District Court Commissioner and preparing an application for a Statement of Charges.

If the Commissioner determines that is sufficient probable cause to believe a crime has been committed, a Statement of Charges will be issued. The Statement of Charges can be in one of two forms. One, an arrest warrant, is seldom used in citizen initiated charges. As the term indicates, when an arrest warrant is issued, the person charged is subjected to immediate arrest and, upon being arrested, is brought before a Commissioner and/or Judge for the setting of bail. The more likely form of a Statement of Charges brought by a citizen, it the criminal summons. Here the person charged is advised of the charge against him/her and ordered to appear in court on a certain day to answer the charge.

We attempt to review these citizen initiated cases as quickly as possible through our Citizen Screening Program.

The screening program operates out of the District Court Division. The purpose of the screening program is twofold: to gather more information from the victim about the incident and explain the criminal process to them; to evaluate the case and determine if it should proceed to trial.

When a citizen appears before a District Court Commissioner to initiate criminal charges against another person, they are given a letter by the Commissioner instructing them to contact the State's Attorney's Office within five (5) days. At that time they must schedule an appointment to meet with a prosecutor to discuss the facts of the case. If the complainant fails to make an appointment or does not appear for their appointment, the case is dismissed by the State's Attorney's Office.

At the time of the screening appointment, the prosecutor will discuss in detail the entire incident with the victim, gathering more information if necessary. After the screening is complete, the prosecutor has the discretion to allow the case to go forward where it will be reviewed again by the assigned prosecutor at the time of the trial or to dismiss the case at that time.

All citizen initiated cases must come through the screening program except for bad check cases, domestic violence cases and felonies.

An alternative to proceeding to trial or dismissing the case would be to inactivate the case (legally referred to as a STET) for up to one year with certain conditions placed on the defendant such as paying restitution, a stay away order or attending a mediation (See Mediation and Conflict Resolution).

During Fiscal Year 2005, the Howard County DUI/Drug Court was initiated in Howard County.

The DUI/Drug Court is a distinct court system dedicated to changing the behavior of alcohol/drug dependant offensers arrested for DUI. The goal of the DUI/Drug Court is to protect public safety by attacking the root cause of DUI: alcohol and other drug abuse. The Howard County DUI/Drug Court utilizes prosecutors, defense attorneys, drunk driver monitor program, and law enforcement along with alcohol/drug treatment professionals.

The DUI/Drug Court Team uses a team-oriented approach to systematically change participant behavior. This approach includes identification and referral of participants early in the legal process to a full continuum of drug/alcohol treatment and other rehabilitative services. Compliance with treatment and other court-mandated requirements is verified by frequent alcohol/drug testing, close community supervision and interaction with the judge in non-adversarial court review hearings.

During the first year of operation, the Howard County DUI/Drug court