Making Crime Pay: The Rest Of The Story

In my post How To Make Crime Pay I blogged about a conversation I overheard in prison between two inmates regarding how to get money from the state for being a crime victim. I was a bit aghast that one had gotten paid more than $5000 for getting shot during the course of an offense. The money came from the state's victim compensation fund.

So this past Sunday our local newspaper published and in-depth story about this problem, written by Josh Mitchell. He reviewed five years worth of records documenting awards from the fund and found that over $1.8 million had been awarded to drug dealers and violent offenders. Interestingly, the state is now trying to pass legislation to close the records regarding payouts.

In an unrelated note, Maryland has come in (once again) in the top ten for the most dangerous states in the country.