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Compendium of State Privacy and Security Legislation: 1997 Overview - Maryland; Annotated Code of Maryland

NCJ Number
170056
Date Published
May 1997
Annotation
This is a 1997 overview of Maryland law pertinent to the privacy and security of criminal justice information.
Abstract

Maryland family law requires that the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services conduct criminal background investigations and issue printed statements regarding persons who are being considered for any type of sustained interaction with children under the State's jurisdiction. Provisions are also provided for contesting findings. Article 27 of the code pertains to criminal records. It has provisions that address the expungement of police and court records, as well as the disclosure of expunged records. Article 27, which focuses on the criminal justice information system, is intended to create and maintain an accurate and efficient criminal justice information system while preserving the rights of individuals to be free from improper and unwarranted intrusions into their privacy. Maryland law that pertains to access to public records provides that all persons are entitled to have access to information about the affairs of government and the official acts of public officials and employees, except as otherwise provided in the law. Denial of inspection of a public record must be in accordance with the law and may be legally challenged. Records exempted from public access are specified in the law. Also included in this compendium are rules for court administration that pertain to the management of records, statutory mandates for the operation of the Criminal Justice Information System Central Repository, and the implementation of the Criminal Justice Information System statute by the State Police.

Date Published: May 1, 1997