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About Your State's Attorney
Office of the State's Attorney for Prince George's County
Honorable Aisha N. Braveboy
As State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy is the top law enforcement officer in the County, responsible for the safety and security of over one million residents. Her motto for the Office under her administration is that “Crime is personal...personal to the victim, personal to the community and personal to the State’s Attorney’s office.”
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Braveboy has been at the forefront with effective solutions to prevent the spread of the virus and support the community. She was the first in the State to lead the nation in implementing ‘Operation Safe Release’, which was a proactive way of reducing the spread of the coronavirus in the jail. Through this initiative, her office and criminal justice partners have safely and judiciously reduced the inmate population to prevent a public health crisis in the facility and community.
In addition, Ms. Braveboy continues to work with non-profits and County agencies to ensure that victims of abuse and domestic violence receive the resources and support they need during the pandemic.
During Maryland’s 2020 legislative session, Ms. Braveboy and her team worked with lawmakers in Annapolis to ensure that two of her priority pieces of legislation were successfully passed. The 2nd Lt. Richard Collins III legislation will ensure that individuals who commit a hate crime are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The Assault in the First Degree - Suffocation or Strangulation Law makes strangulation a first-degree felony. Since taking office Ms. Braveboy is ushering in significant changes in how individuals and cases are handled to ensure not only that justice is administered in Prince George’s County, but that it is done fairly.
Ms. Braveboy has created a number of new units in her office to better address criminal justice needs. The Public Integrity Unit focuses on police misconduct, excessive use of force, and corruption cases. The Conviction and Sentencing Integrity Unit, the only one of its kind in the State of Maryland, reviews cases where there are questions or doubts about a sentence that has been handed down.
This Unit has focused a lot of attention recently on individuals who were convicted of serious crimes while a juvenile, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment or similar lengthy terms, and who have now served a significant period of time in jail. There are a number of significant legal obstacles to securing release for these individuals, but the Braveboy Administration has been pursuing a variety of ways to effect a change in the sentence.
These include participation in reentry court, supervised release to programs specializing in reentry, and accelerated parole consideration, as well as sentence review by the original judge or their successor. She has also reorganized her Juvenile Justice Unit and created community partnerships to end the school to prison pipeline, one of her major priorities.
As promised during her campaign, under Ms. Braveboy’s administration, the Juvenile Unit was transformed and appropriately renamed the Youth Justice Unit. Ms. Braveboy has inspired and promoted a unique prosecutorial perspective in which the focus is placed upon identifying and addressing the underlying catalysts and motivations for the youth’s actions. The Unit is rehabilitating youth offenders and affording them the support and mentorship that they need in order to address their delinquent behaviors. Through in-house programs like Teen Court and community-based diversion programs and in partnership with the Prince George’s County Public Schools, the Youth Justice Unit has begun to identify the appropriate offenders. These young offenders are then matched up with programs to not only rehabilitate but to also provide the youth offender with the tools to become and remain productive members of the County.
In addition, Ms. Braveboy is expanding diversion opportunities, having implemented a human trafficking diversion program that diverts eligible offenders and provides them the benefit of services. She has doubled the number of participants in the Back-On-Track program, which focuses on giving first-time felony drug offenders a second chance. She has also created the "Drive Focused, Sober and Safe campaign", and increased participation in the monthly Community in The Courthouse sessions.