 This meeting provided an incredibly helpful forum to prepare for the Baltimore County district 6 meeting with their councilmember about the Police Accountability Board nomination process. Fresh off of a productive meeting with Baltimore City council member Conway to discuss concerns around Facial Recognition Technology, the city district 4 folks were able to offer lots of great advice. We also prepared to attend the upcoming Local Control Advisory Board meeting and a town hall on the police commissioner nomination, especially focusing on making sure a set of questions from CJSJ get asked. Other events we're looking forward to participating in include the BTEC petition drive advocating for the creation of a regional transport authority, as well as some SURJ National phonebanking to support the re-election of KY governor Beshear.
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 This month we made some great progress on creating helpful intro resources for new members. We also continued to discuss a collaboration with BRIDGE Maryland and are working on scheduling a meeting with their leadership when they return from their August break. We discussed the latest BaltCo PAB meeting and confirmed a meeting with Council Member Ertel to discuss the continued PAB vacancy in the 6th county district. We wrapped up by discussing an upcoming legislator forum, which we decided that we’d be happy to volunteer for if any of our accountability partners wanted to take part in hosting the event.
Hannah Freeman, an organizer with BRIDGE Maryland, gave a very helpful intro presentation on BRIDGE’s work and values. She also led a promising discussion where SURJ members asked questions and we identified a lot of values our group shares with BRIDGE. We wrapped up with an internal discussion of how to move forward in a possible collaboration with BRIDGE and with our unrelated efforts around the Baltimore County Police Accountability Board.
We continue to focus on how facial recognition technology will be used in Baltimore City. A hearing has yet to be scheduled, but we were able to lay the groundwork for one by preparing for an upcoming meeting between district 4 members and their city council member Mark Conway. We also discussed updates on the appointment of a Baltimore City Police Commissioner, a process that has so far included little opportunity for public input, and reviewed concerns about possible changes to the Red Line from a community-supported light rail project to a much reduced bus line.
It turns out that we didn’t have any football fans on the testimony writing team this year, so we had over a dozen folks turn up to write testimony this evening! Folks who had written testimony before had prepared templates and gave a presentation on how to write testimony. Members new to testimony writing started with templates that needed the least updating, while more experienced members tackled testimony on new-to-us bills. By the end of the evening most of our testimony for the year was written and every bill had someone responsible for finishing testimony by the time it was due. Touchdown!
 Legislative Day is always a great opportunity to hear from our accountability partners and this year was no exception.
Sergio Espana introduced us to the priorities of CSJC (Campaign for Justice, Safety, and Jobs), including working for local control, protecting Anton’s law, and stopping marijuana odor based searches. CASA organizer Viviana Lozano explained how important it is to protect the rights of immigrants and shared that CASA is currently focusing on health care access and tenant’s rights. Chris Dews represented Out For Justice, who are working to make the removal of criminal charges from people’s records faster (in line with other states) and more just (focusing on the removal of charges for which people are acquitted and other common sense changes). BTEC president Samuel Jordan and outreach coordinator Zaneta White-Holmes were our final accountability partners to speak, explaining BTEC’s focus on the Transit Equity Act and a petition to decentralize Baltimore City transit decisions. We wrapped up with district-based meetings which happened both virtually and in person. Thanks to all our members and especially to our accountability partners for making this happen!  The meeting this month was an interactive session, making use of Jamboards to discuss concepts from Week 9 of the "Abolish Everything" curriculum. The readings for that week focus on disability justice, covering topics like the relationship of the medical industrial complex to anti-Blackness, colonialism, and ableism. The jamboards also allowed us share our preconceptions about disability and prior understanding of these topics in an open atmosphere that encouraged learning new things.
This group will be on break until the fall, as will the SURJ Baltimore monthly meetings and the Friends and Family group, as we update our leadership structure and plan for next legislative session. Look to the newsletter for updates about when these meetings will resume.  Graphic illustrated by Maya C Johnston. The political education group this month based their conversation around Abolition Feminism for week 7 of the "Abolish Everything" curriculum. The focus of the discussion was on the need for feminism movements to reject the current criminal justice system, which doesn't protect women from harm and leads to many women being criminalized or harmed by parts of the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). There was also some great discussion around the role of community in creating accountability and possible alternative responses to violence that don't involve the PIC. We'll continue the discussion next month with the topic of Queer and Trans Abolition, which will include topics like the past and present criminalization of queer and trans people and the role of the gender binary in the PIC. To join us, sign up here!
 On April 4th, the Baltimore and Howard County group discussed the Police Accountability Board (PAB) Coalition forming in Baltimore County. This is a coalition "working to transform public safety and end racist and violent policing". Learn more about them on twitter or check out their helpful toolkit with info on police accountability in Baltimore County.
The county meeting also included some great discussion about efforts members are individually involved in, including the Vote 4 More campaign to add more districts to Baltimore County. We wrapped up by noting that CASA's annual spring campaign is ongoing and encourage everyone who is able to consider donating to this SURJ accountability partner. Donations will support CASA's citizenship program and legal services to help hundreds of immigrants a year navigate the U.S.' complex immigration system, find opportunities to adjust their status, and, when eligible, become U.S. Citizens. To hear about opportunities like this to get involved in racial justice in Baltimore and Howard county, sign up here for the next county meeting on Monday May 2nd at 7pm. The Baltimore and Howard County SURJ group had a productive meeting on March 7th. We got a helpful update from the Progressive Round Table, arrived at an initial consensus on how we'll decide whether to sign on to letters, and heard about a District 12 meeting with Senator Lam. We wrapped up by completing an action alert hosted by JUFJ to support Out for Justice by emailing our reps to request funding for the Women's Prerelease Center authorized by the Gender-Responsive Prerelease Act that OFJ worked to get passed last year.
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