KATHLEEN KENNEDY TOWNSEND

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Maryland's first
woman lieutenant governor, has made it her mission
to build safe communities across the state through a
comprehensive strategy of effective punishment,
policing, and prevention. The backbone of the
strategy is to create new partnerships between citizens,
police, the business and religious communities, and
government agencies. To develop and oversee the
state's anti-crime efforts, Governor Glendening
appointed her as Chair of the Cabinet Council on
Criminal and Juvenile Justice, which consists of nine
cabinet secretaries and the Attorney General.

Mrs. Townsend spearheaded the establishment of
Operation Maryland Cease Fire and the Maryland
Community Policing Academy, the first training
program of its kind in the nation. The Academy trains
police and citizens, shoulder to shoulder, to build the
trust necessary to shut down open-air drug markets
and make real reductions in crime and fear. Cease Fire
is the first state police unit dedicated to targeting illegal
gun traffickers. Since its inception in the summer of
1995, the unit has confiscated more than 600 assault
weapons and other illegal firearms, and closed a gun
store that sold weapons traced to a dozen murders.

Mrs. Townsend also is working to reform the
juvenile justice system, ensuring that young
offenders are held accountable for their actions. She
helped craft and secure passage of administration
legislation that expedited the juvenile court process
to deliver swifter punishment, required police to
notify schools when students are arrested for
serious offenses, and doubled to $10,000 the
amount of restitution juveniles or their parents can
be ordered to pay victims of their offenses.

Mrs. Townsend and Governor Glendening have
strengthened the adult criminal justice system as
well, passing legislation to reduce delays in applying
the death penalty and announcing a new policy of
refusing to grant parole for offenders sentenced to
life in prison. Mrs. Townsend also is seeking to
expand the use of effective and cost effective
intermediate punishments, such as boot camps,
home detention, and mandatory drug treatment,
for nonviolent drug-addicted offenders.

Along with key legislators, Mrs. Townsend also
led the campaign to tighten Maryland's drunk
driving laws, working to pass legislation that makes
convictions easier to obtain for motorists caught
driving with blood-alcohol levels of .10 or above.

While tough enforcement and punishment are
essential, Mrs. Townsend strongly believes that
prevention must be an equal priority. Through the
Cabinet Council's Task Force on Youth Citizenship

and Violence Prevention, she is developing
initiatives to improve character education, remove
disruptive students from classrooms, expand
after-school activities to keep children busy and off
the streets, reduce the impact of negative messages
in the mass media, and encourage greater parental
responsibility for the behavior of their children.

Mrs. Townsend also has launched, along with
Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, a full-scale inquiry
into the adequacy of the state's efforts to combat
domestic violence. The Family Violence Council will
develop and implement the strongest possible system
of laws, policies, and coordinated community
programs to protect victims, hold abusers acountable,
and break the cycle of violence between generations.

Before her election, Mrs. Townsend served as
Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S.
Department of Justice, responsible for a
billion-dollar budget to support local law
enforcement and establish community policing
programs around the country.

Committed to providing quality education for all
citizens, Mrs. Townsend has taught at the University
of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), at Essex
and Dundalk Community Colleges, and at the
University of Pennsylvania. She was the first Executive
Director of the Maryland Student Service Alliance, a
public-private partnership she founded with the State
Department of Education to inspire young people to
serve their communities. Under her leadership,
Maryland became the first state to require that all high
school students perform community service. The
Alliance also launched Civic Works, an urban service
corps which puts young adults to work while teaching
critical job skills.