Black people make up roughly 30% of Maryland’s population, but 51% of its adult arrests, 59% of the state’s jail detainees, 71% of its prisoners, 71% of its parolees and 53% of people under supervised probation in the state.

Despite Maryland’s progressive reputation, those disparities — particularly its prison population — are among the worst in the country.

A working group of public officials and influential criminal justice reformers on Wednesday issued a 110-page report tracing those disparities back to the year Europeans founded the Maryland colony in 1634 and “immediately established a system of enslavement.“

The Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative, led by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Public Defender, delved into issues such as racial profiling, housing discrimination, health care access and the ”school-to-prison pipeline,“ outlining a litany of reforms that would reshape policing, prosecution and incarceration in Maryland. The collaborative previewed its 18 recommendations in December.

Since then, President Donald Trump swept into office and reoriented the federal government in a campaign against policies such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs in both the public and private sector.

Baltimore police reform activist Ray Kelly, who worked on the report’s recommendations for law enforcement, said Wednesday said those headwinds are causing him to “reserve my expectations” on those recommendations, describing racism as the “overtone” in federal government. He said there’s going to be a “microscope” on how the federal government sends money to states and local governments.

“There’s a lot of regression as far as civil rights happening with the executive administration that we have to start factoring in as a variable,” he said.

But Attorney General Anthony Brown on Thursday told reporters that, despite an “assault” from the Trump administration on DEI, federal funding and government employees, “the overwhelming majority of the components of the criminal justice system really reside in state policymakers and lawmakers and implementers” such as prosecutors, local law enforcement and state courts.

He vowed that the Trump administration would not be an “impediment” to implementing the changes.

“These recommendations do not rely on who’s in the White House, and we certainly don’t want to use that as a fabricated obstacle to the progress we will make in advancing these reform measures,” Brown said.

The 18 recommendations would reshape key aspects of the state’s criminal justice system. Brown pointed out that certain recommendations would not require legislation from lawmakers and could be implemented by public officials, such as school superintendents.

Public Defender Natasha Dartigue highlighted five changes that would require legislation: ending nonsafety related traffic stops, expanding parole opportunities, ending the automatic charging of children as adults for certain crimes, creating a commission to study disparities in the legal system and passing the “second look” act, which would release people who “no longer pose a risk to public safety” from prison.

In addition to potential pressures from the federal government, the effort could run up against limitations at the state level: There is a looming legislative deadline that could impede some of the recommendations currently before the General Assembly, and Maryland is in the midst of a budget crunch that has forced lawmakers to slash programs across the state.

The report did not evaluate the cost of implementing the various recommendations, but Brown pointed out that some could reduce costs to the state.

“Of course, Maryland’s budget environment is not a favorable one, but there are enough recommendations in this report where money should not be an obstacle to begin making progress on the recommendations,” he said.

Read the report here:

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the name of the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative.