correction
A previous version of this article mischaracterized the toll of a shooting at a block party in South Baltimore last summer. The attack left 28 people injured, not 30. The article has been corrected.
Leaders of Maryland’s Democratic-controlled state legislature on Wednesday rolled out proposals aimed at curbing youth violence, answering public outcry over an uptick in gun violence and carjackings, even as juvenile crime is down overall.
The new push follows reforms passed in 2022 that put limits on charging children with crimes, including a law that barred charging children under 13 except for certain violent crimes and kept kids under 10 years old out of the criminal legal system altogether.
Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) were joined by Gov. Wes Moore (D) and other lawmakers to introduce a bill that they said seeks to balance accountability and rehabilitation for youth in an imperfect system that also deserves more scrutiny. Lawmakers pledged greater focus on the state agencies that deal with juvenile crime; rehabilitation for kids who get caught in the state’s legal system; and collaboration between the Department of Juvenile Services, which is tasked with disciplining most children who commit a crime, and other law enforcement and state agencies.
Advertisement
“The simple truth is that the juvenile justice system in Maryland is not working optimally to provide the best outcomes for children and families,” Ferguson said at a news conference Wednesday.
The bill, which makes several modest changes to existing laws and creates new accountability measures for police and the Department of Juvenile Services, is a response to several high-profile incidents across the state that have inspired calls for more stringent consequences for minors who commit violent crime.
Rising rates of carjackings and auto thefts, often by minors, and shootings, including one at an annual block party in South Baltimore last summer that killed two people and injured 28, have inflamed public sentiment on youth crime. But some youth advocates cautioned the measures could imperil the benefits of recent legislation designed to decrease the number of incarcerated children and promote better outcomes for kids and crime rates alike.
Advertisement
Jones emphasized the bill as an attempt not only to hold children who commit crimes accountable, but also to keep other kids, who are the most common victim of crimes committed by other minors, safe.
“When I think about keeping them safe, I think about making sure the struggling, and sometimes dangerous, children around them are getting the help they need right now,” Jones said.
In an effort lawmakers say will help kids complete treatment programs and access rehabilitation services, the bill proposes extending probation terms so that DJS can ensure that a child connects with services before probation expires. The bill would allow a judge to extend a child’s probation in four-month increments for up to two years for crimes that would be a misdemeanor if committed by an adult or up to four years for a felony.
Advertisement
“The juvenile justice system is premised on rehabilitation and accountability with a heavy emphasis on rehabilitation,” Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) said Wednesday. “We are all accountable for the outcomes of our kids, and we must hold our state and our local agencies accountable for improving the juvenile justice system.”
The bill also allows DJS to intervene in cases in which a child between 10 and 12 years of age commits a serious or violent crime, including crimes involving firearms, abuse of an animal, sexual offenses and motor vehicle theft. Police would also be required to write a report for any arrest involving a minor, even if they choose not to formally file charges or refer the case to DJS, which lawmakers said would allow law enforcement officials to better intervene if the child is arrested again. The bill would also require that the state’s attorney’s office be forwarded a complaint in cases in which a child commits certain serious crimes.
Those newly proposed guardrails on the 2022 reform bill drew swift criticism from some advocates who said the prior changes have not yet had a chance to succeed.
Advertisement
“After less than a year and a half into the [Juvenile Justice Reform Act]’s enactment, it is alarming that leadership seeks to return Maryland to policies that failed for decades and theories which are disproved,” Maryland Public Defender Natasha M. Dartigue said in a statement shortly after the bill was announced.
Dartigue said pressure from law enforcement agencies came from a desire to imprison children who commit crimes. She argued that the legislators’ new approach contradicts data and research that show children benefit more from rehabilitation programs.
The Maryland Youth Justice Coalition, a group of organizations focused on preventing minors from getting involved in the legal system, similarly expressed concerns that the bill would reverse progress made in 2022.
“All the evidence shows that incarcerating kids makes them more likely to be arrested for new offenses, not less,” the coalition said in a statement.
Advertisement
In addition to the potentially more stringent consequences for children who commit crimes, the bill also proposes changes to make DJS more efficient and ensure that state agencies are working together to secure the best possible outcomes for juvenile offenders. The bill would merge oversight boards to create one commission tasked with monitoring the juvenile justice system.
The bill joins other recent proposals to reform the juvenile justice system, including the creation of a $43 million Office for Children under the governor’s office tasked with tracking youths across multiple state agencies. Moore also proposed a state-level office of gun violence prevention earlier this month charged with considering how to reduce gun-related crimes among children, among other things.
Despite the pushback from reform advocates, the high-ranking Democrats present on Wednesday stood firmly behind the proposals laid out in the latest reform bill. Moore also said he plans to enthusiastically sign the bill if it lands on his desk.
“We’ve been clear that any juvenile justice bill that comes to my desk must emphasize accountability,” Moore said on Wednesday. “But I want to be clear I’m talking about accountability, both for those who committed crime and also accountability for those who are taking care of our young people.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLGkecydZK%2BZX2d9c4COaWhoa2FkuqK%2B2KWYp5xdn8K3sc2io55lmqrAtbXCnmSboZyhwHA%3D