Juvenile justice system requires accountability
Given the public’s continued concern about youth crime in Maryland, it was no surprise that top Democrats in Annapolis — including Gov. Wes Moore, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones — formally unveiled plans to strengthen accountability in Maryland’s juvenile justice system. But make no mistake, their idea of accountability centers on improving outcomes for all. They seek to make sure victims of juvenile crime get justice, but also that young offenders are getting the rehabilitative help they need from the Department of Juvenile Services and others to eventually lead productive, crime-free lives.
Perhaps the most important part of the proposals unveiled last week at the State House is that they will finance greater third-party scrutiny of the system. There is $43 million earmarked for the new Governor’s Office for Children, which will be given the task of tracking young people who interact with DJS and other state agencies to ensure proper coordination and that the state’s obligations are being met. It’s crucial to find out if kids slipping through the cracks.
This also means putting certain guardrails on landmark juvenile justice reforms of two years ago, and that isn’t likely to please juvenile justice reformers. Indeed, many have already expressed misgivings about broadening the list of charges 10-, 11- and 12-yearolds can face. They warn that any effort to backtrack risks locking up more disadvantaged young people, a group that is disproportionately made up of people of color. But surely they also must recognize that the more data collected the better; the more oversight the better.
And there’s a political component to all of this, as well. A heightened level of concern over juvenile crime is understandable when high-profile crimes like car thefts, frequently committed by minors, command the evening news and disrupt their victims’ lives, or last summer’s Brooklyn Homes mass shooting took the lives of two young people and injured 28 others, resulting in multiple teen arrests — including of a 15-yearold who is facing 44 charges.
There are a lot of public misconceptions about juvenile justice, however. In reality, juvenile crime is only a small fraction of all crime (93% of homicide arrests are adults), and kids are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators. And, despite a recent uptick in certain crimes committed by youth, including carjacking, complaints about juvenile crime in Maryland are today less than half that of a decade ago, and they are lower than pre-pandemic levels, DJS reports.
But a smaller problem is still a problem, one that needs to be addressed from multiple angles. Incarceration alone is a notoriously ineffective way to deal with juvenile justice, often training children to become adult offenders and worsening longstanding racial divides, instead of giving them useful tools and skills to succeed in life.
Support is needed for children at the time of arrest, as well. Some have decried the 2022 Child Interrogation Protection Act, claiming it thwarts the efforts of law enforcement by requiring officers to contact the guardians of children taken
into custody and allow them to speak to a lawyer before interrogation (unless there is a clear and immediate threat to public safety). However children are much more likely to make a false confession than adults, and the measure aims to ensure that youth understand their rights and are protected from coercion during questioning. Democratic lawmakers are willing to provide better training to police on how to comply with the act, but they’ve wisely stopped short of reversing course on this key reform.
There’s an old saying in Annapolis that when all sides are unhappy, you are probably on the correct path. If so, the legislature’s cautious approach to juvenile justice — to reform past reforms and not abandon them — may fit the bill as it’s not popular with any special interest group and is unlikely to ever poll well. But then that’s why the numbers that count will be in youth crime statistics and in tracking what happens to those in the system. Will offenders find their way to a better life, or are they destined for more of the same? That’s the question that truly matters.