Matthew H. Joseph
2007-02-26 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Maryland’s juvenile justice system is a national embarrassment. Funding has expanded, but outcomes have worsened.

Children in state custody are being harmed, not helped, with wasted resources hurting all Marylanders.

For years, leaders at the Department of Juvenile Services have lacked an understanding of best practices and the ability to reform a large agency. This is a huge problem because without decent leaders, outsiders can do little to force positive change.

Maryland has also failed to invest in prevention efforts to address delinquency at its earliest manifestations: academic problems, misbehavior in school and truancy.

This means that more and more children end up in expensive juvenile jails. These facilities are in deplorable condition, and many children are harmed by staff and other residents. These conditions pave the way to our catastrophically high recidivism rate.

It is impossible to erase overnight dysfunction that has existed for so long. Yet, within the first 100 days of new leadership in Annapolis, legislators can take important steps.

First, DJS needs a team of experienced managers committed to reform with a broad mandate to make changes in policy, practice and personnel. Even such a team will need intensive help to determine how best to move forward.

Whomever team members may be, they can find help at the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, which provides free technical assistance to help states design and implement a juvenile justice reform strategy based on best practices from across the country.

Second, Maryland needs to begin investing more in early intervention programs.

The governor, who touted his prevention record as a candidate, can increase funding for these programs, as legislators unanimously requested last year in Senate Bill 882.

This session, the legislators and the governor can enact Senate Bill 242 or House Bill 639 to require schools to develop and implement plans for children who act out. Sending those children home for few days at a time many times each year, the current practice, does not work.

First lady Katie O’Malley has said she wants to focus on school truancy. Within 100 days, she will hopefully have some specific ideas on how she can help schools address the underlying reasons for truancy as soon as students start skipping school.

Third, Maryland needs to improve its treatment of chronically delinquent children. Juvenile justice officials in Maryland have said for years they want to replicate a community-based, wraparound model credited with significantly lowering recidivism rates in places including Missouri and Milwaukee.

Within 100 days, they should design a credible plan for doing it.

Until the state stops warehousing children, it needs to ensure basic safety. This can be helped by enacting Senate Bill 358 to give the legislature’s Joint Oversight Committee of DJS more authority.

It also means ensuring that Maryland has a qualified, independent monitor who can protect the children DJS places in both public and private facilities. Senate Bill 360 will accomplish this. Finally, Maryland’s leaders can establish a partnership with the Maryland Juvenile Justice Coalition and other advocates to help overcome any resistance to reform. MJJC is made up of hundreds of individual and organizational members who will push for the extra resources, promote new policies and push aside those who wish to continue the status quo.

In the long run, Maryland’s juvenile justice system will need to spend most of its time and money preventing delinquency rather than paying for it once it occurs.

The first 100 days will show whether Maryland is serious about leaving the juvenile justice dark ages.

Matthew Joseph is executive director of Advocates for Children and Youth, a statewide non-profit promoting the interests of all Maryland’s children through research, analysis, legislative and media advocacy and community outreach. He may be reached at mjoseph@ACY.ORG.