ANNAPOLIS – Brawls are frequent, and guards look the other way. Facilities are poor. Vermin plague the place.
This is the picture of the Cheltenham Juvenile Facility painted by 16-year-old Jason, an Anne Arundel County youth who spoke last week to a Senate panel considering reforms of the juvenile justice system. He did not provide his full name.
“It was infested, filthy, and there was poor food quality,” the youth told members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Feb. 18.
One youth offender hit another on the back of a head with a laundry bag filled with metal and bottles, the boy said. Groups of detainees would congregate to smoke marijuana, with anybody able to see the plumes of smoke emanating from the different cells.
In some cases, Jason said, the guards themselves supplied the marijuana to curry favor with the youths.
Jason spent about a month in Cheltenham for smoking marijuana. Now he’s put his life back together and is working for his father’s business.
Exactly how to correct the situation at Cheltenham, and at the state’s Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, is the question before the committee.
Judicial Proceedings Chairman Brian Frosh has proposed a 10-year action plan focusing on treatment and downsizing the large detention centers.
Juvenile Services Secretary Kenneth Montague Jr. said he’s doing everything he can now to improve conditions in the youth detention centers.
All agreed their No. 1 goal is “taking care of the children” in custody.
“The programs for kids need to be completely overhauled,” said Frosh. “Something has to be done on an emergency basis to make sure the kids are safe. I think my legislation moves the issue in the right direction.”
The two youth facilities have degenerated into havens for violence and drug abuse, some committee members said, to the point where Maryland State Police have been repeatedly called and now maintain constant security.
Sen. Nancy Jacobs, R-Harford, labeled the situation “important and urgent,” but recognized the difficulties of eliminating the problems immediately and warned there was no easy cure.
And the problems are not the fault of the current administration, she said.
“We’re not going to get out of it overnight,” said Jacobs.
Juvenile Services spokeswoman LaWanda Edwards said Montague’s goal in his first year is to reduce the number of people in juvenile detention, and he is on his way to achieving it.
To reduce state detention populations, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, in his proposal for the Department of Juvenile Services, has called for a statewide drug treatment and rehabilitation center, along with a drug court. He’s also asking for support for a three-year plan for enhanced mental services.
Recent incidents at Cheltenham have disturbed lawmakers.
On Feb. 23 at Hickey four juveniles were fighting, and two of them required hospital medical treatment.
Last month, a 16-year-old was severely beaten by five other youths at a Baltimore juvenile facility.
Sen. James Brochin, D-Baltimore County, questioned Montague on how many more juveniles would be hurt before something was done.
Montague responded that one of the incidents in question was a “personnel” issue subsequently referred to State Police.
“The youth counselors need to be told by the State Police,” Brochin said, “that if there is one more beating of one more kid, they’re going out in handcuffs themselves. How are you going to get an education or job training if a person does not think they’re secure?”