As he sat down to sign 147 new bills last Tuesday, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. placed at the top of the pile a bill to reform the state's Department of Juvenile Justice. Ehrlich heralded the legislation as a "cultural shift," a new era in which young offenders will be treated as "savables."
In truth, though, the new measure will save few troubled teens. It provides a new name for Maryland's youth corrections agency, a new assistant secretary for minority justice, and a bit of new money for mental health counselors, drug courts, and program research.
Forget "new era." Think "missed opportunity."
Though Ehrlich often supported get-tough approaches as a legislator, he adopted a progressive juvenile justice platform in his campaign for governor.
In the General Assembly, the juvenile justice reform bug bit both parties. In December, three delegates flew off to study juvenile programs in Missouri, widely regarded as the best in the nation. Buoyed by that trip, Democrats and Republicans jointly submitted more than a dozen juvenile-reform bills.
Suddenly, everyone was singing from the same, youth-friendly hymnal: Up with prevention and early intervention for troubled teens. Down with excessive incarceration. Education and mental health services must improve. Unequal treatment of minority youth has to end. Time to rethink "adult time for adult crime."
Three years after the Sun exposed pervasive brutality and incompetence in Maryland's juvenile boot camp programs, this harmonic convergence augured well for long-overdue reform.
Yet, when the time came to make new laws, the would-be reformers mainly offered isolated pilot projects and procedural reforms (General Assembly) or vague principles for change (Ehrlich administration) - nothing strong or specific enough to clean up what remains a dysfunctional juvenile justice bureaucracy.
Delegates Bobby A. Zirkin and Anthony O'Donnell - chairman and ranking member of the juvenile justice subcommittee - teamed up to propose six pilot projects, many based on models in Missouri.
The delegates were rightly impressed with the "Show Me" state. Unlike Maryland, abuse by staff is unheard of in Missouri's small treatment-oriented youth corrections centers and day treatment programs. Fights between teens are rare, and when Missouri's juvenile detainees act up they are not handcuffed, shackled, or locked in isolation; they're counseled.
