The state opened a new juvenile detention center in Baltimore yesterday that child advocates hope will relieve crowding at other holding facilities where city youths have long been sent.
The $45 million Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center on North Gay Street at Fallsway will house a maximum of 144 youths awaiting court dates. Construction delays pushed back the opening, originally scheduled for 2001.
The new building means Baltimore juveniles won't regularly have to be sent to facilities outside the area, where they are far from their families and lawyers.
Because of a lack of space in the city, many Baltimore juveniles have been transported in recent years to the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County and the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in the Cub Hill area of Baltimore County.
According to state records, Hickey has been near its capacity of 280 youths lately, while Cheltenham has regularly exceeded - sometimes by several dozen - its maximum of 160 youths.
The new 244,000-square-foot facility includes three 48-bed dormitories for youths 12 to 18, the Baltimore juvenile court, the juvenile division of the state's attorney's and public defender's offices, and related offices.
Some building administrators moved in months ago, but yesterday was the first day that youths were to be accepted. By 4:30 p.m., none had arrived.
The brick facility, with shiny floors and plenty of lighting, has six classrooms and a computer lab. It also houses a library that has about 100 donated books on its shelves.
Youngsters will be taught reading, social studies, science, math and health, said Marjorie Miles, principal of the center's Academy for Educational Excellence.
Phyllis D.K. Hildreth, the center's managing director, said the average length of stay for juveniles in detention statewide is 25 days. But many youths have stayed far longer - in part, the state says, because of the difficulty in placing them in rehabilitation or treatment programs.
Welcome alternative
Youth advocates said the new center provides a needed alternative to Cheltenham and Hickey. The Sun reported in June that Cheltenham was crowded, understaffed and beset by youth violence. More than half of its population of about 200 youths are from the Baltimore area.
"If they don't overcrowd it, it will be better than Cheltenham," James McComb, a member of the Maryland Juvenile Justice Coalition, said of the new center. "Kids won't have to get up at 5 in the morning to get on a van and go up to Baltimore" to attend court, he said.
