Teachers who work inside the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center say that the staff has "lost control" of the young offenders and that "the situation seems to be deteriorating steadily."
The teenage boys at the 144-bed facility on Gay Street must attend school for six hours each weekday and are taught by state Department of Education employees.
Scared and frustrated that their concerns about safety were not being addressed by the Department of Juvenile Services, 14 of those educators sent a letter to Gov. Martin O'Malley in March describing gang activity, threats and assaults. One teacher wrote in a supplementary letter about being attacked by a youth who later threatened "to knock [her] out" again.
State education and juvenile services officials say they are working to make teachers feel safer in the youth lockup.
But in interviews this week, several education employees who signed the letter said that, despite written responses from juvenile services and schools administrators, their complaints have gone unaddressed. They also talked about other violence - including a youth-on-youth assault before school yesterday.
Responding on behalf of O'Malley, Juvenile Justice Secretary Donald. W. DeVore and state Schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick wrote that the teachers should attend regularly scheduled safety meetings and continue communicating their concerns.
"They say, `Go through the system,'" said one teacher, who is not authorized to speak to the media and asked to remain anonymous for fear of being fired. "We've been trying to do that for years. It isn't working."
The letters add to other recent reports about violence at the justice center, where Baltimore youths deemed by judges to be a danger to themselves or others are detained until trial. Also housed there are delinquent youths awaiting long-term placement in other facilities, often in other states.
The first three months of this year have seen a 50 percent increase over the same period last year in youth-on-youth assaults and youth-on-staff assaults, according to a recent report from the state's independent juvenile justice monitor.
Education officials offered several possible explanations yesterday for the increased violence and tensions:
