The pristine new $50 million building on Gay Street was envisioned as an antidote to the city's disorganized juvenile justice system. Just five years later, the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center is widely viewed as a failure - a building rife with violence and in need of radical transformation.
State Public Defender Nancy S. Forster says, "The whole thing ought to be torn down and rebuilt." State Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin, a juvenile justice reform advocate, calls it a "poorly configured monstrosity." And Juvenile Services Secretary Donald W. DeVore identifies it as the "most perplexing and challenging" juvenile facility in the state.
It is the 144-bed detention wing of the complex, which also includes courtrooms and child welfare offices, that has proved to be the building's albatross. Juvenile advocates call it a Supermax prison for teenage boys, a facility at odds with the rehabilitative mission of juvenile services.
Designed to house youngsters for 30 to 45 days as they await trial, in recent years it has become a warehouse for juvenile delinquents who stay for months awaiting placement at more appropriate places. That stagnation, combined with the what some call an inappropriate layout, persistent staffing problems and the influx of street-hardened youths, can push the facility beyond its capacity and turn it into a powder keg.
Allegations of violence - group disturbances and youths assaulting one another and workers - shot up 46 percent in the first four months of this year, compared with the same period last year. This year, 304 youths have been charged with new crimes while at the justice center, according to the Maryland State Police, which handles investigations there.
Out of control
Meanwhile, teachers there complained in March that the staff had "lost control" of the youths. A report released Tuesday by the state's independent juvenile justice monitor concludes that "physical conditions and levels of violence at this facility continue to be of great concern and appear to be worsening rather than improving."
Last month, a residential adviser trainee was knocked out when six youths hurled chairs at him; he needed a neck brace and nine stitches to the back of his head. In December, a youth playing cards was jumped by other juveniles; he was kicked and stomped so badly that his skull was fractured and his jaw dislocated.
