Baltimore Circuit Judge Martin P. Welch, head of juvenile court during the development of the justice center, said, "A lot of consideration and good intention went into that building." But, he added, "It really ended up being much more of a hard jail than we wanted it to be."
Talk of a building that would centralize services for the city's troubled youths began in 1993, according to memos about the project. The idea was born out of a disorganized system in which city youths were detained at an outdated facility in Prince George's County and juvenile court was packed into the ground level of the adult Circuit Courthouse. By April 1996, during the administration of Gov. Parris N. Glendening, the state, with input from juvenile and social services officials, had assembled a thick packet of plans for the justice center. Baltimore-based architecture firm RTKL Associates won the design contract, and Poole and Kent won the construction contract. Both appeared to follow the state's guidelines on what the facility was to include.
Running two years late and about $10 million over its initial design and construction budget, the justice center opened to juveniles in October 2003. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. called it "an impressive facility" when he toured it six months earlier.
In some important ways, the building fulfilled its mission, including bringing many youth services under one roof. But problems in the detention wing emerged almost immediately.
Poor sight lines made it necessary to have more DJS workers than at other facilities, officials said. Assistant Superintendent Antoinette McLeod, who has worked there since the doors opened, said, "From the very beginning, it wasn't staffed properly."
The first superintendent, Phyllis D.K. Hildreth, began firing off memos about needing twice as many employees as she had. No one responded, she said, so she quit in June 2004.
Today, staffing remains an issue, despite the addition of 48 positions. Some DJS workers, who did not want to give their names for fear they would be fired, said they are routinely forced to work overtime to fill shifts.
Patrick Moran, Maryland director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union that represents about half of juvenile services employees, said the justice center is "grossly under-resourced."
