Department Of Juvenile

The theme running through speeches at an oratory contest given by the Department of Juvenile Justice in Middle River yesterday was that the failure to recognize one's mistakes leads to repeating them.It was just the kind of message contest organizers had hoped to hear.The contest, in its third year, offers proof, department officials say, that youthful offenders can have useful lives."These are talented, productive people, who just need to be put on the right track," said juvenile justice Superintendent Charles F. Stewart Jr. "We must remember that these are still youths."

The independent watchdog agency that oversees Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services recently released a report showing the state made important progress last year toward improving conditions for youths held in its three largest juvenile detention facilities. That's good news given the years of problems the system has encountered with overcrowding, incidents of violence, high staff turnover and aging facilities. Now the state needs to build on those gains by replicating the successful programs at its largest institutions in smaller facilities statewide.

Four juveniles were reported missing yesterday at 7:50 p.m. from the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, a juvenile detention facility in Baltimore County, officials said. Three of the youths were immediately picked up, Department of Juvenile Services spokeswoman Jacqueline Lampell said. The search continues for the fourth.

Sam Abed, Gov. Martin O'Malley's choice to lead the state's troubled Department of Juvenile Services, is a young man with lots of energy and fresh ideas about how to meet the needs of troubled youth — but not a lot of experience actually doing it. Mr. Abed, 35, is a former prosecutor and juvenile justice official from Virginia, where he served just under five years as deputy director of Virginia's Juvenile Justice Agency, which is part of...

A 17-year-old youth jumped from a car being driven by a staff member yesterday as they were returning to the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School for young criminal offenders in Baltimore fTC County, the third escape in a week.The youth and the staff member were returning from a recreational outing about 5:30 p.m. when the youth jumped out of the car at the intersection of Cub Hill and Old Harford roads, said Carol Hyman, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Juvenile Services.On Friday, three youths overpowered a worker, took her keys and fled the facility in her car. On Tuesday night, a counselor received serious head injuries after being attacked by a youth in a melee that led to the escape of four teen-agers.

Although this fact may not have been apparent to readers of The Sun's recent article on the future of the Rosewood Center site ("Hospitals' acreage is lure for developers," June 15), this land is situated directly across the road from the Caves Valley conservation area.

A Nevada company that recently purchased the grounds of the Bowling Brook Preparatory School - a Carroll County youth lockup that was shuttered last year after a Baltimore boy died there - has applied for a state license to operate a juvenile program. Rite of Passage has been working for months to open a privately run facility for young offenders - a move that some advocates have said could contradict the state's new approach to treating juvenile delinquents in small residential settings.

Two employees were fired last week from a Department of Juvenile Services Eastern Shore facility for failing to follow proper procedures after learning that two youths had engaged in a sex act in a classroom, the department said. The employees became aware that a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl had sexual intercourse as a film was shown in a darkened classroom on Tuesday but failed to report the incident for several hours, delaying an investigation, said Edward Hopkins, a department spokesman.

State police are investigating reports that a guard at a Maryland juvenile detention center stabbed a teen-ager during a confrontation that began in the breakfast line, authorities said yesterday. The youth suffered a wound to his upper back but was not seriously injured. The guard has been suspended with pay. Few details about the incident, which occurred New Year's Day at the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County, were available yesterday. Investigators hope to have a clearer idea of what occurred in a few days, said Bob Kannenberg, spokesman for the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

A 15-year-old student was charged with initiating a false fire alarm yesterday morning at South Carroll High School, authorities said. During questioning, the student, whose name was not released, admitted to pulling a fire alarm at 8:05 a.m. The alarm prompted the fire department to respond and forced school officials to evacuate the building, the state fire marshal reported. The student was transferred to authorities at the Department of Juvenile Justice. Initiating a false fire alarm has a penalty of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The departure of Donald DeVore marks the end of yet another secretary who has failed to turn around Maryland's most troubled agency, the Department of Juvenile Services. Mr. DeVore announced Thursday that he would not seek reappointment and was considering career opportunities outside the state. His withdrawal perhaps just saves Gov. Martin O'Malley from having to fire him so that the department, which has been plagued by persistent organizational and security problems, can finally begin to move ahead.

The shocking slaying of a 65-year-old teacher at the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County was a wake-up call to the risk of workplace violence faced by state workers at such institutions. The body of Hannah Wheeling, who had taught youths at the troubled institution since 2004, was found more than a week ago near the parking lot of the building where she worked. Police have identified a 13-year-old boy as a suspect. This isn't the first time Cheltenham has drawn attention.

Last year the state Department of Juvenile Services served some 53,000 troubled youths and their families, most for minor violations that never make the headlines. But a handful of the department's toughest cases did raise serious questions over whether officials there were on top of things. Last summer saw a violent incident at the Victor Cullen Center, the state's flagship secure juvenile treatment facility, in which several youngsters managed to escape after injuring staff members.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold is asking state officials to step up their watch on a facility for troubled youths after a firefighter who responded to a false alarm was hit in the face with a plastic pipe - the latest of hundreds of police and fire calls there. "We want to make sure these facilities are held accountable," Leopold said Tuesday. He said he was troubled by the assault on a firefighter responding to an intentional false alarm at the shelter and group home outside Annapolis, and believed the overall number of police and fire calls there - more than 500 in about three and a half years - was "inordinate."

In May 2005, then-Mayor Martin O'Malley announced a 10-point plan to reform Maryland's juvenile justice system. He told Marylanders that "the community deserves juvenile justice that is responsive, effective and accountable to the public." Now, more than four years later and almost three years into his term as governor, the juvenile justice system in Maryland remains, as it was described in the O'Malley transition report, dangerously dysfunctional. Two years ago, Mr. O'Malley appointed Connecticut's juvenile justice director, Donald W. DeVore, to head Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services.

Maryland lawmakers said Tuesday that they plan fall hearings on the state Department of Juvenile Services in response to recent reports of problems at its highest-security treatment facility and concerns that the system is not equipped to deal with violent young offenders. Sen. Brian E. Frosh, the Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the Judicial Proceedings Committee, said he had been considering such a hearing for months, but "the revelations recently make it timely and urgent." A date had not been set. The chairman of the counterpart committee in the House of Delegates also is laying the groundwork for a review.

SABILLASVILLE - Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice officials have confirmed that some troubled teens were allowed to settle disputes in staged fights at a juvenile facility in northwest Frederick County. Two staff members at the Victor Cullen Center were fired as a result of the agency's investigation into allegations they ran a "Saturday Morning Fight Club." Another staff member resigned and action is pending against a fourth who is on sick leave, according to Lee Towers, a spokesman for the juvenile justice agency.

A town angered by juvenile crime fought back last night.About 200 people -- 25 percent of the population of New Windsor -- filled Town Hall to question police, the state's attorney and juvenile service officials about what to do concerning vandalism, constant curfew violations and unsupervised young people."