Juvenile Detention

Regarding your editorial about the potential cost savings from reducing the size of Maryland's prison population ("Downsizing Md.'s prisons," Aug. 14), there is a simple, concrete step that the governor could take now to achieve that goal: Scrap plans to build a new jail in Baltimore City to house youths under the age of 18 who are charged as adults. This facility alone is estimated to cost approximately $100 million to build and $8 million a year to operate. While many advocates agree that holding youths charged as adults in the Baltimore City Detention Center is problematic, the construction and operation of a new pretrial facility is an ill-advised investment that will unjustifiably strain the state budget while offering little prospect for reducing the crime rate.

In the J. DeWeese Carter Center in Kent County, youths would pick fights that sometimes turned into melees, recalled Rodney Stallworth, who spent four months there last year on a drug charge. The detention system frustrated the 18-year-old East Baltimore resident, but he also called it a refuge. He sometimes acted out violently because he knew it would keep him there — and away from drugs and guns on the street. "Since we can't go home, we would try to send the staff home" angry, he said.

Bowling Brook Preparatory School opened its doors in Carroll County in 1957 as a small school for orphans. But by the time 17-year-old Isaiah Simmons died there after being improperly restrained by staff in 2007, Bowling Brook had grown into a large, privately run juvenile detention center housing more than 170 boys. A law passed after Simmons' death capped the number of beds allowed at state-run residential facilities at 48, but left privately run programs open to expansion.

A month after being evicted from a park near the Inner Harbor, members of Occupy Baltimore sought Monday afternoon to establish a five-day encampment at the site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. As Maryland State Police watched, protestors began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and labeled "school" — on the site near the city's complex of jails and prisons. About 50 protestors were at the site by late afternoon. State police at the site would not say whether the five-day encampment would be allowed.

In the J. DeWeese Carter Center in Kent County, youths would pick fights that sometimes turned into melees, recalled Rodney Stallworth, who spent four months there last year on a drug charge. The detention system frustrated the 18-year-old East Baltimore resident, but he also called it a refuge. He sometimes acted out violently because he knew it would keep him there — and away from drugs and guns on the street. "Since we can't go home, we would try to send the staff home" angry, he said.

A month after being evicted from a park near the Inner Harbor, members of Occupy Baltimore sought Monday afternoon to establish a five-day encampment at the site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. As Maryland State Police watched, protestors began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and labeled "school" — on the site near the city's complex of jails and prisons. About 50 protestors were at the site by late afternoon. State police at the site would not say whether the five-day encampment would be allowed.

Maryland State Police sought Monday evening to work out a peaceful solution with Occupy Baltimore protesters who were building an encampment at the site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. As troopers watched, several protesters began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and representing a schoolhouse — inside the fenced site at East Madison and Graves streets near the city's complex of jails and prisons. But state police spokesman Greg Shipley said Occupy members were not permitted to erect a structure on the property, which is owned by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Maryland State Police arrested six members of Occupy Baltimore Monday evening for allegedly trespassing on the state-owned site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. The arrests of four men and two women came about two hours after they began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and representing a schoolhouse — inside the fenced site at East Madison and Graves streets near the city's complex of jails and prisons. State police spokesman Greg Shipley said the six individuals were told they were entering private property, which is owned by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

JONESBORO, Ark. -- Just before a judge remanded 14-year-old Mitchell Johnson and 12-year-old Andrew Golden into juvenile detention for a middle school shooting that killed a teacher and four girls, the older boy offered a childlike excuse.He said he did not mean to do it."I thought we were going to shoot over their heads," said the trembling Johnson youth, who pleaded guilty in an adjudication hearing -- the juvenile court equivalent of a trial -- in the Craighead County Courthouse yesterday, on his 14th birthday.

In the wake of a string of security lapses and incidents of abuse at state juvenile justice facilities, Gov. Parris N. Glendening is dispatching a team of management experts to improve the troubled Department of Juvenile Justice.Mike Morrill, Glendening's chief press spokesman, said the governor and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend decided to send in the team after hearing "a few little rumblings" about problems in the department.The experts -- known unofficially in state government circles as a "SWAT team" -- will spend an estimated two to four months assessing the operations and procedures of the department, Morrill said.

Maryland State Police sought Monday evening to work out a peaceful solution with Occupy Baltimore protesters who were building an encampment at the site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. As troopers watched, several protesters began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and representing a schoolhouse — inside the fenced site at East Madison and Graves streets near the city's complex of jails and prisons. But state police spokesman Greg Shipley said Occupy members were not permitted to erect a structure on the property, which is owned by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Maryland State Police arrested six members of Occupy Baltimore Monday evening for allegedly trespassing on the state-owned site of a proposed juvenile detention center in East Baltimore. The arrests of four men and two women came about two hours after they began erecting a plywood structure — painted red and representing a schoolhouse — inside the fenced site at East Madison and Graves streets near the city's complex of jails and prisons. State police spokesman Greg Shipley said the six individuals were told they were entering private property, which is owned by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Regarding your editorial about the potential cost savings from reducing the size of Maryland's prison population ("Downsizing Md.'s prisons," Aug. 14), there is a simple, concrete step that the governor could take now to achieve that goal: Scrap plans to build a new jail in Baltimore City to house youths under the age of 18 who are charged as adults. This facility alone is estimated to cost approximately $100 million to build and $8 million a year to operate. While many advocates agree that holding youths charged as adults in the Baltimore City Detention Center is problematic, the construction and operation of a new pretrial facility is an ill-advised investment that will unjustifiably strain the state budget while offering little prospect for reducing the crime rate.

Bowling Brook Preparatory School opened its doors in Carroll County in 1957 as a small school for orphans. But by the time 17-year-old Isaiah Simmons died there after being improperly restrained by staff in 2007, Bowling Brook had grown into a large, privately run juvenile detention center housing more than 170 boys. A law passed after Simmons' death capped the number of beds allowed at state-run residential facilities at 48, but left privately run programs open to expansion.

Teen switched to home detention in firebombing A teenager who was ordered last week to spend the rest of his summer in a juvenile detention facility for his role in the firebombing of a Piney Orchard town house, in retaliation for the homicide of a Crofton youth, was switched Tuesday to home detention. Anne Arundel County Juvenile Court Master Cynthia Ferris changed her earlier decision, putting the 16-year-old's punishment in line with the other two juveniles in the case, who have been released from a detention facility.

The case of 17-year-old Lamont Davis, who was arrested last month and charged as an adult with shooting a 5-year-old girl in the head and wounding another youth, should have been a wake-up call for the state Department of Juvenile Services. The teen had been under DJS monitoring for a year when the shooting occurred, and during that time he had been arrested four times. He was awaiting sentencing in juvenile court after confessing to an assault and robbery committed in April. Anyone looking at Mr. Davis' record could have guessed he should never have been allowed back on the streets.

Two Meade High School students pleaded guilty yesterday in Anne Arundel Juvenile Court to charges stemming from a brawl in a hallway last fall that injured the school librarian.A 16-year-old pleaded guilty to battery and a 15-year-old to disturbing school activities.Donald Gobbi, the 50-year-old librarian, was knocked to the floor and kicked in the head, back and legs several times after he rushed to intervene, according to testimony. The brawl occurred in a second-floor hallway about 10:30 a.m. Sept.

Council opposes juvenile facilityThe Sykesville Town Council voted unanimously Monday to oppose the location of a juvenile detention facility on the grounds of Springfield Hospital Center.Members also will push for a public hearing before the state Department of Juvenile Services makes a final decision on where to house juveniles awaiting trial.In a meeting with state legislators last week, Mary Ann Saar, state secretary of juvenile services, proposed renovating the center's Lane Building into a 74-bed detention center at a cost of $5,525,000.

A 16-year-old boy who has admitted that he took part in the firebombing of a Piney Orchard townhouse that was intended as retaliation for the homicide of a Crofton teenager was sentenced Friday to serve the remainder of the summer in juvenile detention. Anne Arundel County Juvenile Court Master Cynthia Ferris ordered the boy, whom The Baltimore Sun is not naming because he is a juvenile, held at the Western Maryland Children's Center until Aug. 20. The judge, who also ordered the boy to pay $1,800 in victims' restitution, said she took into account the boy's cooperation with prosecutors and the two months he has already served in detention.